Sebastian Kernbach

This book presents a compelling, science-based guide for navigating life's many transitions: from first jobs to midlife pivots to purposeful retirements. Based on insights from over 1000 people across all ages and career stages, it blends identity work, prototyping, and psychological capital to foster sustainable, purpose-driven career paths. Drawing on design thinking, positive psychology, and behavioral science, each chapter encourages reflection, exploration, and growth, supported by a practical toolkit featuring methods such as the Magic Circle, Life Loops, and the Stairway to Heaven. Readers are equipped to overcome procrastination, redesign habits, explore bold dreams, and build a portfolio life that reflects personal evolution. Whether you're feeling stuck, restless, or ready for something new, Design Your Future will help you take action with confidence and joy. This book is not about making the perfect plan; it's about designing your next brave step.

This book presents a compelling, science-based guide for navigating life's many transitions: from first jobs to midlife pivots to purposeful retirements. Based on insights from over 1000 people across all ages and career stages, it blends identity work, prototyping, and psychological capital to foster sustainable, purpose-driven career paths. Drawing on design thinking, positive psychology, and behavioral science, each chapter encourages reflection, exploration, and growth, supported by a practical toolkit featuring methods such as the Magic Circle, Life Loops, and the Stairway to Heaven. Readers are equipped to overcome procrastination, redesign habits, explore bold dreams, and build a portfolio life that reflects personal evolution. Whether you're feeling stuck, restless, or ready for something new, Design Your Future will help you take action with confidence and joy. This book is not about making the perfect plan; it's about designing your next brave step.

This book is about meetings and providing a new perspective from behavioural economics called nudging to make meetings more productive and enjoyable. Nudging hacks into the fast, automatic, subconscious system in human reasoning to breed success in every get-together. Once you know the foundations of focus, orientation, involvement, and commitment, the advantages of nudging are evident. The authors provide an explanation of nudge theory and 6 principles of how nudging affects our behavior. Examples from the actions and choices of the Dalai Lama, Ray Dalio, and Barack Obama demonstrate how nudging can make a difference. Based on theory, the book also gives 100 very practical nudges to improve meeting productivity that can be used by any meeting leader or participant.

This book is about meetings and providing a new perspective from behavioural economics called nudging to make meetings more productive and enjoyable. Nudging hacks into the fast, automatic, subconscious system in human reasoning to breed success in every get-together. Once you know the foundations of focus, orientation, involvement, and commitment, the advantages of nudging are evident. The authors provide an explanation of nudge theory and 6 principles of how nudging affects our behavior. Examples from the actions and choices of the Dalai Lama, Ray Dalio, and Barack Obama demonstrate how nudging can make a difference. Based on theory, the book also gives 100 very practical nudges to improve meeting productivity that can be used by any meeting leader or participant.

Creativity is at the heart of successful research, yet researchers are rarely taught how to manage their creative process, and modern academic life is not structured to optimize creativity. Creativity in Research provides concrete guidance on developing creativity for anyone doing or mentoring research. Based on a curriculum developed at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, this book presents key abilities that underlie creative research practice through a combination of scientific literature on creative confidence, experiential exercises, and guided reflection. By focusing attention on how research happens as well as its outputs, researchers increase their ability to address research challenges and produce the outputs they care about. Simultaneously, they may also transform their emotional relationship with their work, replacing stress and a harsh inner critic with a more open and emotionally empowered attitude.

Creativity is at the heart of successful research, yet researchers are rarely taught how to manage their creative process, and modern academic life is not structured to optimize creativity. Creativity in Research provides concrete guidance on developing creativity for anyone doing or mentoring research. Based on a curriculum developed at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, this book presents key abilities that underlie creative research practice through a combination of scientific literature on creative confidence, experiential exercises, and guided reflection. By focusing attention on how research happens as well as its outputs, researchers increase their ability to address research challenges and produce the outputs they care about. Simultaneously, they may also transform their emotional relationship with their work, replacing stress and a harsh inner critic with a more open and emotionally empowered attitude.