Mind Mapping    Challenge  One of the biggest challenges in large companies is the collaboration  between areas even knowing that everyone is there for the same purpose,  which is to deliver the best solution to customers. We usually see areas  focused on annual targets and forget to look at the neighboring area to join  efforts or individuals proposing new projects that go beyond their daily  obligations.    I lead an open innovation platform in a multinational company which the  main goal is co-creation projects focused on new digital solutions for our  clients, putting together multidisciplinary teams to build new products and  business models.    Selection  I am a strong supporter of design thinking application to solve complex  problems and I chose the mind mapping tool to support my final  assignment due the challenge mentioned above.    Application  We have an intrapreneurship program and with the COVID-19 scenario has  been challenging to bring together large groups online, giving they voice  and capture group consensus. One way I found to solve this is through mind  mapping tool. I've come up with this tool in my daily work and I've been  discovering the power it has.    The images below are screenshots of recent workshops mediated by me,  focused on mind mapping and clustering of ideas. Each session had around  10-20 people online from different locations, areas and expertise. Using  mind mapping we were able to give voice to all the attendees who  contributed with different ideas and then we grouped similar ones and  reflected the results as a group.    I have also used this technique in my personal life. Whenever I have a  complex topic to solve, I take a sheet of paper, a pen and write that topic in  the center. From there I let the ideas flow and the connections are coming  up. The next step is move it to a priority matrix and after an action plan.  I've had excellent results.

Insights  The results of above initiatives have already shown excellent results and a  lot of other areas are coming to us asking to apply the same methodology  to help them solve their biggest challenges.  Design Thinking is my favorite agile methodology, from understanding the  problem to prototyping.   The more I use the mind mapping tool, more I see it's potential. I have  encouraged colleagues, friends, and relatives to adopt this tool for  professional and personal uses.

Approach  The home office has challenged everyone to stay focused and engaged in  activities that demand long periods online. I have noticed that very long  dynamics lose the participants' engagement from the 2nd hour onwards,  therefore, as a lessons learned, I’m going try shorter and more objective  dynamics. I've also noticed that where groups are very large some people  are shy about contribute or I don't realize they're not interacting as much,  so as an improvement I'm going to test smaller groups in separate rooms  so everyone has their voice space.

