BUAD 427 · Smith GLS · Senior Capstone Seminar
Honors Human Centered Leadership Capstone Seminar: Designing Your Life and Career
The senior capstone where the leader you study is you. Using human-centered design mindsets and methods, you explore your values, strengths and goals, prototype several possible futures and leave with tools to design a meaningful, flexible career and life.
About the course
BUAD 427 is the senior leadership capstone seminar for Smith Global Leadership Scholars and part of the Human Centered Consulting Certificate. It is taught by Lane Morris, PhD, as the companion to BUAD 417: where 417 studies about 100 leaders and how they lead, 427 turns to you, the leader.
The seminar is discussion-based and run as coaching for leadership development, not therapy or counseling. Class is built on psychological safety: you can be yourself, ask questions, contribute and challenge ideas. Private journaling is encouraged and never collected.
What you will do
- Read and discuss two books. Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.
- Work through the workbook. Pre-class assignments from The Designing Your Life Workbook that you discuss in class.
- Know yourself. Complete a battery of leadership self-assessments and connect the results to real evidence.
- Design several futures. Build three Odyssey Plans and talk them through with your peers.
- Test them in the real world. Prototype conversations and small experiences before you commit.
- Redesign your work life. Apply the same mindsets to your first job and your first years after graduation.
By the end of the course you will
- Apply human-centered design methods to personal and professional decisions.
- Use reflection and storytelling to uncover your values, strengths and motivators.
- Create and prototype multiple career and life paths.
- Practice curiosity, bias to action, radical collaboration and reframing.
- Design experiments and informational interviews to test ideas in the real world.
- Build a personal plan with a Lifeview and Workview, prototype plans and your own story.
Topics
Each topic follows the syllabus, explains the idea in plain language and gives you an interactive tool that saves your work on your own device.
Topic 01
Life by Design: Applying Design Thinking to You
Apply design thinking to your own life, learn the nine mindsets and reframe the beliefs that keep you stuck.
Lab: Belief Reframer
Topic 02
Start Where You Are and Build Your Compass
Gauge your health, work, play and love, then write a Workview and Lifeview and check their coherence.
Lab: Dashboard and Compass Builder
Topic 03
Wayfinding: The Good Time Journal
Log engagement and energy, spot flow and use AEIOU to zoom in on what makes your best moments work.
Lab: Good Time Journal
Topic 04
Know Yourself: Leadership Self-Assessments
Combine your assessment results with Good Time Journal evidence to find real themes and set one development goal.
Lab: Assessment Synthesizer
Topic 05
Getting Unstuck: Mind Mapping and Reframing
Sort gravity from anchor problems, then build a three-ring mind map and combine outer-ring words into a new concept.
Lab: Mind Map Starter
Topic 06
Design Your Lives: Odyssey Plans
Draft three five-year Odyssey Plans with titles, questions and gauges, then see which one to prototype first.
Lab: Odyssey Plan Builder
Topic 07
Prototyping Your Life: Conversations and Experiences
Turn an Odyssey Plan into prototype conversations and experiences, with a good ask, open questions and a tracker.
Lab: Prototype Conversation Planner
Topic 08
Choosing Well, Failure Immunity and Building Your Team
Narrow your options, choose with head and gut, let go, sort your failures and name your life design team.
Lab: Choose and Let Go Planner
Topic 09
Designing Your Work Life
Log what energizes and drains you at work, rate your money, impact and expression mix and plan small experiments to redesign your job.
Lab: Work Life Redesign
Books and resources
- BookDesigning Your LifeBill Burnett and Dave Evans. The main course text.
- BookThe Designing Your Life WorkbookYour pre-class assignments live here.
- BookDesigning Your Work LifeThe second book, for the job you have or your first job.
- WorksheetsFree Designing Your Life worksheetsOfficial worksheets from the authors: dashboard, Good Time Journal, Odyssey Plans and more.
- WorksheetsDesigning Your Work Life worksheets (PDF)Free official worksheets for the work life book.
- GuideStanford Life Design LabWhere the life design course and research began.
Related Smith GLS topics: Feedback, Imposter Syndrome and Blind Spots, The Leadership Reflection Journal and Career Prep.
Dates, deadlines and grades are in Canvas.
Frequently asked questions
What is BUAD 427 Designing Your Life and Career?
BUAD 427 is the senior leadership capstone seminar for Smith Global Leadership Scholars at the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business. Using human-centered design mindsets and methods, students explore their values, strengths and goals, prototype several possible futures and build tools to design a meaningful career and life. It is taught by Lane Morris, PhD.
What books does BUAD 427 use?
The course uses Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans of the Stanford Life Design Lab, plus The Designing Your Life Workbook. Students complete workbook assignments before class and discuss what they learned. The authors also share free worksheets on their website.
Is BUAD 427 part of the Human Centered Consulting Certificate?
Yes. BUAD 427 is part of the Human Centered Consulting Certificate for Smith GLS students, along with IB 407, BUAD 317, BUAD 417 and the BUAD 497 senior capstone. It is the companion to BUAD 417: 417 studies how great leaders lead, and 427 applies those lessons to you.