Designing Holidays—and Environments —that Heal, Not Harm

As the holiday season winds down, many of us breathe a sigh of relief. The decorations are packed away, the music fades, and the whirlwind of expenses and obligations comes to an end. Yet, for many, the aftermath brings its own stress—credit card bills, fatigue, and even emotional strain. The truth is, the holiday experience can carry its own form of trauma.

Trauma is far more common than we often acknowledge. Research suggests that over 70% of Americans have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. The American Psychological Association defines trauma as “any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning.”

This raises an intriguing question: What if we could design environments—whether for holidays, workplaces, or communities—that reduce trauma and even promote healing?

Despite its prevalence, trauma often goes untreated. Few who experience it receive the help they need. This gap inspired Janet Roche and Christine Cowart to take action. After meeting as volunteers at Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, they recognized the need for trauma-informed training for those working with vulnerable populations. In 2019, they co-founded the Trauma-Informed Design Society (TIDS) with a mission:

“To create physical spaces that promote safety, well-being, and healing—spaces that respect identity, worth, and dignity, and foster empowerment.”

On the latest episode of Experience by Design, we explore their framework for designing environments that minimize harm and support recovery. Janet and Christine share real-world applications—from correctional facilities to schools—and highlight Oregon’s recent mandate for trauma-informed behavioral health units, which has driven demand for their credentialing programs and continuing education courses.

Today, TIDS offers a suite of resources, including:

• Trauma-Informed Design Credentialing Courses
• Partnerships with the American Society of Interior Designers
• An evaluation tool for K-12 schools

Their next course begins January 31st. Learn more at https://www.tidsociety.com.

Janet Roche: linkedin.com/in/janetrochedesigns

Christine Cowart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-cowart-trauma-informed-consultant/

Happy New Year’s everyone!

New Year is the time of year when we build unrealistic expectations about what the huge celebration we should be part of, and what big changes we are going to make in the form of our resolutions. It is a lot to live up to, and can create a lot of pressure. All of which is why I don’t like New Year’s.

To be honest, I feel like our run of holidays go steadily downhill starting with Labor Day and ending with New Year’s Day in terms of the pressure that they create. We can get fixated on the types of experiences we should be having, and measuring what happens to often unrealistic expectations. The good news is that the only way to go is up! However your holidays went, I hope things are looking up for you.

Experiencing a lot of pressure, going down, and going back up are all great themes for this week’s guest on Experience by Design. I first learned of Henry Rausch when I found his book “Submerged: Life on a Fast Attack Submarine in the Last Days of the Cold War.” For long-time listeners, you will be familiar with my fascination with US naval history as well as the working environments of submarines. His book is a great first-person account of being deployed on a submarine, including the “ups and downs” associated with submarine life. “Submerged” is currently the #1 Best Seller on Amazon in the Biographies of the Military Navy, as well as a winner of other book awards, including First Place in Published Nonfiction at WriterCon 2025.

Hank’s second book is “How to Hotwire an Airplane: A Novel of Regret and Redemption,” and weaves together his father’s experience being a medic in the Vietnam War along with his own experiences being a pilot. The book places this in the context of US border policy its impact on those who cross the border seeking a better life.

Taken together, Hank’s work explores personal transformation under stressful and sometimes dire circumstances.

We discuss his experiences in the US Navy, and what he learned about leadership as a naval officer. He describes the months submerged while on patrol, along with the good times of being back in port. He talks about his subsequent work as an IT consultant working in satellite operation centers, and how lessons from his submarine tours informed his management style in civilian life.

Finally we talk about the lessons that learning to fly has on life. As Hank describes, when you are teaching someone to fly, you have to let them fail up to the point that they might die. He emphasizes the need to enforce high standards, and how performance and recognition will predict how much satisfaction is felt in their work.

He also teases the new book that he is working on, so we get a sneak preview of that as well.

Henry Rausch: https://henryrausch.com/

“Submerged: Life on a Fast Attack Submarine in the Last Days of the Cold War”: https://www.amazon.com/Submerged-Life-Fast-Attack-Submarine-ebook/dp/B0DN8CFV3S

“How to Hotwire an Airplane: A Novel of Regret and Redemption”: https://www.amazon.com/How-Hotwire-Airplane-Henry-Rausch-ebook/dp/B0DHV4VVHX

Happy holidays once again! This is being aired the day after Christmas, or on Boxing Day for those who are in places that do a thing called Boxing Day. I guess it has something to do with giving boxes, or having boxes, or maybe relatives boxing one another after spending time together over the holidays. Whatever it is, hope you have a happy one.

The actual origins, according to Wikipedia, seems to be around the mid 1700s when “traditionally on this day tradespeople, employees, etc., would receive presents or gratuities (a ‘Christmas box’) from their customers or employers.” So maybe one of the earlier manifestations of customer and employee experience.

