Challenge

I am a student in the sixth semester of my health and tourism studies. I am currently writing  my bachelor thesis. For my bachelor thesis I work with a physiotherapy practice where I  introduce a quality management system. What this practice also lacked was a guiding  principle. So it was also my job to create a mission statement for this practice. I have long  considered how I can accomplish this task and decided in the end to do a workshop with the  employees of the management department.

Selection

In my workshop, I decided to work with visualization. It has always been easier for me to  work when I see things and when something is interactive, especially when it comes to  working things out. So not everything takes place completely in my head but things that  take place in my head can be released and made accessible to others. I have also found that  it is much more efficient if I can let my thoughts out and give others the opportunity to  continue working with them. I have also had the experience that it is much easier for me to  follow the professors in my university when they stand in front of a whiteboard and, above  all, record more complex issues in their lectures. Angela Myer says in her lecture on  visualization that it is particularly important when it comes to the concept development  phase. I had exactly this experience in my workshop with the physiotherapists.

Application

Back to my workshop. Before the actual workshop, i.e. the elaboration of the mission  statement content, started, I gave a short lecture about what a mission statement is and  what possibilities it offers us. I used a whiteboard for visualization (see picture)

After my short lecture, I went straight to processing the mission statement content for  which I ultimately chose the brainstorming method. I gave cards to every workshop  participant and asked them to take 10 minutes and write down all possible topics for which  they think guiding principles are required. After the 10 minutes had passed I collected all the  cards and spread them out on the floor. Then came the best part of this method. We all  gathered above the cards and as a team, we moved the cards back and forth completely  interactively in order to summarize them in subject areas. The good thing was that everyone  could get involved.

After we had finished, we summarized the topics on a whiteboard and put some order in it.

Insight

I have to say that I really had a very good personal experience in this workshop. So far I was  only in the position that I can say through lectures by others that I personally find  visualization good. Now I was on the other side and had a good experience again. At first I  was skeptical whether I could motivate the employees to contribute, especially when  brainstorming. I think I was very lucky that the team members were so open to the task and  got involved.

Approach

I can't say that I would do something different next time. I think this method is ideal for  developing content on certain topics or for generating ideas in general. However, people  have to cooperate, otherwise it won't work. The next time I would prepare myself even  better for how I can motivate people to work if they are actually more pessimistic. I wasn't  prepared for this case.  Maybe it would be nice to combine the visualization with a mind map next time.

