Happy Creative Hours with Yiying Lu
Why?
Due to the pandemic, people are increasingly siloed and isolated from one-another working at home through video conferencing these days.
Loneliness, lack of in-person connection, and “Zoom fatigue” all contribute to the growing drain felt by everyone stuck working at home for long hours.
Overworked amidst lack of change in the physical environment, people seldom are given opportunities to flex their creative muscles. They also feel an increasing need to activate to recharge the creative side of their brain amidst their long hours focused on more structured tasks their jobs require from them.
Who?
This program is created and led by Award-winning designer and TEDx Speaker, Yiying Lu. Yiying has been named one of the “Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business”, a “Top 10 Emerging Leader in Innovation” by Microsoft, and a winner of Shorty Awards in Design. She has also worked as a creative director at 500 startups. She brought design education and practice into the venture capital community, which helped hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives raise millions for the companies and shape up to contribute. She was the first global Creative Collaborator for IDEO Shanghai, where she debuted her first human-centered co-create design program in the corporate environment. Since then, she has been running similar workshops with larger corporations such as Apple, Salesforce, and Google.
Having worked with hundreds of startup founders and larger corporations, Yiying noticed a common thread in great team culture across these businesses: a strong emphasis on People First. Through this, she ensures creating engaging experiences to connect people, empower people, and inspire people.
How?
The length of the program:
Two options: 15 people for 1.5 hours OR 20 people for 2 hours
The structure of the program:
Part 1: Introduction: Yiying leads a pop-corn style introduction: e.g., Who are you? Where are you based? What’s your favorite dumpling? (20 min)
Part 2: Yiying shares her design process behind her creative work, such as how she designed the dumpling emoji, which is now used by billions of global users. (25 min)
Part 3: Yiying leads a (15-30 min) creative drawing session (no prior drawing skills required). It encourages the participants to reflect on the good and bad of their everyday work on our well-being.
Part 4: Yiying facilitates attendees sharing their completed drawings and stories with the whole group (30-60 min)
Testimonials:
“I recently attended a virtual Co-Create Workshop led by Yiying for the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area (AABA)’s in-house committee. The workshop was fun, engaging, and thoughtful. It allowed us to use art media to reflect upon our daily work and improve our mental wellbeing. Everyone attending had a blast. We also did energy check-in before and after the event. The overall energy level rose from 5 (measured at the beginning) to 10 at the end of the event (10 being the highest). I found Yiying’s Co-Create Workshop—not only entertaining and educational—but, most importantly, therapeutic and energizing. I highly recommend that organizations and corporations look to improve their employees’/members’ morale, energy level, and mental wellbeing, which is vital towards the success of their employees/members during these trying times.”
—— David Tsai, Attorney, IP Litigation Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Former President of AABA – Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area
“I really believe that artists are a part of the continuum of science. To this, communication through art is effective to convey complicated ideas to the world. Also, the impact of the creative workshop led by Yiying Lu provided a valuable morale-boosting experience. This was very helpful as we are all stuck at home tackling many serious things, where we don’t have many moments of levity or lightheartedness. With our attention focused on this work seven days a week, it can be draining. Ultimately, this experience was both a vital and effective break from that tedium and it is very uplifting.”
—— Daria Mochly-Rosen, President & Founder of SPARK GLOBAL Translational Scientists without Borders at Stanford University School of Medicine
“Yiying recently led an energizing virtual creative design workshop with participants from around the world. Everyone felt uplift by the end of her session. I wholeheartedly recommend Yiying for her cross-cultural creative expertise, global design leadership, and co-create design workshops, which can add tremendous value to organizations and corporations for their business and corporate culture.”
—— Clive Lee, EMBA Global Asia / MSocSc / BEng Founder, Phoenix Foundation Promoting Resilience
“I’ve known Yiying for some time and have had the pleasure of working with her to organize a Drink and Draw Event for the Asian American Bar Association (AABA). Yiying hosted a fantastic workshop for the AABA In-House Committee. Working as an attorney, I don’t have much time to get in touch with my creative side. This workshop is a great stress relief from working during these crazy pandemic times. Thanks again Yiying – I highly recommend everyone to attend her events!”
—— Hai-Ching Yang Senior Corporate Counsel for Governments & Nonprofits / Industry Partnerships/ Privacy Compliance
Results:
