Effort Impact

07/05/2024

If you find yourself with a lot interests and feel a need to choose, you don't have to! This talk with Maria Burke will get you feeling good about embracing many things. It was a blast exploring Maria's journey from product design at IBM and my journey of product design at Ford to becoming master facilitators, emphasizing the value of meeting participants where they are and starting with small, approachable activities.

Great workshops are at the core of great project results, user experiences and website designs.

Maria's facilitation style is practical, focused on achieving outcomes, and she finds joy in helping people find common ground. She draws inspiration from books like "Refuse to Choose", "Million Dollar Offers," and "Pop Up Pitch" which enhanced her business and marketing acumen. (we both LOVE the book Pop Up Pitch by Dan Roam!"

Maria is a seasoned workshop facilitator and design strategy consultant and discovered her passion for workshops through her product design work, gradually inserting herself into client sessions and taking the initiative to create structured agendas.

After a break from corporate life, Maria leveraged her skills in design strategy and facilitation to help companies enhance their products and team dynamics.

Key Takeaways
🎢 challenges of gaining buy-in for new ideas and the importance of engaging participants in workshops

💡 explore the application of design thinking and continuous improvement in various industries, including construction.

🖼 a vision for dream work scenario that involves creative freedom and the ability to travel for workshops

👨‍🎤 great examples on designing workshops for small businesses and startups, particularly around applying AI

🤝 Meet people where they are starting with small, approachable workshop activities help overcome resistance

🔎 Understand reason behind each activity and being able to explain it to participants is key to making workshops valuable

🧠 Find common ground and open minds to the value of D.T.

✅ Start with user needs statements and simple exercises to introduce design thinking concepts to prioritize ideas

🛠 Workshops are a valuable tool for improving products and teams

📈 Facilitation skills help advance careers and develop leadership abilities

A diverse range of interests is asset in hashtag hashtag

Find alignment a key goal in workshops Getting buy-in for new ideas requires involving participants in decision-making process

👷‍♂️ hashtag and hashtag is applied in various industries, including construction

✈ Dream work scenario with creative freedom and opportunity to travel

🖥 Workshop on how to apply AI in small businesses and startups that addresses audience key job roles, concerns and provide actionable steps

▪ ◾ Start with small, approachable activities to ease participants into design thinking

📚 Books provide clarity and focus for personal, professional development on demand

Cat interviews Maria Burke, a workshop facilitator and design strategy consultant. They discuss Maria's background in product design and her transition to wo...

07/05/2024

The conversation, ideas and inspiration shared with Andra Stefanescu makes me so happy to connect in this way! We dove into mindfulness, neuroscience and importance of play in work and life. ➕ did a live workshop design callab to work in visuals, movement and a little magic!

Andra is an advanced workshop designer and facilitator, based in Austria, as well as a collaboration coach.

She's been mastering the art of workshop design and facilitation for over four years, incorporating elements of neuroscience and psychology into her approach. With an approach that deeply focuses on understanding the needs and expectations of participants.

Many of these approaches are similar to my workshops when working with clients to create really great websites, digital footprints for all of their content marketing activities, for great, valueable online experiences for their customers that drive the to engage and take action

In this talk with Andra we discuss:

🖼 🧠 Her unique style blends visualization techniques, playful approaches, and a deep understanding of the brain science behind effective facilitation.

👯 There's a need to design experiences that bring desired outcomes while also being FUN for participants. Starting with the end in mind and reading between the lines to understand what participants truly want.

🧘‍♀️ We explored mindfulness and facilitation: how understanding the brain and personality types enhances the facilitation process.

✍ Takeaways ✍

📚 Ways to get started learning facilitation from books. videos and modeling after others

👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 Creating a safe, inclusive space is crucial for effective facilitation and collaboration

🎨 Visualization techniques: drawings and visual aids, enhance engagement and understanding in workshops.

🧠 Understanding neuroscience and hashtag behind facilitation helps address participants' psychological needs and improve the overall workshop experience

📜 A structured design process and a personal database of facilitation techniques streamlines the creation of effective workshops

✍ Writing articles to capture ideas and create a personal database of facilitation techniques

🕵‍♀️ Understand needs and expectations of participants when designing facilitation experiences

👓 ⛳ Start with ending in mind and read between the lines to uncover participants true desires

🧘‍♀️ Incorporate principles from neuroscience and mindfulness to create a more effective and enjoyable facilitation experience

👩‍💼 Facilitation skills develop hashtag qualities and improve communication and collaboration within teams

🎧 Sound Bites 🎧

😨 👌 "Fear is okay. It's a sign that you're embarking on something new, that you're challenging yourself, you're stretching yourself"

🎨 ⌛ "Learning a basic framework to design and stand up your first draft of a workshop in under an hour is huge"

🕵‍♀️ "Do pre-workshop interviews or survey to get insight to plan from"

❓ "Question to ask: whats 1 thing participants need to get from a session? Primary/ secondary expectations. What’s important for them?

