Career Ownership: Designing Your Next Chapter

This pre-work module prepares participants for a session on career development by having them review their DISC assessment results, reflecting on their work style and preferences ahead of time. Those without prior DISC results instead reflect generally on how they like to work. This grounding in self-awareness sets up the in-session exercises on designing one's next career chapter.

This module introduces the Ikigai framework ??? the Japanese concept meaning "a reason for being" ??? as a tool for finding career direction. Participants map their own career "sweet spot" at the intersection of four elements: what they love, what they're good at, what the world (their org, team, clients) needs, and what they can be paid for, using their DISC results as a starting point for identifying strengths. Working solo and then in small groups, participants build their own Ikigai map, share it with peers to surface overlaps they may be missing, and reflect on the gap between their current role and their Ikigai center as a "design space" for small, deliberate career moves rather than a shortfall.

This module helps participants turn self-reflection into a concrete plan for their next career conversation. Building on an Ikigai map from earlier in the session, participants complete a 1:1 Prep Sheet covering where they're at their best, where they want to grow, and a specific ask for their manager, then pressure-test each other's asks in small groups to make sure requests are specific enough to get a real yes or no. The module closes with participants committing to when they'll have that actual conversation.

This module is the opening chapter of Career Ownership: Designing Your Next Chapter, built for individual contributors who want to drive their own career conversations rather than wait for direction from a manager. Participants use their existing DISC results to reflect on how they work best and where their style creates energy or friction, first individually and then in small-group discussion. The module closes by distinguishing what DISC reveals (how you operate) from the question it doesn't answer (where you aim that operating style), setting up the Ikigai framework covered later in the series.