EXDM 300 FINAL PAPER 2025/2026 QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔dysfunctional belief and reframe - ✔✔dysfunctional belief: i need to figure out my
best possible life, make a plan, and then execute it.
reframe: there are multiple great lives (and plans) within me, and i get to choose which
one to build my way forward to next
Dysfunctional Belief: thought process that prevents you from moving forward in life
Work is not supposed to be enjoyable - that's why they call it work.
Reframe: Enjoyment is a guide to finding the right work for you.
But design thinking suggests that we need a lot of ideas so that we can explore
any number of possibilities for our future.
[00:08:18] We want to get past perfectionism in design thinking to be able to say, what's
important for me is to get to a point where I can decide what to do next and
then try out those possibilities before I dive all the way in, and then I can always
change directions and go through this design thinking process for designing my
life whenever I feel stuck and need to reframe and ideate a new way forward.
✔✔Getting Unstuck - ✔✔dysfunctional belief: i'm stuck
reframe: i'm never stuck because i can always generate a lot of ideas
Why Ideate?
Philosophies of ideation:
-Not first idea
-Creative Confidence
-Lots of ideas
-Use divergent thinking to ideate as many ideas as possible and then converge to come
up with one good idea.
Ideate: form an idea of; imagine or conceive.
We need to believe in our ability to come up with lots of ideas, and we want to
really avoid anchor problems.
An anchor problem is when we are stuck with only one solution in mind.
Reference from lecture:
[00:08:47] When we're trying to get unstuck from that place that we find ourselves in
now
and then, we want to ideate.
[00:08:54] And there's a couple of important philosophies related to ideation.
[00:08:58] One is that you choose better when you have lots of good ideas to choose
from. ←
[00:09:02] This is related to ideation where we try to diverge our thinking and then
converge it back after we've thought about lots of possibilities and that we really
shouldn't choose our first solution to any problem.
[00:09:15] We need creative confidence.
, [00:09:16] We need to believe in our ability to come up with lots of ideas, and we want
to
really avoid anchor problems.
✔✔building a compass - ✔✔Workview: philosophy of work - What is work for and why
do you do it?
Lifeview: idea about how the world works - What gives life meaning? How is it valuable?
How does your life relate to others?
Coherency: living in alignment with your values and have not sacrificed your integrity
along the way. Who are you? What do you believe? What are you doing?
✔✔mind mapping - ✔✔What is Mind Mapping?
Part of Wayfinding
Make a life design by choosing 3 or 4 ideas and come up with a job description.
"Camp counselor at an outdoor adventure camp on a tropical beach"
-Taking a few minutes to do free association of words and ideas related to your central
theme.
-The accountant's job description "Camp counselor at an adventure camp..."
✔✔odyssey plans - ✔✔3 Alternative Lives:
Life 1 - That thing you do
Life 2 - That thing you'd do if thing one were gone
Life 3 - If money or image were not an object
Includes:
Visual/graphical timeline
Title
Questions the alternative asks
Dashboard
✔✔good time journal - ✔✔It's important to get some feedback from people who care
about you, who are
important to you.
[00:25:18] You might choose three to six people.
These listeners should receive, reflect and amplify
Not Critique, review, advise,
(think of the last time you listened to someone's goals, or dreams...think how can I
receive their plans, reflect with them and amplify? A good tool to create better ideation
is improv and one rule of improv is yes and. You agree with what is happening in the
scene and add to it to help the scene move forward.)
Example of the different parts of the Odyssey: Invite your friends and family to do these
activities and its good to re-evaluate every few years.
Odyssey Plan measures Resources, how much you like it, your confidence, and
coherence.
ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔dysfunctional belief and reframe - ✔✔dysfunctional belief: i need to figure out my
best possible life, make a plan, and then execute it.
reframe: there are multiple great lives (and plans) within me, and i get to choose which
one to build my way forward to next
Dysfunctional Belief: thought process that prevents you from moving forward in life
Work is not supposed to be enjoyable - that's why they call it work.
Reframe: Enjoyment is a guide to finding the right work for you.
But design thinking suggests that we need a lot of ideas so that we can explore
any number of possibilities for our future.
[00:08:18] We want to get past perfectionism in design thinking to be able to say, what's
important for me is to get to a point where I can decide what to do next and
then try out those possibilities before I dive all the way in, and then I can always
change directions and go through this design thinking process for designing my
life whenever I feel stuck and need to reframe and ideate a new way forward.
✔✔Getting Unstuck - ✔✔dysfunctional belief: i'm stuck
reframe: i'm never stuck because i can always generate a lot of ideas
Why Ideate?
Philosophies of ideation:
-Not first idea
-Creative Confidence
-Lots of ideas
-Use divergent thinking to ideate as many ideas as possible and then converge to come
up with one good idea.
Ideate: form an idea of; imagine or conceive.
We need to believe in our ability to come up with lots of ideas, and we want to
really avoid anchor problems.
An anchor problem is when we are stuck with only one solution in mind.
Reference from lecture:
[00:08:47] When we're trying to get unstuck from that place that we find ourselves in
now
and then, we want to ideate.
[00:08:54] And there's a couple of important philosophies related to ideation.
[00:08:58] One is that you choose better when you have lots of good ideas to choose
from. ←
[00:09:02] This is related to ideation where we try to diverge our thinking and then
converge it back after we've thought about lots of possibilities and that we really
shouldn't choose our first solution to any problem.
[00:09:15] We need creative confidence.
, [00:09:16] We need to believe in our ability to come up with lots of ideas, and we want
to
really avoid anchor problems.
✔✔building a compass - ✔✔Workview: philosophy of work - What is work for and why
do you do it?
Lifeview: idea about how the world works - What gives life meaning? How is it valuable?
How does your life relate to others?
Coherency: living in alignment with your values and have not sacrificed your integrity
along the way. Who are you? What do you believe? What are you doing?
✔✔mind mapping - ✔✔What is Mind Mapping?
Part of Wayfinding
Make a life design by choosing 3 or 4 ideas and come up with a job description.
"Camp counselor at an outdoor adventure camp on a tropical beach"
-Taking a few minutes to do free association of words and ideas related to your central
theme.
-The accountant's job description "Camp counselor at an adventure camp..."
✔✔odyssey plans - ✔✔3 Alternative Lives:
Life 1 - That thing you do
Life 2 - That thing you'd do if thing one were gone
Life 3 - If money or image were not an object
Includes:
Visual/graphical timeline
Title
Questions the alternative asks
Dashboard
✔✔good time journal - ✔✔It's important to get some feedback from people who care
about you, who are
important to you.
[00:25:18] You might choose three to six people.
These listeners should receive, reflect and amplify
Not Critique, review, advise,
(think of the last time you listened to someone's goals, or dreams...think how can I
receive their plans, reflect with them and amplify? A good tool to create better ideation
is improv and one rule of improv is yes and. You agree with what is happening in the
scene and add to it to help the scene move forward.)
Example of the different parts of the Odyssey: Invite your friends and family to do these
activities and its good to re-evaluate every few years.
Odyssey Plan measures Resources, how much you like it, your confidence, and
coherence.
