Mindful Design Lab

The Mindful Design Lab core curriculum is an experiential program involving a blend of personal reflection, mindfulness-based leadership skills, and social entrepreneurship skills.

This program is for individuals who are seeking to make a difference in the world, but who are also committed to their own personal growth and well being.

When mindfulness is applied to social innovation, it transforms the way we understand and advance change.

Conscious social change uses contemplative practice to understand change from the inside out, then applies mindfulness as a design tool in developing a social change solution. This experiential course (hosted over 6-day intensives or weekly up to 12 months), provides change leaders with the skills to invest in their own self-understanding and initiate social change mindfully, sustainably and with impact at home or abroad.

Introductory Webinar

The ECNB team discussed their mission to promote disability justice and equity. The panelists shared their personal experiences and work related to disability justice, emphasizing the need for systemic change. The conversation focused on the intersectionality of disability and race, and the importance of mindfulness in fostering personal growth and empathy.

Program Content

  • Contemplative and Personal Growth Practices

    Research is demonstrating that mindfulness practices can change the structure and functioning of our brain over time, which in turn impacts the way we understand others and solve problems. This course incorporates daily contemplative practices to harness wisdom and dissolve barriers, including: meditation, breathwork, qigong, yoga and other forms of reflective practice and movement.

  • Mindfulness Based Leadership Skills

    Mindfulness practices are particularly relevant to the ways that leaders engage with others and solve problems in their organizations and broader society. This program applies mindfulness with the purpose of developing leadership capacity.

  • Conscious Social Change Design Tools

    When leaders invest in self-awareness and integrate the tools of mindfulness into their relationships, they crack open deeper potential for innovation and longer-term sustainability. The core of the experience involves learning a series of frameworks that use mindfulness as a design tool to begin to craft social issue solutions. At the completion of the course, participants will have a draft of the major components forming a social venture plan and will have the tools to launch their non-profit, campaign or project.

ECNV's Disability Justice Mindful Design Lab 2023

Agents of Change:
Mindful Design Lab

The program will involve three in-person gatherings and weekly coaching sessions with a social entrepreneur and mindful venture design expert.  Each week, participants will be expected to engage in various personal growth or self-awareness practices and share insights from their experiences with their cohort. Teams will schedule private coaching sessions based on their pace of idea development, enabling certain teams to move through the venture planning exercises as quickly as they wish, while allowing others to have additional time as needed for venture development.


Program Phases

Phase 1

Phase 1 (March – June) will involve the skills needed for understanding the human dimensions of systemic transformation from one’s personal experience and for using mindfulness as a design tool in developing a comprehensive solution in concept.  The outcome will include a holistic venture solution including mission, vision, theory of change, program model, goals, impact measures, stakeholder engagement strategy, and an in-depth diagnostic of the root and systemic level of the chosen social issue. There will be one mandatory 2-day retreat at the beginning of Phase 1 the week of March 18.

Phase 2

Phase 2 (July) will include a process of intentional community listening sessions and the integration of stakeholder insight into the solutions design. It will also include a deep dive into wellbeing and self-care, conscious communications, and participatory engagement strategies. There will be a mandatory 2-day retreat prior to the start of Phase 2, in late June.

Phase 3

Phase 3 (August – December) will involve the operational planning process including the design of 12-month implementation plans, start up and operational budgets, creative resourcing strategies, conscious organizational design, and integration of inner leadership strategies. At the completion of Phase 3, participants will have developed a comprehensive venture plan for their first 12 months of operations. Plans submitted to ECNV by the December deadline meeting the selection criteria will be eligible for a start-up, seed-funding grant.

FAQs

  • The Mindful Design Lab core curriculum is an experiential program involving a blend of personal reflection, mindfulness-based leadership skills, and social entrepreneurship skills. This program is for individuals who are seeking to make a difference in the world, but who are also committed to their own personal growth and wellbeing. Your team will receive regular coaching sessions that will allow you to develop your idea at your own pace.

    You will be part of a cohort of three to five other Agents of Change teams. The teams will meet monthly by zoom and share weekly about their journey and personal growth. We are excited about the opportunity to build networks of support and solidarity between Agents of Change who will share this journey of mindful change together.


  • The Mindful Design Lab utilizes the Conscious Social Change methodology, a design philosophy of creative, compassionate problem-solving and solutions-building grounded in mindfulness and self-awareness.

  • Applicants do not have to have experience designing, implementing or leading a social change initiative in the past and or have started work on their solution yet. In fact, this program is tailored to support the development of new ideas and solutions from scratch. If you are already involved in an existing program or organization, it is best to apply with a new program or initiative to get the most out of the Mindful Design Lab.

  • We believe that building and carrying out a social impact intervention and venture is stronger as a team. There are so many complexities and roles. We encourage teams at various earliest  stages workng together Teams are self-organized because you know who you best work with, who you would like to collaborate with, and a who will contribute to mutual accountability and progress.  And yet, if you are just an individual visionary with an amazing idea, and have yet to build a team, you can still apply. We will help you work toward or seek support in recruiting a team to participate with you in the program.

  • The teams must be clearly led by at least one disabled person who also has other intersecting identities. For many of the reasons described in the Disability Justice and Mindful Design Lab Webinar, we want to see how people with intersecting experiences can use those experiences to power solutions. Other members of the team do not have to be from marginalized groups or be disabled.

  • The program is open to all endeavors that have a social purpose to work at the root, systemic level causes of disability justice issues. It may later take the form of a nonprofit organization or a business, or it might be a shorter-term intervention. There can be many forms, but the social impact for the benefit of people with disabilities for the sake of disability justice is what is most important.

  • We will not rule out applications from an existing organization. However, the team must be led by a person with a disability and intersecting identities.  The social issue focus of the project must arise from lived experience and injustice around an issue defined by the team leadership and the venture must benefit people with disabilities. Since this program is an incubator, applicants should be prepared to work on a new initiative that can be designed from scratch through the program.  

  • The Mindful Design Lab is a facilitated process with weekly coaching sessions that involves both mindfulness and strategic thinking to create a social justice venture from scratch. This will require a serious investment of time and thought.

    We are not certain that teams will be able to benefit from the program unless they put in the time and effort required by this process. We will therefore require that selected teams are able to attend the in-person gatherings. The first in-person gathering is scheduled for two full days on March 18 and 19. The other gatherings will be scheduled for times that work for the facilitators and the teams. If selected for an interview, one of the questions will be whether the team can commit to these two dates.

  • We welcome all applications.  We will make every effort possible to provide accommodations based on a disability, chronic health or mental health condition.

  • Ventures that have been designed during the Mindful Design Lab and are not ready to implement can apply for funding in a future round when they are ready to move forward. Our intention is that everyone who applies to the program intends to design ventures that they will actually initiate. Phase 1 allows participants to complete a concept design. Phase 2 allows for a guided process of community engagement to refine the idea and complete a pitch presentation. Phase 3 allows for the development of a complete venture plan for the first year of operation. There are limited places in the program, and so we are eager to reserve this opportunity for those who would be willing to move throughout the entire program to completion.