Transformation Workshops for Adapting to Change with Innovation

When we design our transformation workshops and programs, we pull from many of the areas we’ve been studying, developing, acting on, and teaching for years. We integrate our program design and facilitation with transformation areas like leadership development, innovation, idea generation, growth mindset, design thinking, VUCA world, adapting to change, storytelling, and learning and development. We can also focus on any of these directions as part of the transformation workshop. Here’s an example description of a workshop on transformation to give you an idea of our approach. In this example you can see we use storytelling as the powerful vehicle for transformation learning (and doing).

Transformation, Mindset, Storytelling Design Thinking Leadership Workshop

Workshop Overview:

In this workshop, we dive into the transformative world of design thinking and storytelling. It’s designed for participants to harness their creative problem-solving abilities by leveraging their own career or leadership transformation stories. Through a focused exploration of design thinking principles, attendees will learn to use design thinking to find and craft engaging stories that propel transformation and drive impactful change.

Transformation Mindset: Applying Design Thinking to Create and Tell Stories that Inspire

Learning Objectives:

  • Innovate with Transformation: Discover how to use storytelling to make meaning of your own journey story and leadership future of transformation.
  • Apply Design Thinking Mindsets: Explore how design thinking fosters a creative, solution-oriented approach to challenges.
  • Harness Storytelling: Learn to find and craft stories that make meaning of your journey and that can connect with others you are leading and transforming with.
  • Solve Problems Creatively: Apply the design thinking framework for storytelling and other common scenarios to creatively take on challenges, ideate, and prototype solutions.

Workshop Flow:

  • Introduction to Design Thinking: Quick overview of design thinking principles focused on empathy, ideation, and prototyping, setting the stage for their application in storytelling.
  • Empathy Through Stories: Participants share brief learning and development stories, focusing on the empathy stage of design thinking to understand themselves and others.
  • Ideation and Story Crafting: Guided exercises to generate their own transformation story ideas from their own career or leadership journey that address identified challenges, using the ideation phase to explore creative solutions.
  • Rapid Prototyping and Testing of Stories: Develop quick story prototypes based on the ideas generated, preparing them for feedback in a supportive, workshop environment.
  • Feedback Loop and Toolkit Overview: Share story prototypes for group feedback, iterating on the fly. Introduce a simple storytelling toolkit for participants to take away, aiding the application of workshop concepts in their work.

Outcomes:

  • A foundational understanding of how design thinking can enhance storytelling for innovation.
  • Practical experience in applying design thinking stages to develop and refine transformation stories.
  • A personal toolkit to aid in the crafting and pitching of innovative ideas through stories.

This transformation workshop is an immersive experience designed to activate a creative problem-solving mindset, marrying the disciplines of design thinking and storytelling for self-efficacy and leadership for transformation.

Growth Mindset for Transformation

The aspect of transformation training (and this transformational workshop) that resonates most with us is its emphasis on the individual’s mindset—specifically, yours. I love to lead a specific activity in the workshop  (and do it myself). Reflecting on my own career journey, I recognize numerous pivotal moments of transformation, venturing into completely unfamiliar territories that necessitated learning. Some of these were reactive adjustments, such as mastering the art of conducting highly interactive virtual training sessions in response to the pandemic. Others stemmed from a proactive curiosity, leading me to explore and develop skills in new areas like design thinking, with the goal of both enhancing my own expertise and facilitating others’ learning. The most recent area I’m diving into is the application of generative AI, including teaching and utilizing it in practice. Prior to this, I was unfamiliar with technologies like ChatGPT, yet in less than a year, it has become the focal point for tens of thousands visiting this site curious to learn.

To foster a mindset geared towards transformation, my preferred method is to reflect on my career, mapping out a timeline of significant changes. This exercise reveals numerous instances of personal and professional growth through transformation, enhancing my awareness of my evolution and bolstering my confidence to embrace emerging transformative changes. Recognizing my past history of transformation instills a greater belief in my ability to navigate future transformations.

Are you interested in a program or workshop on transformation? Please reach out to Darin to learn more about a program of transformational learning experiences we may design for your group.