📗 "The Book: "Your Brain at Work, is a game changer, it explains how your brain works and theres are universal frameworks there"

04/17/2024

Trust me you can start in the sh***er and work your way up to big things! A perfect example of this is what my friend Danielle Baughman, owner of ProShare Services has achieved. She started her company, in Pittsburgh, PA at the start of Covid and it's continued to grow and thrive! She walked me through how.

It's fascinating to see how she blends her innate curiosity with Lean, Design Thinking and Continuous Improvement to her projects in the construction industry.

Danielle's a Chemical Engineer and Entrepreneur with experience working for the largest energy companies in the world. And a dear friend who makes me feel empowered, seen, heard and pure joy each time we speak. So I finally record some of that magic to share it!

If you want, ride along on Danielle's new business journey, which started in the sh***er quite literally. Building up to over 50 larger projects that just keep growing. "Portable toilets... is like a peace offering in construction business."

Danielle has a unique approach to project management, including:

👷‍♀️ concept of 'Construction Hospitality' fostering open communication and importance of field ride-alongs and collaboration with op's and maintenance teams catering to what the workers see, suggest and need (pssst some of her best solutions for clients come from this!)

🎉 celebrating small wins and maintaining a positive mindset for team are essential for personal, professional, team and organizational growth

🧙‍♂️ role of mentors in her success and how she encourages others to seek out mentors and engage in open, curious conversations

🙌 challenges she faced along the way starting her own business and courage it took to pursue her dreams and overcome fear (her mentors help with this a ton!)

📚 importance of self-learning and continuous improvement to stay current in industry

💓 significance of focusing on what you enjoy doing and finding clients with similar values

🌎 importance of networking and partnering with diverse businesses to create a strong team and business growth opportunities

📣 how she shares her experience stories with her marketing team members, Melanie Borden and Dan Manning to create authentic, resonating content that drives action and results

A little note from Danielle "I want to meet other diverse businesses, women-owned businesses, veteran-owned, minority-owned, and see who is a fit to work with ProShare, empower them and connect dots how my mentors have for me"

Hopefully this podcast and post inspires more of this and for everyone to visit Pittsburgh! 📣 ❤️

You can watch it here 👉

Trust me you can start in the sh***er and work your way up! A perfect example of this is what the owner of ProShare Services Danielle Baughman has achieved. ...

03/26/2024

"Breathe, Believe, and Thrive: A look at Wellness with Design Thinking". I really enjoyed discussing this topic with Sabine Braubach, from Berlin on the importance of integrating innovation, facilitation and into health and wellness practices. To facilitate and design our ideal day, mindset, life, meetings and work.

We dove into the vital role of conscious breathing for relaxation, meditation for intuition, and daily personal routines for and self-love and how transformative this in life and work. Even imagining how much better meetings would go if everyone started there day from a grounded, calm, clear place of inner peace and openness.

Underlining the importance of finding personal health, wellness and spiritual paths. The episode also covers the significance of self-care, the nervous system's role in wellness, nature's healing power and the impact of conscious choices on life.

There is an emphasis on:

💗 of different aspects of life, such as work, mental health, and physical well-being
🌱 significance of conscious breathing in regulating the nervous system and achieving a state of relaxation
🧘‍♀️ role of in accessing intuition and becoming an observer of thoughts
🌊 ways to tune into your vibrations and create a sense of self-love and compassion
💕 significance of self-care, self-regulation, and managing stress in both personal and professional settings
⚡ role of the nervous system in communication and the interconnectedness of mind and body
📚 importance of knowledge sharing and seeking guidance from experts in navigating health and wellness challenges
📺 importance of unplugging from the internet, TV and the news
💚 importance of detoxing from noise and choosing what info to consume is essential for mental well-being and productivity in life and work

Sabine also shares a personal experience that inspired her to become a better problem solver and prioritize what is truly important in life. She highlights the power of conscious choice and the impact it can have on our lives. Finally, we explore what brings us great joy which includes being in nature and the importance of connecting with it.

In this episode Cat and Sabine Braubach explore the vital role of conscious breathing for relaxation, meditation for intuition, and daily personal routines ...

03/17/2024

This 15 minute short reel can empower you to dive into your creativity, self-care, building better habits, and finding work-life harmony.

Explore ways to merge creativity with everyday by seeing real life techniques for incorporating creative outlets into busy schedules including creating a daily art habit. And selfcare is SO MUCH MORE than pedicures.

It's full of lots of candor, laughs, joy, one set of tears, and inspiration and real life examples of ways to get unstuck and start doing the things that bring you more joy, purpose and fulfillment each day.

It emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and getting clear on intentions in order to design a fulfilling life. The conversation highlights the empowerment that comes from nurturing one's creative side and finding joy in personal and professional growth.

A technique Monica and Cat use to create daily habits for creativity, art and purposeful selfcare

Takeaways

Merge creativity with everyday life by finding small pockets of time for creative activities. Self-reflection and getting clear on intentions are key to designing a fulfilling life. Selfcare is so much more than a pedicure.

