Speaking
I chatted with Executive and Creative Director Sam Aquillano about how some human problems can be addressed through design thinking. I am joined by my friend and colleague Liz Possee Corthell, another Senior Experience Strategist at Mad*Pow, to discuss futures thinking and how it can prevent burnout. Earlier in the pandemic, we were faced with the question, “How do you safely bring people back into their offices?” What we uncovered were tools for building personal resilience while working remotely. Together, we chat about the use of mental models, equity in design, and the way burnout manifests.
Design Museum Everywhere Podcast: Using Futures Thinking to Prevent Burnout
In May of 2020, my colleague Liz and I were tasked with answering the question "What does the future of work look like?" In our quest for the answer, we discovered the challenges and benefits that teams are facing today as they work from home amid the pandemic.
The future of workspaces and working styles will likely continue to evolve, creating opportunities to blend digital and physical workplace experiences and a need to build a more resilient work-from-home workforce. As we imagine what the future of work might look like, it’s also important to implement strategies that help us today.
In this talk, we discuss a recent case study examining cycles of recharge and burnout among employees working from home. Then, we will present visions for the possible future, including useful tools and experiments to run with your remote teams. Finally, we challenge folks to imagine what the future of work could be. What do we want it to be and how do we get there together?”
Creating a Resilient Remote Culture Today to Design the Future of Work Tomorrow
Choose Empathy over Fear: Inclusion in an Era of Isolation
In April of 2020, I gave this talk on how we can reduce our emotional distance through empathy when we are physically apart. We spend approximately 90,000 hours of our lives at work, so increasing empathy with our teammates is critical. To foster interpersonal risk-taking, we must value learning over our image. I share my own struggles with depression and anxiety, including the lessons I learned about empathy and team dynamics when I committed myself to a Partial Hospitalization Program. I adapted these lessons into a project team experience that fostered a psychologically safe team, where team members are empowered to admit their mistakes and learn from them.
In March of 2017, I was on a panel for the Mass.gov redesign, hosted by AIGA at District Hall. The presentation was given by our main stakeholder, Commonwealth Harlan Weber, and touched upon our process, and asked for feedback on our logo directions. We also had a Q&A session, where attendees asked me and others on the panel about the redesign.
Redesigning Mass.gov: Design Critique & Engagement
She Geeks Out Presentation: The Role of Emotional Intelligence on Collaborative Teams
This is a presentation I gave at the She Geeks Out networking event in October of 2016, about the role of emotional intelligence on collaborative teams. I've always been a psychology nerd, so this was one of the most exciting topics I've spoken about.
Women's Leadership Series: The Impact of Mentoring
As a member of Velir's Women's Initiative, I suggested we have an event about the impact of mentoring. As women in tech remain a minority, I thought it was important to showcase a group of women, each at a different point in their careers. At the event, they shared their stories and talked about the impact mentorship has had on them.
