Reflection example / visualization tool

Challenge

I want to design a digital transformation plan in which all university units are involved, such as the  department of pedagogical innovation, the department of quality in education, the department of  technology, the director of the business administration program, and the vice president of the  University.

For me, it is important that the plan is designed in a collaborative way since digital transformation has to  do with a change in mentality, which implies a cultural change.

Application

I called them to a two-hour meeting where I told them to write in sticky notes what they believed  should be the main improvements and digital transformation actions that the university should carry out  in the short term. They could write up to three ideas. Then they could stick the ideas on a whiteboard.  This first activity took 30 minutes.

In a second activity, I wrote keywords (with the corresponding drawings) in a second whiteboard such  as Cybersecurity, Bigdata, Cloud-computing, Blockchain, User experiences (UX).

In a second 30-minute activity, they had to go to the area where the two boards were and move the  sticky note from the first board to the second, placing each idea in the corresponding category.

They had to talk among them to agree on which category put any idea.

They were even free to move stick notes put in one category to another.

In the end, the ideas were put in each of the correspondings categories.

In the final hour, we take the ideas from each of the categories and vote on which ones we should be  prioritized. In the end, we have a road to start with our digital transformation plan.

Insight

It helped a lot that from the beginning the group had the two whiteboards in front. Board number 1  was totally empty, board number 2 had pictures alluding to the different categories where the sticky  notes should be placed at the end; there were drawings that graphically spoke of cybersecurity,  blockchain, Big Data, Fintech. That made the group understand the activity.

Finally, the digital transformation plan that was implemented was the one that we all agreed on.

The visualization tool helped me to better communicate the project, to integrate the stakeholders  through an agreed roadmap. We believe that we are going well towards digital transformation in the  university.

