MAKING SENSE OF YOURSELF

A Workshop Series in Developing a Personal Information Architecture 
 

This course is exploring a key question of effective peership:

How do we make sense of ourselves?

Whether you are seeking community, taking on unconventional roles, changing careers mid-stream, finding a new role or determining how to move up in the role you currently have – you need a clear, strong sense of self. 

Sense of Self: Your perception of the pieces that define you. 

Along with cultivating a clear sense of self, you also need to be able to confidently make choices about what paths to pursue given your own values and mission - this is your personal information architecture.

Developing a personal information architecture is hard, but critical sensemaking work. Work that many people de-prioritize in favor of messes they get paid to solve. Yet this critical mess of not having a clear or strong enough sense of self can get in the way of so many of our goals, both personally and professionally. 

MEET YOUR GUIDES

ALFI OLOO & ABBY COVERT 

Abby Covert is an information architect with 20 years experience making sense of messes and teaching others how to do the same. She has written two books, How to Make Sense of Any Mess, a beginner’s guide to information architecture and Stuck? Diagrams Help. a field guide for the trek from diagram novice to diagram nerd.

Alfi Oloo is a self-taught product designer with a deep specialization in design systems. As a co-host of the "Edit Undo Podcast" and a trailblazing advocate for mentorship. Alfi introduced his innovative approach to mentorship—melding psychology and performance coaching—on the TEDx Pretoria stage in 2022, marking the start of a new chapter in his Professional Journey.

"This course was inspired by us forming a peership during a time of radical change for each of us."

 

Abby and Alfi met in 2022 while preparing for Makesensemess 22. They formed a self-proclaimed peership in early 2023 and have spent this year getting to know themselves, in an effort to get to know one another.

This course is centered on the thesis of their peership: helping you get to know yourself to get more value from peership, mentorship and self-directed education.

They have tested the tools used in this course, not just on themselves but on their friends and unsuspecting loved ones -- as well as some recruited test users. Don't worry we hit record, and those videos are part of the course materials.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

Making Sense of Yourself is a 12-week intensive course in self-directed learning and exploration co-taught by Abby Covert and Alfi Oloo.

A small cohort of students will embark on a process of self discovery using a combination of self reflection, live interactive workshops and weekly group coaching. 

 Section 1: Learning About Yourself

In the first section of this course, you will be guided through a self discovery process of taking an inventory of yourself through introspective activities.

During this section you will:

  • Draw your own personal timeline 
  • Identify what you're good at and draw energy from
  • Map opportunities in your community to roles in which you might serve and grow in

 

 Section 2: Asking About Yourself

In this next section we will give you the tools needed to engage, and interview your current support system to help you get to know yourself better.

During this section you will:

  • Identify people to connect (or reconnect) with
  • Learn how to request, interview, and reflect on what other people tell you about you
  • Interview others to get to know yourself better

 

Section 3: Exploring Your Mission & Values

Armed with a better understanding of yourself, this second section of the course is focused on helping you to establish a mission and outline the values you will use to guide yourself on that mission. 

During this section you will:

  • Explore words to express your mission
  • Write a clear mission statement  
  • Learn how to guide decisions to stay on mission
  • Identify a set of values you feel align with your future vision
Section 4: Talking About Yourself

One of the hardest muscles to work is the audacity to talk about yourself. This next section of the course is all about giving you the tools and opportunities to talk about yourself with other folks who are getting vulnerable and are doing the same. 

During this section you will:

  • Connect with a cohort of people going in a similar direction as you
  • Practice talking about yourself with strangers
  • Engage with strangers to look for the right match for a limited peer mentorship assignment
Section 5: Projecting Your Path

This final section focuses on the tools to meet your planning with action. Also after spending 12 weeks working on yourself, we want to make room for you to toot your horn a bit to your peers.

During this section you will will be partnered with a peer to:

  • Create a self directed learning plan
  • Receive instruction in establishing a safe and effective peer mentorship relationship
  • Assess your progress in establishing a vision and mission
  • Improve how you communicate with strangers when representing yourself
  • Present your progress to your fellow sensemakers in our closing showcase
 

WHO IS THIS COURSE DESIGNED FOR?

We only recommend this course if you have the time and space in your life at this time to do some deep exploration into yourself. We are looking for a small group of thoughtful, self-aware people who are willing to share and grow alongside a cohort of folks with a similar intention. 

You will get the most from this course if you are …

  • Seeking direction outside your professional goals
  • Taking on an unconventional role
  • Pivoting your directional focus
  • Changing your career mid-stream and looking to connect prior experience with future goals
  • Specializing or focusing in on parts of your current role
  • At a crossroads on a decision about your direction 
 

OBJECTIVES

Abby and Alfi designed this course to help you:

  1. Gain a clearer perspective on your experience, strengths and community
  2. Establish a mission and set of values to drive your future decision-making
  3. Learn how to talk about yourself with strangers
  4. Understand what it means to let others talk about themselves
  5. Identify a self-directed learning plan 
  6. Play with the idea of structured peership
BY THE END OF THIS COURSE

YOUR PERSONAL IA WILL INCLUDE:

ARE YOU READY TO

MAKE SENSE OF YOURSELF

All ticket levels receive the exact same student experience. Registration for this course includes:

  • Access to weekly office hours 12/4/23 thru 2/19/24
  • Self reflection exercises and templates designed by Abby and Alfi to complete between workshops
  • Video content  to support all exercises, including pre-recorded examples from real people doing this work
  • 4 LIVE workshops with Abby & Alfi (Dates are below, all workshops will be 12 - 2 PM Eastern)

Learn About Yourself

Learn about the introspective work to come, and start to practice telling our life story to strangers.

Explore Mission & Values

Explore tools to help you vocalize and then make decisions based on your mission and values

Talk About Yourself

Pair with other students to share what you have learned about yourself and what you still struggle with

Project Your Path

Showcase where you want to head with the work you have done on yourself

Join the Waiting List

We have already filled our first cohort but we are already thinking about when it makes sense to run this program again. If you want to be notified when we do, please opt into our waiting list via the form below.

 

A few questions we would be asking if we were you...