Mind Mapping

Challenge    My organisation had a very complex and misaligned business process which aimed at the  technological connection of client software and infrastructure to our software. This  integration process includes multiple steps and stakeholders – the client’s agent, our  business development team, customer success agents, technical team. The technical  execution of the integration process relied on the initial client interview and our  understanding of their technology, so failure to collect the initial information made the  technical on-boarding very difficult due to wrong assumptions and unforeseen pitfalls. My  task was to redesign the business process by taking into consideration all users’ perspective  and needs and deliver a workflow that ensured effective collaboration between the team  and clear accountability and escalation routes.

Selection    I chose mind mapping as a tool as it helped me to organise all the information I collected  from all the collaborators in the process and draw insights. The goal – successful client  infrastructure integration - stood in the centre of the map and from it branched out various  paths which illustrated the journey of each individual agent involved, including the client.

Application    I choose a case study – a project that we were on-boarding and placed the desired outcome  in the middle.  Then I looked into the status of all project milestones and steps in between.  Those steps were part of workstreams that involved particular department collaboration.  With their help, I laid down the steps and desired outcomes which became a branch of the  mind map. This was applied for all workstreams and I was able to see clearly the whole  process, from all points of view, with all department and parties’ aspirations,  communication and timing pitfalls. I was able to identify some very concrete areas that  required immediate attention and improvement: team alignment and synchronisation –  everybody involved in the project had to be on the same page; timeliness of information  and knowledge input – some technical steps required the availability of certain information  in advance, otherwise there were delays in the execution, thus the technical team had to  outline very specifically what they needed in order the client to provide it in a timely  manner; roles and responsibilities – all team members involved in the project had to be very  clear who is their point of contact, at any point in time, in order to address urgent matters.

Insight    As the process was not defined, messy and too many people were collaborating on too  many levels and the results of their work impacted the overall process in many different  ways and in different times, the mind mapping helped me to gather and visualise the  insights in a very structured way  in order to grasp the whole thing and not miss anything or  anybody. What is more, the mind map helped me draw connection and group activities  within the process due to the fact that all was there in front of me in a very digestible  format. As all team members who were involved in the project participated in the creation  of the mind map, at different stages, they could easily read it too and grasp the idea and  fully comprehend the desired course of action that was suggested after brainstorming. They  owed it.

Approach    Storytelling was probably the more appropriate tool for this project due to the fact that  there were multiple team members involved, multiple clients, and each one of them  experienced the work in a different way, there were common obstacles but when seen and  narrated from different perspective, might be much more powerful and impactful in the  transformation process. In other words, the human factor – people’s personal experience,  what they make out of it and how they share it with others - is ultimately the biggest and  strongest agent of change.

