Workshops for different-aged learners are available as well. We’ve delivered workshops in two main areas: sustainable futures and personal futures. We are happy to create new workshops based on your specific needs and interests.

Design Futures Workshops We’ve taught workshops on Design Futures to university professors and students at Tsinghua University and Politecnico di Milano. Open-access courseware is available here.

• Dexign Futures – creating new design methods for sustainable lifestyles.
• Sustainable Futures – creating sustainable products and services.
• Alternative Futures – How might alternative futures expand your design opportunities for innovation?

Personal Design Futures Workshops. We’re currently developing Personal Design Futures workshops for CMU-Qatar and CMU-Pittsburgh.

“What do you want to do when you grow up?” is a difficult question for many. Close to 50% of college graduates work in a field that differs from their studies (NGPF, 2023). What is a career trajectory in a rapidly changing world anyway? One’s life is so much more than a career choice. What values does one commit to? What is one’s life purpose? What outcomes does one pursue? What relationships are in one’s life journey? Meaningful lives require discernment.  

Living intentionally matters. We design our life choices, and then our choices go on to shape us. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to design one’s life. From a sustainability perspective, our choices can positively/negatively impact the lives of other beings on the planet (e.g., the climate, politics, geology). How might one’s choices, histories, and positionalities be relationally linked to collective outcomes (Escobar et al., 2024)? How might one strategically design life choices and trajectories to consider broader impact?

Where to begin? First, for many there may be a disconnect between personal and collective futures. Designers learn to design things, experiences, and services. How to design one’s life is rarely taught.  How might one approach their personal and collective futures? Three related perspectives can assist at the individual level: Personal Futures, Life Design, and Ontological Design. Personal Futures adapts methods from Futures Studies, typically used by organizations and governments. Life Design applies a Design Thinking approach, typically used to develop products or services, to envision an individual’s career and life choices. Ontological Design, instead, takes a philosophical approach to help designers understand how their design choices shape the world and how the designed world, in turn, goes on to shape them. In other words, our design choices shape us and our surroundings. Next we describe the Personal Futures workshops.

• Personal Futures adapts methods from Futures Studies, typically used by organizations and governments.
• Life Design applies a Design Thinking approach, typically used to develop products or services, to envision an individual’s career and life choices.
• Ontological Design, takes a philosophical approach to help designers understand how their design choices shape the world and how the designed world, in turn, goes on to shape them. In other words, our design choices shape us and our surroundings.

The first workshop prepares for other personal futures workshops:

• Orientation. Onboarding to Personal Futures Thinking and learning community.
• Where are you? Personal values and life stages.
• Becoming. What is the ideal version that you aspire to become?
• Alternative futures. What might be 4-5 alternative scenarios for your next life-stage be like?
• Visioning What might your short-term and long-term life narratives be like?
• Enacting your plan. What is your strategic life action plan and contingency plans to mitigate risks?
• Telling your story. Sharing your story!

For workshops that align personal futures with teams and organizations see the relational futures research page.

Please contact Prof. Peter Scupelli to discuss what might be of interest to your team or organization.

References:

Escobar, A., Osterweil, M., & Sharma, K. (2024). Relationality: an emergent politics of life beyond the human. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Next Gen Personal Finance. (2023). What percent of college grads work in their field of study?. Retrieved from https://www.ngpf.org/blog/question-of-the-day/qod-what-percent-of-college-graduates-end-up-working-in-the-field-of-their-major/