One of the things that I love about doing experience design is how relatively small things can make someone feel like a superhero. Little acts of experience design can make a big difference in people’s days and even their lives. And isn’t that what it is all about, including the holidays? Whatever you believe or don’t believe regarding the holidays, being mindful of extending small acts of kindness or doing something that is relatively simple to make a huge impact.

Which is a perfect thing to keep in mind for our show today. My guest on Experience by Design is Erika Sinner. Erika brings a lot of compassion and empathy to the world. In fact, she prefers the title of Chief Empathy Officer. Her book Pets are Family emphasizes the importance of pet bereavement policies in organizations. This is just one part of her efforts to bring more empathy to the workplace. She also is the CEO and Founder of Directorie, “a(n) agency that connects seasoned commercial, marketing, and market access experts” with organizations that are under-resourced and overworked.

If that wasn’t enough, she now is the Chief Empathy Officer of Tiny Super Heroes, which makes children who are facing unique medical challenges to feel like the superheroes that they are. As their website states, “We’re setting out to transform hospital culture - one hospital at a time - because every child’s clinical journey should be filled with strength, hope, and a little more fun.”

As part of Tiny Super Heroes, children get their own superhero capes and get badges to mark the medical treatments they receive as well as other accomplishments. It is all at no cost, and made possible through the donations of individuals and organizations, and aims to reach all 226 children's hospitals in the country.

We talk about Erika’s personal journey and struggles that led her to her work as a founder Directorie and now CEO of Tiny Super Heroes. We also talk about the importance of play in the workplace as a way of creating a sense of safety and trust. Talking about culture as a leader isn’t enough; leaders need to take the necessary steps to create a place where employees don’t dread Sunday nights because they have to go to work on Monday. She discusses the importance of company culture and employee commitment in attracting top talent, especially for Gen Z and Gen Alpha who prioritize making a difference.

Erika discusses the positive impact of the Tiny Super Heroes program on children with medical conditions, highlighting how it helps reduce anxiety and improve clinical outcomes by transforming medical experiences into fun missions. The program has online support groups for parents, which currently have around 60,000 members. Healthcare providers also benefit from the program by creating a more positive and playful environment in hospitals. In this way, it is really an experience design that impacts the healthcare ecosystem.

So on this Boxing Day, you can listen to this episode and head over to the Tiny Super Heroes website to give a gift that can make all the difference.

Erika Sinner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikasinner/

Erika Sinner Website: https://www.erikasinner.org/

“Pets are Family” Book: https://www.erikasinner.org/for-bookstore

Directorie: https://www.directorie.com/

Tiny Super Heroes: https://tinysuperheroes.com/

Happy holidays, everyone!
I’m recording this intro a week early because I’m away right now, trying to enjoy a little downtime. Knowing we have an international audience, I hope that wherever you are, you’re finding joy in whatever you’re doing. And if you’re celebrating a holiday, may your celebrations be truly joyful.

Of course, the holidays can also bring their share of conflict—often around shopping and family gatherings. Both can feel pretty daunting. Fun fact (or maybe not so fun): there’s actually a Black Friday death and injury counter. Thankfully, this past year didn’t see much in the way of serious incidents. Still, the point remains—holiday shopping can feel like a full-contact sport, and it’s not just tough on your body, but on your mental health too.

So, what better time for an episode on conflict resolution?

This episode of Experience by Design continues our tradition of featuring Canadian guests—and introduces our first guest named Gary! The name Gary has taken a few knocks lately, so what better way to restore its honor than by bringing Garys together in the service of a good cause?

Our guest, Gary Furlong, has had a distinguished career in industrial relations and conflict resolution. He also collaborates with Josh Gordon—who was just on ExD—making this the first time we’ve had a repeat guest connection. Together, they co-authored The Sports Playbook: Building Teams that Outperform Year after Year. Gary also wrote the seminal text The Conflict Resolution Toolbox: Models and Maps for Analyzing, Diagnosing, and Resolving Conflict.

In this conversation, we explore concepts of justice, and why flexibility and consistency both matter—but in different ways. We discuss why process often matters more than outcome, and how sometimes people simply want to be heard, even if they don’t get everything they want. Gary explains that conflict is really just the manifestation of competing interests—a natural part of being human. But just because it’s inevitable doesn’t mean we can’t get better at managing it.

The key is adopting a problem-solving mindset—and that’s where a skilled mediator or conflict coach can make all the difference.

So, think of this episode of Experience by Design as our small attempt to create a little peace on Earth and goodwill toward others.