Building better habits and incorporating self-care practices contribute to personal and professional growth.

A technique Monica and Cat use to create daily habits for creativity, art and purposeful selfcare.

Finding work-life harmony involves infusing creativity into daily routines and balancing different aspects of life.

Chapters

01:58 Aligning Habits with Intention
06:03 Creating a Daily Art Habit
09:07 Efficiency and Compartmentalization
10:02 Finding Self-Care in Five Minutes
10:08 Introduction and Lightning Decision Jam
11:05 Using LDJ for Self-Development, a technique you can use to workshop yourself in 10 minutes to be the change you wish to see
12:00 Finding Quick Wins
12:15 Using the Effort Impact Framework
13:14 Workshopping Yourself
14:09 Empowering Individuals and Women
14:39 Designing Your Own Life
15:10 Lightning Round: Confidence and Joy
15:59Final Thoughts and Inspiration

SummaryIn this 15 minute short reel, Cat and Monica discuss various topics related to creativity, self-care, building better habits, and finding work-life ha...

03/15/2024

Whether you're a designer or small business owner eager to amplify your impact or someone passionate about innovation, creativity and facilitation overall for your personal and professional development journey, this podcast episode is packed with valuable takeaways.

This insightful conversation with Philip Wallage 📦 , a seasoned design expert and innovator from the Netherlands- explores the transformative power of mentorship, empowerment, and the pivotal role of design thinking in pushing the boundaries of innovation. Tapping into the innovator and creative problem solver in all of us.

Key Highlights:
1. The critical need for creative problem solvers in today's dynamic landscape.
2. Philip's journey from web design to mastering UX and the art of productizing design services.
3. The magic of design sprints: A game-changer in product development, team collaboration and solution creation- providing a structured, repeatable process that ensures alignment and accelerates progress.
4. Practical insights on facilitating impactful meetings, aligning stakeholders, and the importance of clear communication in design.
5. Embracing challenges as opportunities for growth and the significance of personal reflection in evolving as a problem solver.

Tune in to discover how design thinking and creative problem solving methods can empower you to find better solutions and make positive changes, both professionally and personally.

🎧 Listen, reflect, and let's innovate together!



Excited to share the journey and insights? Check out the full episode for a deeper dive into the world of design and innovation.

Let's connect and discuss your thoughts and I would love to hear highlights from your personal and professional career journey!

📣 Your feedback and thoughts are invaluable. Share, comment, or drop me a message! Let's keep the conversation going.

send me a message or reach out at [email protected]

In this episode, Cat and her guest Philip Wallage discusses the importance of mentorship and empowerment in the context of innovation. Philip, is an incredi...

03/05/2024

Remembering and celebrating all of the courageous, wise, kind, change makers, dreamers and doers that helped pave the way for me and all women.

02/07/2024

The Future of User Research and UX is AI-Driven. "The advent of AI is changing every aspect of innovation and product development, including . Knowing how to utilize it along with powerful GenAI tools can help bring more success to your business.
https://loom.ly/W7VW6_8

Learn how to utilize powerful GenAI tools to help bring more success to your business.

02/06/2024

Intro to Effort Impact podcast series which kicked off today! This first video is not perfect but getting it done is better than getting it perfect at this stage in the game as we grow.

In this series we will be exploring the great knowledge, practices, methods and principles leveraged in the greatest efforts in product, innovation and marketing teams that are creating some of the greatest value for customers and generating great awareness and sales. Creating a knowledge transfer for greener teams and professionals new to the field to learn a few great insights to achieve success sooner. For those of us that have made it up the mountain this podcast is all about throwing the ladder down for those coming up next.

Transferring knowledge and wisdom for smaller businesses to make a strong impact on local business and economies.

The world needs more creative problem solvers and for more solutions to be created and out in the world and no one knows what those needs are than the every day people that are impacted the most and in need of those solutions. So I will also be celebrating the creative problem solving occurring in all walks of life, not just in the product and innovation field. Examining how those challenges were understood and how the solutions came to be.

The goal is that understanding these great efforts, leading to great impact will empower everyone that tunes in to learn and take a similar approach to result better results faster.

02/06/2024

"UX Research reckoning is here" Judd Antin's take on why UX research fails as a practice within teams and companies is much needed, insightful and helpful on what can be done https://loom.ly/Yaxaz3Y

Judd Antin has spent 15 years leading research and design teams at companies like Yahoo, Meta, and Airbnb. His direct reports have gone on to lead user resea...

02/05/2024

Excited to be taking the Effort Impact social sites live today and start posting content that I am passionate about that I think can add the most value to small companies and product teams looking to great websites and online experiences that add the most value to customers and your local communities. With a big focus on on really bright individuals and teams from around the world are thinking creatively about challenges people face and how they are creating solutions that solve for those challenges better than ever.

One of my biggest goals is to provide information in a way that can provide a level of mentorship and inspiration to those that are coming up the ranks in life both personally and professionally and help fast track climbing a few mountains and arriving at some great wins and accomplishments.

Learn more at https://www.effortimpact.co/