Back to Work & Design Thinking
WHO
If you have already passed through the Home page or visited the Back to work page you know that for me the career break has been a direct life experience.
When I moved to Switzerland with my family I chose not to work for the first few years to be closer to my daughter who, at the age of 6, was facing a new school, a new language and a new everything!
It was a deliberate choice, but, today I can say, completely unaware of the difficulties it would have brought with it: finding an identity, a new professional path, raise self-confidence. It’s been a challenging journey. That’s why, when I became a Coach, I decided that the first people I wanted to support were those coming from a similar path, those whose doubts, fears and difficulties I knew well.
Valeria Farina comes from a different journey but has encountered similar difficulties. After years of working in a Multinational Company she decided to become freelance, a role that is often perceived as a “Career Break” if you decide that you want to go back to the corporate world. Today 90% of her clients are women who are creating a new career path after a work break.
WHY
BACK TO WORK
WHY DESIGN THINKING
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Design Thinking or Human-Centred Design:
it’s a creative approach to problem solving. A process that starts with building a deep empathy with the people you are designing for; moves forward generating tons of ideas, testing prototypes, sharing them with the people you are designing for and eventually putting your innovative solutions out in the world.
My curiosity about this topic began when I enrolled in a workshop held by Google about “sprint methodology“, I had heard about it and it seemed intriguing: a new method that completely changed the way to approach, understand, solve a challenge.
“Change”? I am interested!
One course leads to another … the masterclass of Design Your Life, HPInstitute’s prototyping, IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking and the one that inspired this initiative:
“how to apply Human-Centred design to social issues” of Acumen+ in collaboration with IDEOU.
Doing this training as a team me and Valeria choose the topic we wanted to have impact on:
FACILITATING THE RETURN TO WORK FOR WOMEN OVER 40 WHO HAVE CHOSEN TO HAVE A CAREER BREAK, IN ITALY AND SWITZERLAND (INITIALLY)
In this way began our work that goes through the classic phases of Design Thinking that today I also use with satisfaction with my Coaching Clients:
INSPIRATION – IDEATION – IMPLEMENTATION
The core of the project is to deeply understand the needs of the people you’re designing for and we’re attaining that by interviewing and observing them.
Who are our key users
- EXPERTS in the field who already have activities or services to support the return to work
- RETURNERS: women who have faced, are facing or are planning to face a return to work
- Companies, Human Resources managers, Start-ups, who are hiring those who want to come back
We have talked to academics, entrepreneurs, HR, and Returners in Switzerland, Italy, France, Sweden, and we have come up with interesting ideas to work on and innovate in a topic that varies greatly depending on the political and social conditions to which it applies.
WHAT WE ARE DOING
WANT TO CONTRIBUTE?
ARE YOU ONE OF OUR KEY USERS and would you like to put your experience at the service of others by sharing it with us?
I am ready to answer your questions and I will simply ask you the availability for a 20/30 minute “design interview” that you can do easily via Zoom/Skype/Whatsapp from your home or your office!
If you are a RETURNER: we will ask you some open question to understand your experience, your difficulties, the tools you’ve used or what is going on if you still haven’t start.
If you are a COMPANY we would love to hear your experience, the barriers or the possible advantages that you find when evaluating to hire someone with a Career Break.
If you are an EXPERT already working in the field we would really appreciate to learn from your experience if you’re willing to share.