Gary Furlong at the Sports Conflict Institute: https://sportsconflict.org/team_member/gary-furlong/

Gary Furlong and Agree Inc: https://www.agreeinc.com/gary-furlong

Gary Furlong on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garytfurlong

The most enjoyable part of doing the podcast is talking to a wide range of people who, regardless of their industry or role, share a common goal: making things better. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Sometimes we make things better by selling something people need. Other times, it’s by teaching them something new, creating an art installation that moves them, designing a workplace where they feel fulfilled, or building tools that make tasks easier. Whatever the approach, the mission remains the same—to make things better.

This simple goal can often get lost behind the different names our work has taken over time. Take “UX,” for example. It started as “Human Factors,” then became “Human-Computer Interaction,” and eventually evolved into “User Experience” and “Human-Centered Design.” Whatever the term, it all comes back to the same principle: improving lives. The more we keep that in mind, the better we understand what this work is truly about.

There’s a lot of talk today about creating a “Digital First” strategy. But perhaps we should think in terms of a Human First strategy—focusing on what people want, what they need, and how we can help close the gap. One of the great things about being a podcast host, educator, and thought leader in this space is providing the tools that help others create the tools people need.

My guest on this episode of Experience by Design understands what it means to elevate human potential and create “human-powered excellence.” Terry Peters discovered his passion for computers and coding through his high school football coach. Over his 20+ year career, he has helped organizations shape their digital strategies through user research, systems design, and user-focused experiences. His systems perspective emphasizes the importance of employee experience within technological and digital design—prioritizing their voices to create solutions that truly make things better.

We discuss Terry’s journey into management information systems and eventually user experience. We explore the challenges of requirements gathering, the role of AI as a supportive tool in human-centered design (rather than a replacement), and Terry’s work with Veracity, now part of RGP, where empathy is central to projects that impact employees’ work and lives.

Finally, we reflect on the ethos of user experience: improving people’s lives and making things better. By integrating diverse perspectives, we can build tools that help people achieve that goal.

Terry Peters on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terry-peters-m-s-8198b61b/

RGP: https://rgp.com/

As listeners would have heard previously, I attended a FinTech event which got me thinking about financial literacy and financial experiences. I’ve started to write some thoughts down related to that which I am posting on my Substack. You can find that at https://garycdavid.substack.com/.

This post was about financial literacy as financial inclusion, and how knowledge is power especially in relation to financial decision making for oneself. I will admit this gets tricky because it can seem like the financial game at the highest levels may be for lack of a better term ‘rigged.’ Financial literacy may not go very far when the game is a ‘heads you win, tails I lose’ proposition. Nevertheless, it is important that people understand the nature of finance and financial decision making. FinTech in its variety of forms provides an opportunity to do this. There is a lot to explore and discuss in this realm, especially in relation to the creation of financial experiences.

My guest today on Experience by Design actually has a work background in financial services. Manny Fiteni worked in wealth management and financial planning. But that’s not why we talked. Rather, we talked about his work “The Mind Congruency Effect” and how it applies to leadership and more effective employee experiences. The book and his larger body of work explore how inner obstacles keep us from achieving greater potential, which is something that we can all relate to.

Beyond that, we discuss how this also stops managers from more effectively managing. I’ve often said, “If you call people managers, that’s what they’ll do.” We discuss how this is not necessarily the best role for managers. Employees need to have levels of autonomy in which they can have agency and some level of authority over their work. But it is not just employees acting alone, but together toward a shared goal and purpose. This is why managers need to act more like community organizers and facilitators which bring people together.

However, people in management roles are rarely if ever taught those kind of skills, and why they are important.

We talk about the traits of being a high-performing leader, and what an employee-centric manager looks like. We discuss how managing is different from leading, and how the people side is more important than the technical and compliance side. We also talk about how he is creating new training and development approaches to help better prepare managers to become leaders in a more employee-centric way. And we also talk about how he was working at a bank that was robbed, and how imagining that scenario prepared him on how best to respond. Like an athlete, if you rehearse something enough times, the mind creates patterns of how best to respond.

Manny Fiteni: https://mannyfiteni.com/

Manny Fiteni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-fiteni-b0173637/

“The Mind Congruency Effect”: https://www.amazon.com.au/Mind-Congruency-Effect-Transforming-Direction/dp/1763745406/

For those listeners in the United States, a Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Thanks for being part of Experience by Design podcast and making putting on the show worthwhile and rewarding. And for those of you in Canada, Happy Belated Thanksgiving. And for those in other parts of the world, I hope you can take a moment to give thanks for whatever you feel thankful.

Giving thanks is not just something that should be reserved for one day a year. Giving gratitude should be something that we all do everyday. I know that I am trying to do so, especially for the small things in life. Gratitude is a practice like any other practice, and the more we do it, the better we can get at it. Not that I am good at it yet, but I am definitely trying to get better.

