The Change Seeker — a design thinking exercise

An exercise to help process and progress through our current events in 2020.

Times, they are a’changin… and no more quickly than right now (within my lifetime at least). More drastically? Potentially. More dramatically? At times. More permanently? Absolutely!

If you are uncomfortable with the pace of change or even unsure of what your future may look like, this exercise “Change Seeker” can help ease the transition of how you wake up tomorrow.

[If you want to skip the background section and jump directly to the exercise follow this link to the step-by-step instructions.]

The background of the Change Seeker exercise

A bit about me and then I’ll get into the why. I personally get a kick out of change; I dig it. This disposition has some benefits as well as some drawbacks. Some of the benefits include: I’m not wedded to ideas, I am frequently able to see the positives of change and progress almost immediately, I use every opportunity to learn, iterate and improve a situation and I don’t care too much about what people think about me (although I do care a heck of a lot about how other people feel… so rationalize that with my therapist if you can). The drawbacks include: I change things at the last minute, I don’t think many things are ever finished and I’m not everyone’s favorite person.

So why should you care? Mainly, because my approach to change can help you learn from my many mistakes as well as give you the insights I have gathered from the times I have tested the Change Seeker.

Here are a some reasons why and when this exercise is helpful:

• When you are transitioning to something new (and who isn’t right now), it’s helpful to have a ritual to keep you in a healthy headspace
• If you are anxious about the future (and who isn’t right now), it helps to write out these fears to put them in perspective
• Organizing your thoughts is like organizing your closet — hello Marie Kondo — helping to make it easier to access healthy reactions and proactions (yes, this is a word now) when they are needed quickly
• Having a plan in place to help guide you though a transition can be like having an operation manual for life with an appendix for “troubleshooting”
• In times of change, it helps to acknowledge both our strengths and weaknesses because we’re all human (thankfully!) and sometimes being reminded of that is enough to help push us through

If any of these reasons resonate with you, take this exercise for a spin. With that…

Follow this link to the full step-by-step instructions for the Change Seeker exercise.

Lessons I have learned

Here are a few helpful insights that I have learned through testing the Change Seeker exercise:

• If you are doing this exercise as a group, set the expectation at the beginning that this exercise will be mostly done individually but that there will be some steps that people will be asked to share if they like. Let them know that you will tell them when those times are for sharing so people can relax and work individually and honestly on answering the prompts and then they can be more edited on the steps that they share if they want. It is better to state this up front so people know what they are in for.
• Timeboxing is a wonderful tool and a word of caution if you remove the time constraints. It may seem counterintuitive, but keeping the timeboxing in place actually encourages more idea generation than if left open-ended.
• Speaking of time… if you are planning this with a group, I would recommend scheduling and hour and thirty minutes total. Without any explanation or transitions, the steps add up to 44 minutes without the time built in to share. When you have more people to wrangle and especially if you want to have people share their Youlogy and Rebirth Announcement, it is better to buffer in extra time so no one feels short changed by not getting to share.
• I do not recommend opening the floor for questions at any point unless you finish the entire exercise early. The format is constructed specifically to get the most input and output and questions derail and rarely add value until the end. If you are conducting this virtually, you can utilize chat for any questions or clarification. And if you do finish early, you can address questions or debrief.
• I have done this exercise both in person and virtually with similar results. The only challenges I have seen with conducting this virtually have been technical, and the only challenges I have encountered doing this in person, are, well… the pandemic.

Good luck and if you have any suggestions or things that you tried differently, let me know! I love iteration after all! (nicole@nicolenortoncreates.com)