Design Your Future Playbook

Many wishes for change fall into a trap: we think we must first know our complete life plan. Which occupation really fits? What kind of work will sustain us over time? What would need to change for life to feel more aligned? The bigger the decision seems, the more easily thinking turns into standstill.

Michael Lewrick and Jean-Paul Thommen apply design thinking approaches to shaping our own lives. Their playbook combines reflection, idea development and experimentation. The central idea: the future is not simply thought out in advance. We can shape it step by step by understanding ourselves and our situation better, designing several possibilities and testing selected assumptions in everyday life.

1. Treat the future as a space to shape

Design starts not with a perfect solution but with an open question. For personal development, this might mean: ‘How could I shape work to give learning and contribution more room?’ This wording opens possibilities without belittling the present or fixing on a single answer in advance.

This is an important future skill. In a world of uncertain career paths and rapid change, rigid long-term planning is rarely enough. What is needed is the ability to combine direction with adaptability: choose a direction, take in feedback and revise the next step.

2. Observe what brings energy and alignment

Good options do not emerge in a vacuum. The playbook draws attention to experiences of flow and authenticity, to abilities, relationships and wellbeing. These observations provide no automatic answer. But they create criteria: when am I attentive? Where do I experience myself as effective? Which values do I want reflected in my decisions?

A robust reality check also includes limits and obligations – such as health, financial scope, caring responsibilities or workplace conditions. Self-reflection then becomes a connection between inner motives and external reality rather than navel-gazing.

3. Design several possibilities

If we formulate only one idea of the future, we can easily mistake it for the only right one. Three distinctly different designs instead encourage possibility thinking: a gentle development of what exists, a bolder alternative and an option that initially seems unusual. Comparing them reveals recurring elements and assumptions still untested.

Creativity thus gains a practical function. The point is not to produce the most original fantasies possible, but choices from which we can derive learning questions.

4. Learn through small experiments

A prototype in life design is not a miniature life plan. It is a manageable experiment: a conversation with someone from an interesting field, a small side project, job shadowing, a course or a changed weekly routine. Beforehand, clarify what to observe – such as energy, enjoyment of learning, responses or fit with your circumstances.

The experiment does not replace a careful decision. It improves its basis. And because the person acts themselves, abstract confidence can become concrete self-efficacy: I can influence a next step and learn from its result.

Your three-minute exercise: three possibilities, one test

1. Minute 1 – the design question. Phrase a current concern as an open question: ‘How could I … without losing sight of …?’
2. Minute 2 – three paths. Note three genuinely different possibilities. Do not evaluate them yet; look for alternatives.
3. Minute 3 – one experiment. Choose a small, reversible test for the next seven days. Add: ‘Afterwards I will know more about …’

What we take from this

This approach is particularly valuable for developing Future Skills because it connects reflection with implementation. Within WEITER7 the playbook can enrich the desired future and reality check in particular: several visions broaden our view, and an experiment makes assumptions testable. WEITER7 adds the deliberate selection of a relevant skill and a structured learning process.

What small experiment could I start before demanding a major decision of myself?

Context: This insight distils selected ideas from the playbook in our own words. The book combines design thinking with perspectives from positive psychology, coaching and systemic consultancy; it does not demonstrate the effectiveness of a single intervention. Exercises cannot guarantee self-efficacy or wellbeing. Health, resources, caring responsibilities, discrimination and working conditions limit personal scope for action. The exercise, Future Skills links and WEITER7 application are the Institut's own interpretations.

Sources and further reading: Versus: Book description ↗ · Zurich University of the Arts: Design Your Future ↗ · Orell Füssli: Bibliographic details ↗