Dysfunctional Belief: I’m stuck in a lousy situation (and there’s nothing I can do about it).
Reframe: I’m stuck in a lousy situation (and I’m finding the problems and the solutions).
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans successfully taught graduate and undergraduate students at Stanford University and readers of their best-selling book, Designing Your Life (“The prototype for a happy life.” –Brian Lehrer, NPR), that designers don’t analyze, worry, think, complain their way forward; they build their way forward.
In Designing Your Work Life, Burnett and Evans show us how design thinking can transform our present job and our experience of work in general by utilizing the designer mindsets: Curiosity. Reframing. Radical collaboration. Awareness. Bias to action. Storytelling.
Dysfunctional Belief: Good enough isn’t good enough.
Reframe: Good enough is GREAT–for now.
Burnett and Evans show us how, with tools, tips, and ideas, to enjoy what we have and to live in a state of “good enough, for now,” one of the strongest, most effective reframes there is, and how this idea, once understood and accepted, can make new possibilities available, giving us the energy to enjoy the present moment and allowing us to begin to prototype possible futures.
And if we want to quit? Burnett and Evans show us how to use the job we have to get the job we want (in another company), and show us as well, the art and science of quitting (leave the campsite better than we found it), using the power of the quit design to reframe how we finish our current job and get a better one.
Didn’t read the whole book, just the chapters most relevant to my needs, but found what I read helpful. I had read their first book several years back and appreciated it.
I think their advice for people in a job they dislike — to actively make changes to their work approach and attempt to change their assignments — is generally good, though there are situations where it is also good to leave.
“Good Work Journal”
Each day, write down:
- What did I learn?
- What did I initiate?
- Who did I help?
Becoming a consultant
“People who make extraordinary offers end up with extraordinary clients.”
What’s your “special version of ‘getting the job done'”? How are your services distinct from other consultants?
10 impressions > 1 inquiry, 10 inquiries > 1 proposal, convert 50% of proposals to work
Design “magic moments” in your client relationship
