Challenge

When discussing a complex topic, for example, a process which involve cross functions  department, a new product design, a new lab setting, etc, it’s quite hard to get all participants full  attention, and catch everyone’s key opinion, if we only sit in a meeting room and just talk in the  air.

The meeting efficiency is quite low, and everyone feel frustrated and tired after a long  discussion. The good ideas are missing or mis-understanding.

Selection:

Visualization tool is selected in my discussion of MAE (Machinery and Equipment) planning  process. The process is related with a lot of stakeholders from different departments, and has  several milestones to achieve. With drawing diagrams and the workflow on whiteboard, I assume  participants can be more engaged in the discussion and open-minded to raise their questions or  opinions.

Application:

I invited 10 participants from different departments to a meeting room with white board. Firstly,  I sketched a simple diagram of the current process and marked the open points we have due the  new organization set-up. Then I asked the participants to raise their ideas with explanation by  drawing. In the beginning, there were storming ideas which stands for different perspective. But  everyone could catch the point quickly because of the visible diagram. In the end, we worked out  a clear diagram which show the whole MAE planning process. Every stakeholder’s RASIC is  also shown clearly diagram. The meeting is quite efficient, we print the diagram (thanks to the  technology, our white board is directly linked with a printer) and attach this as a meeting minutes  and agreement.

Insight:

The first insight of using visualization is that this tool increased discussion efficiency of a  complex problem. People are more engaged and motivated to express their ideas when drawing  on the white board. Visualization makes things more clear for other people to understand your  point.

Secondly, it moves “mysteries” forward. We are easily to be blocked by a complex topic and  afraid to take a step. Visualization tool gives us time to understand the problem. We can work  out the possibilities before having a perfect solution.

Approach: Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you  selected or a different one -- and the reason(s) why.

I will apply the visualization tool more in my future work. Not only the meetings of a specific  problem, but also a larger workshop like business strategy. I believe if we use visualization tool

for a strategy workshop, the output is more visible. Other employees who didn’t join the  management workshop could understand the strategy better.

