In Romania, young people face a disconnect between what they aspire to do and what they actually doing. To explore purpose, I got inspiration from design thinking and constructed a workshop that permits participants to map out their needs and purpose. As a founder of the newly playground called Hello Unicorn, a place for creatives in Romania, this project was looking for ways to promote design thinking also for personal development, knowing the need for play and creative expression of young Romanians.
This workshop was inspired from this IDEO article, creating an adapted version of exercises for the Romanian participants. The workshop followed a typic design thinking process: ideate, choose topics of interest and then try to prototype and test your idea.
The 2 part workshop aimed at exploring and mapping out participants interests. Finding an accountability partner who will help them get started was key in this workshop. The workshop helped participants organize themself and make an action plan, while making the first steps towards their soul project and finding unlimited support in a creative space.
I really enjoyed creating and facilitating this workshop. I learned that people need creative ways to express themselves, and a support network to sustain their behavior change. As a psychologist I am fascinated by concepts like behavior change, design thinking and accountability, and I think I created a good blend of exercises in the workshop that helped people discover their purpose - at least one of them - and work towards it.