Do you have a book on your shelf that you pull out and glance through every now and then – and when doing so, you almost always find a reminder of something that you wanted to think more about or a new idea to explore? For me, one of those books is Designing Your Life, by authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

The thought of designing my life seemed like quite a daunting task but the subtitle “How to Build a Well-lived Joyful Life” was appealing, as was the background of the authors.

Both Evans and Burnett have experience in developing many of the concepts around design thinking. Burnett worked on the laptop design team at Apple and in the toy industry where he designed Star Wars actions figures.

Evans also worked at Apple and worked on Apple’s innovative mouse design, among other projects. He also participated in the founding of Electronic Arts [the video game company). He specialises in helping organisations build creative environments.

According to the authors, there are five mindsets for “life design”:

1) Curiosity

2) A bias to action

3) Awareness

4) The concept of reframing

5) The concept of radical collaboration

Curiosity helps make everything seem new and invites exploration while a bias to actions requires a commitment to building your way forward. Awareness reminds you that this is a process.

Reframing a problem into a statement of possibility is how designers get unstuck, and radical collaboration reminds us we are not alone, that design requires the sharing of ideas, and that many of the best ideas will come to us from others. These provide the framework for the design process.

“Designing Your Life” invites us to challenge, innovate and create for ourselves. The authors provide a number of exercises – all “designed” to generate insight, self-awareness and the discovery of “ah ha” moments.

I undertook the “Designing Your Life” journey with four close friends from the US, who shared similar professional interests, during a weekend retreat here in Bermuda. We presented to each other those topics for which we each were seeking insight and solutions.

We put on our design hats and diligently worked through most of the exercises in the book. We captured for each other our insights and discoveries.

The outcomes from this session are still in a folder front and centre on my desk.

As the above example suggests, “Designing Your Life” is not just an individual exercise. It can be most beneficial when co-created with a team of your choosing.

Many of the exercises may also provide additional insight and appreciation when undertaken within our work teams, too.

For example, the chapter on “Wayfinding” offers an ‘activity log’ exercise where, over a defined period of time, you record specific activities at different times throughout the day and note what you were doing, and whether you were engaged and energised.

This log, when shared within a team, can offer insight and guidance for enhanced engagement and understanding of each other’s strengths and interests, while also offering solutions to challenges.

These engaging and provocative activities and suggestions enhance our self-awareness and provide the insight we need to proceed with our individual design process.

Insight and understanding of how to apply the principles of design thinking for continued personal and professional growth follows.

I revisit many of these same exercises from time to time, as both a check-in and as a continuing framework to help guide what might come next.

The authors also acknowledge that there are some aspects of life that may be impossible to change, and some that we perceive as impossible to change.

They refer to these as gravity vs. anchor problems. They suggest that the key to dealing with both anchor and gravity problems is acceptance. Acceptance is followed by reframing the problem to make it more actionable.

As we decide on actions to explore, we can prototype solutions to figure out what really works.

“Then there’s a feeling of expansiveness, like your chest blows open”, as quoted by Burnett in a recent article for Vox. “There’s a rush of endorphins, because you see possibilities. Here’s to getting unstuck”!

The above is equally applicable to our team challenges, and I think accurately describes the feelings we have when a shared problem-solving suggestion leads to becoming “unstuck”.

As a matter of fact, the authors state in the introduction that “the focus of the book is mainly on [thinking like a designer] about our jobs and careers, because, let’s face it we spend most of the hours of our days, and most of the days of our lives, at work”.

In 2020, Burnett and Evans released the title “Designing your Work Life” to further these ideas.

To conclude with a final quote from the book: “A well-designed life is a life that is generative – it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of a surprise”.

I look forward to sharing with you further reading and listening suggestions in our Moments of Clarity columns this year.

I also welcome your thoughts and suggestions … feel free to contact me at Bermuda Clarity Institute: gayle@clarity.bm!