Compassing Christmas | Navigate the next year (or half-decade, quarter-century…)

Dear Reader,

As I write the winter newsletter, I'm grateful for the way this work has changed me.

I'm assuming less about what’s happening and why for people I coach, teach, see, read about in the news, partner with, or parent—and feeling more curious and open.

And assuming less about what will happen in the always-dynamic next day or decade—and feeling more comfortable continuing to observe and sense what matters most, abundant ways for it to play out, and a step (versus the step) forward.

I’m sharing new, as-always-free tools to agilely navigate this holiday season and your professional or personal year, half-decade, or quarter-century ahead—and a free, intimate online workshop to try them with me, as well as other events.

And the icing on the holiday cookie: a family’s story of when the Compass saved Christmas! As always, visit innovatorscompass.org for all-free resources, events and stories—and share back your experiences!

To navigating what's next,

Ela Ben-Ur, Founder of innovatorscompass.org

Try a New Resource

New Compass and Cue Cards!

The core Innovators' Compass tools have a draft redesign! Try them on anything you're doing, share back your observations, and I’ll include a final version next time!

Download the draft set

Navigate what’s next! Here are specific, printable templates to responsively design the next year in your life, career, team, class, organization—or navigate one day at a time.

Special-Edition Compasses

Join a New Event

Join me Jan 13th!

NAVIGATE WHAT'S NEXT!

Try the new tools on your coming year or any topic.

Free online sessions January 13 at 12pm and 7pm ET

If you’re a collaborative designer based in Boston, join this gathering spearheaded by Daniel Koff (a huge help in the Cue Card updates!), Angie Uyham, and me January 9th.

If you’re at SXSWedu, come to the workshop I'm co-leading—and if you voted for our proposal, thank you!

And if you’re designing a learning environment, register for this four-day studio-based program I co-lead with Daniel Wilson (Harvard GSE Project Zero) and David Stephen (architect/planner of High Tech High, Henry Ford Academies, and more).

Enjoy a New Story

Now for the second and final installment of “A County Compasses” stories from Ottawa County, Michigan!

Ginger Rowher shares here how she Compass-navigated a newly created education+business leadership role in a statewide STEM network, and along the way coached an executive, improved programs with educational staff…and saved Christmas with her family—perfect for this season!

When Dave and Ela led Innovators’ Compass workshops at GVSU, I invited my son, Isaac, a GVSU freshman. He graciously agreed to attend. It was the end of November, so when they asked us to identify a helpful topic to work on, Isaac raised how our family celebrates Advent with traditions that began when our kids were toddlers. “This stuff makes us feel like we’re little, and we’re adults now,” he said. I had been holding on to the traditions despite multiple protests, and we were stuck. We brought the challenge to the rest of the family and used the Innovators' Compass to find a new way forward. Now, our family spends time preparing our favorite meals together, with my kids taking the lead. It really saved our Christmas tradition!

Dave Coffey is the spark and soul of all these GVSU and Ottawa County stories. Since hearing about the Compass on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, Dave has shared it as a tool for K-12 students solving word math problems as in this conference workshop (with Ginger), college students working with staff and administration to make change, and teachers improving their lessons even in the pandemic (pictured above, with Ginger) in this podcast, and his book (a bit from this excerpt below):

As we used the Compass to reflect on the lesson, Bess immediately saw that families needed to be added to the People section at the center of the Compass…In the Observations section, she recalled that a lot more children copied her model than in the past. This concerned her because it seemed that they were just going through the motions and weren’t truly engaged…Using “love of learning” as our North Star, we considered ways to improve students’ engagement in the activity. The people impacted by our ideas were never far from our thinking, which resulted in a lot of ideas that encompassed family involvement, student voice, and student choice..Bess decided to concentrate on “seeing each other’s work” as her experiment.

YOUR stories move this work forward—please share them by email or tweet!

UNSTICKers and Pocket Compasses

As always, pay cost (10¢ + shipping) or what you can.

Check out this 2-minute intro video (or a picture book/video for kids):

innovatorscompass.org

Please reach out!

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