Human Centered Design seems to be all the buzz lately - but what is it, really, and how can we use it the benefit Human Resources? Come learn what HCD is all about and how it can make the HR practitioner's life (gasp) better! In this interactive workshop - complete with snacks, post-it notes galore, and plenty of time out of chairs - we'll discover the steps of the HCD process. We'll have ample time to work in small groups, where you can practice applying the framework to issues that group members bring forward - everything from team performance, productivity, retention, and more. Our goal is to help you gain a level of comfort and competency with HCD so that you can leverage it for small or big change in your organization, no matter where you are.

You can expect to leave the workshop knowing:

• What the HCD framework offers and how it works
• How to apply HCD to your work in a lean, daily manner
• How to use HCD to improve your workflow and solve specific workplace issues

Once registered, you'll receive a pre-workshop packet. We invite you to review the material in preparation for the workshop (we promise it's worth it!). At the workshop, you'll receive a handful of useful, editable materials that you can use again and again. We look forward to meeting you and sharing the HCD framework with you - to revolutionize HR!

This workshop is co-taught by Kristen Gallagher of Edify and Nitya Wahklu of Drawing Bridges:

Nitya Wakhlu is the founder at Drawbridge Innovations LLC, where she specializes in using Visual Thinking and Experiential Learning to create whole-brained experiences that support learning and change.

Nitya has a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Telecommunications engineering and an MBA focused on human resources and organization development. She brings over eight years of facilitation experience working with corporate, government and non-profit groups across North America, India, Africa, and Europe.

Nitya is best known for her work in learning design and visual facilitation. As a visual facilitator, Nitya brings a ninja-like listening ability to the table. She distills what she hears and creates a large-scale visual mural of key insights and emerging conversation patterns. This live visual capture prevents precious insight from being lost, stimulates higher levels of group creativity and helps the group truly “see the big picture”.

Things that make her eyes shine include: working with smart and diverse groups, learning about the brain, and studying behavior change. Find her at http://www.nityawakhlu.com/

Kristen Gallagher is the founder of Edify, a learning design consultancy that helps technology and creative companies grow their employees, customers, and businesses. She brings over eight years of instructional design, alternative learning environment experience, event management, business development, and nonprofit education experience to Edify. Recently, her focus has been on building educational experiences that empower people, especially new employees, women and small business owners.

Gallagher has presented research, workshops, and facilitated experiences at conferences and events of all sizes for over six years, focusing primarily on art history, museum, and education topics. She has experience presenting for a variety of audiences, though she prefers to focus on adult learning and treats "presentations" as learning experiences rather than show-and-tell sessions. Effective, efficient programs, events, and strategies are what motivate her, and in every project, she strives to engage teams and stakeholders to uncover the solutions for their needs (and often solve problems they didn't know they had!) Find her at www.edifyedu.com

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll practice using design thinking methods to empathize with a wider group of users, and develop solutions that work better for everyone. Universal design is an approach where a primary requirement of any design is that all its users can access it, regardless of any physical or cognitive impairment they may have. It's also known as 'inclusive' or 'accessible' design. We’ll start with a short overview of how universal design can combined with design thinking to quickly deliver valuable insights during the design process. This will be an easy, fun, and very interactive introduction to combining universal design and design thinking methods!

Light refreshments will be provided.

Portland Community Design Thinkers and Portland Accessibility and User Experience are excited to partner to bring you this meetup. This event will be limited to 40 participants - if your plans change, please update your RSVP.

We look forward to having you join us in our first meetup of the new year!