Week 21.25 Design the Return to Work You Love

My good friend (and daily questions partner) Ayse Birsel wrote the book Design the Life You Love from which Marshall drew inspiration to create the 100 Coaches Project and most recently his Knowledge Philanthropy. Her framework for finding the life you love is amazing (I have taken her course 4 times) and for many people is a pathway to finding their life's calling or at least the work that makes them happy. 

She has taken this framework and has adapted it for this moment in time, a program she is calling Design the Return to Work (in Person) You Love. As a designer, Ayse understands the challenges of moving forward from our pandemic world, and the challenges faced when the way you thought your life was going gets broken apart (deconstructed) and you have to put it back together again (reconstructed). And while this is a substantial problem for individuals, it is even more considerable for teams (and teams of teams).

And, true to form for a designer, what she sees is this problem as an opportunity. The disruption that is usually isolated is happening for everyone, so there is great potential to take the piece that has been deconstructed and really consider what is worth keeping, what needs to be discarded, and what needs to be reshaped. In the case of returning to the office and in-person work, the pandemic has deconstructed the way we work and added a new element of working remotely and via video to the mix. The value of designing how we return to the office is significant. She would like to help individuals, leaders, and teams, to find a way to reduce the stress of returning to the office as much as possible. This will involve keeping some of the old habits which give us a lot of comfort, and for many keeping some of the new habits which are the new ways we are working. It will involve the difficult re-entry into the old systems that were a relief to be away from, and the difficult departure from some of the new systems that will no longer be accepted. 

According to Ayse, here are some things you should be thinking about. First - deconstruct your return. Make a list of what you liked about pre-pandemic work, and what you didn't like. Next, make a list of what you liked about the new way you were working during the pandemic, and what you didn't like about the way you were working during the pandemic. Now make a map of the journey to return to work (perhaps like a pirate's map, but you can use any map that comes to mind.) Visualize the elements you want to leave behind and leave them on the side of your drawing. Draw the elements you want to keep into your ship (boat, train, plane, car). And then map the journey you will be taking back to work, showing the obstacles you imagine facing as well as the treasures you will find. This map is the starting point for your return to work.

Perhaps most importantly, Ayse sees this moment in time as an opportunity to think differently, to try a new way of working and to avoid falling back into old habits that were not serving us, and reinforcing the new ways of working that are. This is the art of reconstruction. It is our opportunity to make some new choices about work and design the return to work (in person) we love so that we can design the work we love. This pandemic has been a curse to so many people, it is worth calling out the blessings wherever we can find them. Sharing Ayse's amazing thinking is my gift to you, just as having been so fortunate to meet Ayse has been a gift to me. I have dedicated this newsletter to her work because I have seen it help and transform so many people that I want to share it widely. Thank you, Ayse.

Week 29 of 52 weeks of giving: Partners In Health

I chose Partners In Health as my charity this week because, for me, it pairs with Ayse's work in that it cannot be known by enough people. I first found out about Partners In Health in the late '80s when I was living in Paris and a close friend of mine knew Paul Farmer. I was immediately taken by his charismatic passion, mission, and seemingly limitless selfless ambition. This quote is characteristic “Every night when I go to bed, I worry about how I'll fulfill all the promises I've made. And every morning when I wake up, I think I haven't made enough promises.” Years later, I am privileged to also have met his co-founder, Dr. Jim Yong Kim who is a member of the 100 Coaches community, and it has amplified my admiration for the work of PIH and the positive contribution they have made in the world. I would encourage you to learn more about the organization and if so moved, make a donation. They are the gold standard of a belief that "all human lives have the same value, and every human being has the inalienable right to be healthy to fulfill their potential." https://www.pih.org/

DESIGN THE LIFE YOU LOVE (THE BOOK)

Design the Life You Love

A step-by-step guide to building a meaningful future. An interactive journal that serves as a joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you've always dreamed of, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer. Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints -- time, money, age, location, and circumstances. You can’t have everything, so you have to be creative to make what you want and what you need to co-exist. Design the Life You Love is a joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you’ve always wanted, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer. Through four steps that reveal hidden skills and wisdom, anyone can design a life they love!

WELCOME BACK TO WORK PROGRAM 

COVID was a tragedy for many of us, but it was also a gift. A gift to look at how we live and work, reconnect with what really matters, and let go of what’s unnecessary. Design the Work You Love (DWYL) Welcome Back to Work Program is a 3-hour workshop for leaders who believe in a growth mindset to enable their teams to reimagine their life and work (and workplace) post-COVID, individually and yet together. Our goal is to be inclusive, build empathy, and lean into the complex emotions of coming back to work after being isolated for a year and a half. With these workshops, we want to soften the reentry back to work. We want to use the lessons we have learned through the crisis to help you and your teams engage with your work in a deeply meaningful way. We want this to be an opportunity for you to communicate with your team in a different way and for your team to have a safe space to communicate their needs and wants with you. Designing your work is aligning who you are and what you do. This is our opportunity to imagine how we can do this, individually as well as together as a team. More info at https://birselplusseck.com/

WELCOME BACK TO WORK CARE KIT

The Welcome Back to Work Care Kit by Ayse Birsel celebrates what makes being together at work successful. Sharing our optimism. Supporting each other and building empathy as we step into the shoes of those we work with and for. Taking our ideas further by asking what-if questions. Looking at the big picture with a holistic point of view. Being collaborative as we encourage each other and the work we do to be better. And to have some fun and to be playful. We all deserve it. Includes a 3-hour workshops and individual Care Kits. 

For more information or to sign-up please contact [email protected]

And, as always, thank you, Marshall, for making all of this possible.

With love and gratitude

Scott