Work Better Together
Hey there 👋,
my name is Jochen and I am a Facilitator, Design Thinking Coach and Tech Host for online events based in East-Germany working globally with a passion for working better together: With more connection, collaboration, creativity, inclusion and fun!
At Forum ViA I design and facilitate learning programs to empower the youth and young changemakers to act towards climate action.
I am an alumni of the initiative Summer of Pioneers and joined a group of around 20 people to revive the lovely small town Herzberg (Elster). With a team of 7 people we founded a spin-off called LandWerft i.G.e.V and we are currently in the process of building a local innovation lab.
More updates on that soon on landwerft.org!
I am also a freelance lecturer at the HPI School of Design Thinking (aka the D-School) in Potsdam and coach multidisciplinary student teams through Design Thinking projects that aim to tackle complex challenges in close collaboration with corporations, startups, NGOs or political institutions.
Interested in my services or collaborations?
👉 Free to reach out to me!
Services
Workshop Facilitation – Navigation through complexity
Facilitation means leading a group to a goal.
As a faciliator I guide you, your team or organization through participatory workshops. You’ll gain more clarity by understanding the challenges you’re currently facing and I’ll empower all participants to develop meaningful solutions.
I design and facilitate workshop experiences that work online or face-to-face on location.
Example topics:
- Design Thinking Sprints
- Innovation Projects
- Co-Design / Co-Creation Workshops
- Purpose, Value & Strategy, Vision, Mission
- Team Building & Development
- Team Retreats
- Retrospectives & Process Reflection
- Participatory Events
Trainings – Tools for Transformation
I run introductory workshops and in-depth trainings in Design Thinking and agile work approaches.
I’ll guide you through trainings where you learn and experience Design Thinking with hands-on projects.
I design and run my trainings online or face-to-face on location.
Example topics:
- Introduction to Design Thinking (Human-Centered Design / Life-Centered Design)
- Brainstorming Techniques
- Boosting creative confidence & innovation capacity
- Applied User Research
- Advanced Prototyping Techniques
- Digital Prototyping
- Introduction to Remote Collaboration
- Feedback
Tech Host for Online and Hybrid Events
Want to have engaging and interactive virtual meetings, workshops or events with less stress on your part?
As a Facilitator and Trainer I know first hand the value of an experienced and reliable technical support team, that is magically running everything behind-the-scenes, so you can focus on what you’re best at: Presenting your content, presentating an engaging speech, running your workshop, interviewing your guests or interacting with your participants.
Whatever it is, I got your back and help you to setup and manage all the technical details, so you can run your virtual and hybrid experience more smoothly, more relaxed and with presence for other people.
I can help you with:
- Consulting for virtual / hybrid workshops and event design, pre-production & planning
- Setting up Zoom (or other conferencing tools)
- Setting up video & audio streams
- Sharing & playback of presentation slides, pictures, videos, sound effects, music and whatever is needed to make your event more engaging
- Managing breakout rooms / waiting rooms
- Welcoming guests
- Chat support
- Sharing polls & quizes
- Technical onboarding & support for participants
- Running virtual warm-ups & energizer with participants to keep them engaged
- Creating multimedia elements like virtual backgrounds, teaser / intro videos or animations in close collaboration with professional media & video producers
References
“Thanks to the digital facilitation the “National German Olympics” in China, a digital language competition for young students, we not only have talked about fun – competition – fairness, but were also able to experience it in the digital world. With reliability and creative ideas, not only the participants of the competition, but also we as organizers had a new experience and are motivated to create more digital events like this.”
Natalie Wagner
Teaching Expert, Goethe-Institut China (June 2022)
Virtual Event Design & Hosting
National German Olympics 2022
“Jochen designed a mini-workshop on feedback giving and receiving that was full of little nuggets of wisdom, practical advice, tried and tested feedback techniques, and moments to share and practice. All this within one hour! Thank you for adjusting your format to our needs. Most importantly, thank you for your openness, for your ability to listen and pick up on what was important for our group, and for helping us tackle a sensitive topic with humour and grace!”
Catia Dawood
Senior People & Culture Lead, Kiron Open Higher Education gGmbH (May 2022)
Workshop Facilitation
Topic: How to give & receive feedback
“Jochen supported us professionally and sympathetically at our annual TFF day: From the analysis of what we want and need, to the implementation in a suitable agenda, to the moderation of the day itself. Many thanks!”
Anna Schwanhäußer
Executive Board, Together for Future e.V. (January 2022)
Workshop Facilitation
Topic: Team Building & Introduction to Design Thinking
“Many thanks for the great collaboration, Julia, Hannah, Jochen and Norman! A delightful, educational workshop on founding start-ups and entrepreneurship for our young, motivated project groups from all over East Asia. Sophisticated design, creative execution – entertaining and rich in content. (…)”
Heidi Storandt
Teaching Expert, Goethe-Institut Korea (October 2021)
Virtual Workshop Facilitation
Topic: Hands-on workshop on “Impact”
“Jochen’s workshop was full of energy and life. It was a very practical, hands-on introduction to design thinking for us. We had a lot of fun in a professionally led workshop and were able to explore further questions on the topic with Jochen afterwards. The two hours flew by and the participants are now equipped with a lot of practical experience on the Design Thinking process. We would like to recommend Jochen wholeheartedly!”
Maike Voß & Ariane Schulz
dasJungeTraining (June 2021)
Virtual Workshop Facilitation
Topic: Introduction to Design Thinking
“Jochen offered our NGO‘s team already several facilitation, coaching and training sessions on- and offline and I can only look back with extreme gratitude. (…) From getting our whole team on board regarding our vision, mission and year planning to using digital tools like Mural and Trello to keep the motivation and workflow high for our remote collaboration, Jochen‘s support made a tremendous difference for our work! In fact, without Jochen, our NGO‘s work would not be as efficient and fun as it is. (…) I highly recommend him to any other organisation who would like to boost their work and (remote/digital) collaboration!“
Valentina Aversano-Dearborn
Co-Founder & Director, Forum ViA (January 2020)
Workshop Facilitation & Organizational Development
Topics: Team Building, Design Thinking, Collaboration & Knowledge Management