Today’s episode is about giving thanks for those who served in such a way that they were awarded the highest honor in the US military: The Medal of Honor. I welcome Alexandra Rhue (SVP, Museum Engagement and Strategic Initiatives from the National Medal of Honor Museum) and Michael Lewis (Executive Creative Director from G&A) to talk about their work in creating and developing the National Medal of Honor Museum, located in Arlington, TX.

We talk about the 3500 plus stories behind each person who was awarded the medal, but how each story comes down to the same elements of courage, sacrifice, commitment, integrity, citizenship, and patriotism. A major element of the museum is to inspire all visitors to recognize how these elements are in all of us as well. In other words, we talk about the hero that is within us all by exploring the stories and lives of those who have been recognized for their supreme valor and in many instances ultimate sacrifice.

We talk about the symbolism that is layered throughout the National Medal of Honor Museum, starting with the very architecture of the structure. We explore the ways that US society has evolved in terms of recognizing and discussing military conflict and service. Alex and Michael emphasize the ultimate goal is not just recognition, but getting people to leave with a renewed sense of service to their own communities in whatever capacity they can, and to live the values embodied in the Medal of Honor.

We also discuss the design and visitor experience of a museum and memorial. We explore the balance between immersive technology and traditional museum elements, aiming to create an emotional and personal experience. Michael and Alexandra explained the use of multimedia, including large-scale images, VR installations, and interactive projections, while emphasizing the importance of technology that enhances rather than distracts from the visitor journey. Alexandra and Michael emphasized the importance of placing visitors' perspectives at the center of storytelling, incorporating both human narratives and technological elements to enrich the visitor experience.

Alexandra Rhue: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-rhue/

National Medal of Honor Museum: https://mohmuseum.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mohmuseum/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/MohMuseum

Facebook: National Medal of Honor Museum | Arlington TX | Facebook

Michael Lewis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgelewis/

G & A: https://gallagherdesign.com/

G & A Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/g.ampersand.a/

G & A LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/g-a-strategy-and-design/

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Assistive Technology Conference of New England, put on by TechACCESS of Rhode Island. It was a great event that brought together professionals and companies that are trying to improve accessibility through technology for those with ranges of physical and intellectual challenges. Walking around, looking at the exhibits, and talking with people, I was continuously impressed by the innovation and dedication around me.

I would say it was “inspiring” but not in the way that one might usually think. The word “inspiring” can have a negative connotation in this world because it puts people with such challenges on a pedestal, as if their job is to be inspiring, or all they are is their disability, or makes people with these challenges a spectacle. Having a child who is intellectually and developmentally disabled, I totally get that argument.

When I say “inspiring”, I am referring to the people who are working and creating products in this space. It is inspiring for me to see professionals dedicate their work to improve and enhance the lives of others, no matter who that population is. That is very cool, and inspirational. No matter what job we are doing, we should be thinking of ways that we can improve the lives and experiences of others. That is what experience design and this podcast is all about: showcasing the work of those who are trying to apply their time, knowledge, and creativity to improving experiences and lives in ways large and small.

One of the things I need to do more of is highlight people who are working in the world of accessible technology. So stay tuned for that!

And my guest today on Experience by Design is doing the work to improve people’s lives as well in his own way. Like many guests on ExD, Chad Hufford of Veritas Wealth Management in Anchorage, Alaska is a behavioral scientist at heart, fascinated with what makes people act the way they do and what can be done to get them to make changes. He has applied this interest in the work he does as a financial planner.

He does this up in Alaska, focusing his efforts on those who are working in those uniquely blue-collar Alaskan jobs where high risk can come with good pay. His goal is to help them make the best decisions possible with what they earn, but also help to create cultural and behavioral change in his clients. Part of this is to get people to not just think, but to act. His new book “Forging Financial Freedom: Constructing Blue-Collar Millionaires with Seven Wealth Building Lessons Extracted from the Alaska Oilfield”, lays out his experiences and lessons from doing this work.

We talk about Chad’s fascination with fitness, and how that led him to be interested in medical school. Biochemistry taught him a lot about problem solving and complex interactions within systems. The same can be said for the financial world, where a lot is beyond your control. Despite that, you can control how you act and what your vision of your future is.

We also talk about unique aspects of Alaskan culture, overcoming complexity in financial decision making, how to build trust in financial planning, and making for better financial literacy and experiences. He emphasizes the importance of emotional connection and empathy in financial advising, and why friction is required to allow for thoughtful consideration. We explore how AI and technology can reduce friction in financial transactions but should not replace human empathy.

Chad Hufford: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-hufford-066208100/

Forging Financial Freedom: https://www.forgingfinancialfreedom.com/single

Veritas Wealth Management: https://www.veritasalaska.com/