Set the Bar...Low?

Set the bar low.  Then clear it.  Over and over again.

This is what makes change and innovation take hold.  It’s the surefire way to overcome perceived barriers to entry. 

As a life-long proponent of high-expectations, it feels deeply revolutionary.

It’s also a core tenet of design-thinking.

After earning my coaching certification to use the Designing Your Life tools from Stanford professors Bill Burnet and Dave Evans, I felt eager to set up small-group coaching and share the tools as widely as possible.  My mind jumped to business-building, recruitment and marking, venue-renting, and scaling.  How could I get this meaningful experience and set of tools to as many people as possible?

Then I remembered the core tenet.  Set the bar low.  Clear it. 

What’s the absolute tiniest step I could take to test out the tools and exercises in a group setting?

I planned a 4-week “pilot” with a handful of friends and colleagues who had expressed interest in Life Design.  The goal was for them to craft an actionable plan for a meaningful life.  The goal for me was to learn about the full-circle process of facilitating a group with individual objectives, using the tools and materials of “Designing Your Life.”

Four weekly 90-minute sessions.  One hour of homework for participants to prepare for each one. 

The excellent NYT Bestselling materials from Designing Your Life provided the jumping off point. Some of the tools were too formulaic or lacked context. It became clear that's where the magic of small group coaching and right-match facilitation could make up the difference.

Using daily and weekly self-assessment tools, each participant deepened her understanding of herself.  Then she challenged herself and dreamed wildly with activities crafte to promote brainstorming and dreaming.  After envisioning something new, each participant leveraged community and relationships to test out ideas, gathering new insights to create a plan for action.

Hand-wringing.  Tears. Pivots.  Aha-moments and insights. 

Each participant expressed a shift to a life meaningfully headed towards a deeply held, but often-unacknowledged goal. Health maintenance, book publishing, a professorship, an art show, a national business.

“Deeply meaningful.”  “Just the right experience to get me going in the right direction.”  “Intense.  In a good way.”  “Life changing.” 

Group sessions involved a mix of individual activities, partner conversations, and whole group discussion.

The tiny pilot.  The bar set low.  The quick and simple plan. It’s what I needed to make the plan happen as quickly as possible, as boiled-down to its fundamentals as possible and as responsive to the needs of the individuals as possible.

In the end, there was nothing low-bar about it. 

If this pursuit appeals to you, I’d love to connect.  I’m eager to support groups of 4-6 people who would like to create a small group experience with life design.  Do you have a community who would like to engage in this meaningful work together? 

Bring your introspection, openness, and desire to work.  I’ll set up the rest.