15 min · Individual then Pairs · Works on screen or whiteboard
Instructions
Choose one real workflow from your organization — something you run weekly. Map it into the 8 steps below. Write each step as it actually happens, not how it was designed.
For each step, click the flag icon to mark whether it's a stress trigger. Then select which trigger type applies using the buttons below the map.
In pairs, compare maps. Where do your stress flags cluster? What pattern does that reveal about your organization's design assumptions?
Together, pick the highest-stress step and sketch one redesign using the 5 trauma-informed criteria from the infographic.
Your Workflow Map — Click 🔴 to Flag a Stress Step
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Step 01
Start / Trigger
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Step 02
First Action
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Step 03
Decision / Review
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Step 04
Handoff
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Step 05
Approval Loop
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Step 06
Revision / Wait
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Step 07
Final Check
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Step 08
Close / Deliver
Tag Your Biggest Stress Trigger Types
What pattern did you find?
Your One Redesign
Activity Timer
15:00
Facilitator Tip
Ask participants: "Is the workflow you mapped the one in your SOP manual, or the one your team actually runs?" The gap is always instructive.
Visual Learners Need
To see the system spatially. Mapping externalizes what feels overwhelming into something that can be examined, pointed to, and changed. The visual is the insight.
02
Kinesthetic Learners
Process Autopsy — Diagnose a Broken Workflow
18 min · Small Groups (3–4) → Report Out
Instructions
In groups of 3–4, choose one workflow from your organizations that is known to be frustrating, slow, or often bypassed. You are going to perform an autopsy — documenting exactly how it fails and why.
Complete the Process Autopsy Table below for each step of the workflow. Rate the stress load (1–10) and identify the trigger type.
For each step with a stress score above 6, write one specific redesign recommendation using the CLRVA criteria.
Present your top two findings to the full group. Vote on which redesign recommendation would have the highest impact if implemented tomorrow.
Process Autopsy Table
Workflow Step
Stress Score /10
Trigger Type
Redesign Recommendation
Your Group's #1 Recommendation
Activity Timer
18:00
Facilitator Tip
The highest stress scores will almost always be at handoff points and approval loops. These are where organizational distrust is most visibly embedded in process design.
Kinesthetic Learners Need
To work with real material. An autopsy of an actual workflow they live daily gives them immediate stakes — and the satisfaction of diagnosing something they've felt but never been able to name.
03
Reflective Learners
Worker Empathy Map — See the Process Through Their Eyes
12 min · Individual Silent Reflection · Private
Instructions — This Is a Perspective Shift Exercise
Think of one frontline worker or team member who runs a process you designed or inherited. Hold them specifically in mind — their name, their role, their face.
Complete the empathy map from their perspective. Write what they think, feel, hear, and do as they navigate the workflow — not what you imagine they should experience, but what they likely actually do.
After completing all four quadrants, answer the synthesis question below. This is for your own reflection — share only what you choose to.
What They THINK
What is running through this person's mind as they navigate this process? What questions do they have that go unanswered?
What They FEEL
What emotions arise at each stage of the workflow? Where do they feel trusted or distrusted, seen or invisible?
What They HEAR
What messages does the process itself send about how the organization views them and their work? What do they hear from colleagues about this workflow?
What They DO
What workarounds have they created? What do they do differently from the documented process? Where do they quietly resist or route around the system?
Synthesis — The Hardest Question
Activity Timer
12:00
Facilitator Tip
"Workarounds are your most valuable data." When people build workarounds, they are showing you where the official process fails them — without ever filing a complaint.
Reflective Learners Need
Permission to slow down and feel their way into the material. The empathy map creates structured emotional processing that opens insight that data alone cannot reach.
04
Analytical Learners
Redesign Scorecard — Rate Before & After
15 min · Individual → Pairs → Report Findings
Instructions
Choose a workflow you've worked on in today's session. Rate it against each of the 5 trauma-informed redesign criteria using the star rating below (1–5 stars).
For each criterion where you rated 3 stars or below, write one specific, implementable change that would raise it by 2 stars within 30 days.
Calculate your Total Trauma-Informed Score (max 25). Share with a partner — discuss what would need to happen organizationally to move your lowest-rated criterion to 5 stars.
Criterion
Current Score
Target (30 days)
One Specific Change
Clear — Every step has a defined owner & outcome
★★★★★
Lean — No step exists without demonstrated value
★★★★★
Respectful — Process signals trust in the people doing it
"Voiced" is almost always the lowest score. Use this to open a conversation about who has been excluded from process design — and what it costs the organization to keep excluding them.
Analytical Learners Need
A rubric. Numbers give analytical learners something to work with, compare, and argue about — which is exactly the productive friction that drives insight and commitment to change.