Name: Bilal Sajid

Mind Mapping

Challenge:

Managing the starting up and opening of a restaurant business, all by myself.   (An appropriate title would be: ‘Project manager without a project team’)   Three years ago, I was hired as a project manager by a small businessman  to manage sales and inventory of a restaurant. Turns out, construction of the  restaurant has just begun. It was a long way from its first opening. Since, it was  a small business restaurant, I found it intriguing to see the whole process of the  start-up. So, I proposed to help manage the start-up by negotiating with the  business owner. The owner counted on me and handed over the entire project  for me handle. From exterior & interior designing to managing sales and  stocking kitchen & food supplies, I had to manage everything and time was  running out. I had been informed that only 8 months had been remaining in the  first opening. Knowing it was not a one-man job, I decided to take on the  challenge to gain experience.

Name: Bilal Sajid

Selection:   Given a vast variety of different tasks with dependencies related to restaurant  design and stocking inventory, I decided to use mind-mapping as a way to  organize all the work. The visualization aspect of mind-mapping helps to keep  track of tasks/activities and the order of completion for each of them.  (Mind mapping) I initiate by placing the main task in center and then divide it  into sub-tasks. Sub-tasks are ordered in hierarchically. I start working on the  lowest order activities and work my way up from there. Mind mapping is best  suited for me as it is a way to link key tasks using images, and lines to link them  according to their relations.    Moreover, mind mapping is a powerful apparatus for taking notes and for better  agreement and learning information. It is easy to utilize while examining or  consolidating any given task in life.       Application:   In the beginning, I assessed the work under construction to see which tasks are  being done and what is left. I separated the dependent and independent tasks  so I can manage them more efficiently. Given a time crunch of 8 months, I opted  to pursue a Scrum approach to the project. As, I did not have any particular  team to work with, I decided to push myself to the limits to see how much work I  can get done. I arranged 3 face-to-face meetings with the business owner each  week. Moreover, secondary conversation was done on phone and on  WhatsApp. I arranged plumbers, painters, safety regulators during construction.  I had the duty of arranging the required supplies for these jobs as well. So I  listed them all and linked them in a hierarchy using an online Mind Mapping  software tool. In the face-to-face meetings, the business owner would select  designs of materials and assign me to look for them and inform him. In doing so,  he would also advise me about the budget. So, I had to manage cost for the  purchases as well. I used Microsoft Excel to manage all numerical data.  A few months pass and the restaurant construction work gets finished. All this  time I enjoyed the knowledge and experience gain in surveying markets for  construction material and designing. BUT I knew that my work has just begun,  for which I was hired for, i.e. to manage sales and inventory of a restaurant.  The restaurant is finally open. In the beginning, the owner decided that it would  be better if I learn to make coffee and sandwiches as he was impressed by my  work ethics and learning capabilities. Having learned them quickly I was  unofficially a barista at the restaurant as well. Meanwhile, creating an inventory  for items, keeping track of weekly and daily purchased items, finances,  arranging and interviewing staff for hiring were some of the tasks that I had

Name: Bilal Sajid

coming. By using mind mapping, it allowed me to brainstorm faster task  completion with more efficiency. The more I used mind-mapping, the more the  business owner got impressed by my managing ability. In 2 years, the  restaurant turned into a successful business. Today, there are three branches of  the same restaurant and I am officially the manager of the first branch. Here’s a  small example of the mind map I had used.

Insight:   Mind mapping can be helped me in improving my memory and manage my  work with ease. This is because mind mapping helps visualize images and links  in our mind by drawing and adding pictures, lines and links.      Approach:   Provided that I was given plentiful tasks in hand that were co-related, choosing  mind-mapping was the appropriate decision. Basically, I had keywords and  ideas of tasks along with pictures, linked together, making the relation and order  or implementing the tasks, prominent.

