I love HGTV, and I especially enjoy renovation shows. Renovation shows always involve a designer. The designer can look at an old, dilapidated property, a property so run-down it is deemed condemned, and imagine something beautiful and functional – something modern and desirable. Designers see beyond what meets the eye – they see a marvelous potential, and they take that potential and bring it to reality.

So, when offered the opportunity to learn the inner thinking of a designer through a design-thinking workshop, I jumped. Yes, please let me climb into the mind of a designer and learn how to create amazing transformations.

I consider myself a novice designer now, and I am relieved to learn that designers are not as esoteric as they appear – they utilize a structured process to design – a structured process that you and I can apply to our own lives, our professional endeavors, and even our personal career management. The process starts with assuming design-thinking mindsets, and today I’ll share just one of those – Reframing.

Do you like problems? Me, neither. Perhaps it is human nature to dislike problems, and therefore, seek to solve problems as quickly as humanly possible. Designers, I learned, LOVE problems. They love wicked, hard-to-solve problems. To a designer, the problem signifies discovery, possibility, and uncharted territory. What designers do well is not assume the obvious problem is the one that needs fixing. They ensure they have found the right problem before they jump to solutions. Designers reframe dysfunctional beliefs by stepping back, examining biases, and opening up new solution spaces, according to Designing Your Life authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

Let’s practice reframing a common dysfunctional career belief, outlined by Burnett and Evans. “Dysfunctional Belief: If you are successful, you will be happy. Reframe: True happiness comes from designing a life that works for you.” This subtle yet critical reframe provides space to individually define happiness and success based on our personal set of career values. The reframe allows the individual to stop asking the wrong question of ‘how do I become successful?’ and asking the right questions of ‘what is most important to my personal career satisfaction?’ and ‘what is the right work-health-love-play integration for me?’

What about you? What dysfunctional career belief can you reframe to open up new solution spaces? Once you have reframed the problem and feel confident you are asking the right question, you can get into the real fun of the design-thinking model – ideating all the possibilities (think crazy mind map), building a prototype of your career idea and begin sharing it (when we say things out loud we are far more likely to do them), and when you are ready, moving into career action.

Our CPD coaches want to support you in your goals, whether it includes growth where you are, or designing another exciting opportunity. Whatever and wherever your professional goals may take you, the IUAA Career & Professional Development Team is ready to help you design your career path.

Contact IUAA Career and Professional Development at careers@alumni.iu.edu or 
(812) 855-9263.