From Practitioner to Leader

Design practitioners are tasked with delivering sustainable solutions amidst highly disruptive conditions. We enter systems with great intentions, anticipating that our influence, agency and designerly ways of knowing, doing and thinking will make a difference. But what are we actually contributing, and how much of our full, embodied intelligence are we bringing to bear? How do we develop ourselves as leaders in order to facilitate the change needed to meet the increasingly complex challenges of a world in transition?

We’ve invited Strategic Designer and founder of Transition Leadership LAB, Susanna Carman, to explore these questions. Together we will discover the essential creative competencies that correlate with effective leadership amidst disruptive conditions, and the reactive tendencies that hold us back from unleashing our generative energy. The session will include experiential, somatic and interactive learning opportunities to deepen understanding and introduce capacities that are necessary for leading change in a rapidly transforming world.

You’ll take away:

• Practical advice, tools and stories to name and frame design leadership in your unique context
• An understanding of the essential creative competencies of effective design leaders
• Barriers to stepping into your practice leadership potential

Who should attend:

• Aspiring & established practice leaders
• intermediate to senior designers

Items to bring and work space preparation:

A box of coloured crayons, pastels or markers

At least 4 sheets of A4 paper

5 small items from the natural environment that are intuitively appealing, or already something valued

5 items from the manufactured environment that are intuitively appealing, or already something valued

Flat uncluttered work surface 

An environment in which you may move freely and engage in haptic model making without concern

About your trainer:

Susanna Carman, Strategic Designer @ Integral Design

Susanna helps people solve complex problems, the types of problems that have to do with services, systems and human interactions.

Specialising in design, leadership and learning, Susanna brings a high value toolkit and herself as Thinking Partner to design, leadership and change practitioners who are tasked with delivering sustainable solutions amidst disruptive conditions.

She has over a decade of combined experience delivering business performance, cultural alignment and leadership development outcomes to the education, health, community development and financial services sectors.

Susanna is also a musician, songwriter and recording artist who lectured at Southern Cross University and performed at Australia’s top festivals. Her design expertise is grounded in fifteen years of collaborative artistry, live performance, music education and creative entrepreneurship.

Today her services are designed to wrap an ecosystem of support around design, leadership and change practitioners who are committed to their own conscious leadership, and to fulfilling potential in others.