Reflection – Mind Mapping      Challenge and Selection    A client was going through a transformation needed to redesign the structure of an IT  department to adjust to new challenges and upper management directives. The manager of  that department wanted to involve his 25 employees in the redesign of the structure in order  to bring everyone’s input to the table, but also to achieve an aligned end-result that everybody  would buy into. Besides finding an overall structure which would outline responsibilities,  communication mechanisms and tasks, some specific challenges needed to be addressed, such  as preparing for one colleagues’ retirement, the relationship to surrounding departments, and  how to balance the maintenance of legacy IT with the development of new software. We also  wanted to look at both organizational issues as interpersonal relationships and team dynamics  within the department. I was asked to prepare a two-day workshop, at the end of which there  would be an action plan to implement the new structure.     The first day was spent on collecting and visualizing data (i.e. the “What Is” phase of Design  Thinking). We presented upper management directives, milestones that the department would  have to face in the next 6 months, changes in team compositions, collected input from the  employees regarding their current situation, and gained insight from different exercises we did  on team dynamics. We decided that in order to consolidate all this data and use if to redesign  the structure, we would do a mind mapping exercise on the next day.    Application    On the morning of day two, I prepared the workshop room by hanging up all the data that we  had collected the previous day up on the wall so everything would be visible to the participants.  I then handed out post-it notes to every participant and invited them to walk around the  room, highlighting and adding comments to every piece of information that stood out to them.     After 30 minutes of this individual reflection, we moved on to an “World Café” approach: I  split the participants into four groups and each gave them an outline of the current structure  of the department, asking them to discuss based on the data they had seen three questions:  1) What do you think already works in the structure? 2) What would you change? 3) What  are we missing? Each group focused on a specific part of the structure. After 20 minutes, we  would rotate the groups so that each group discussed every part of the structure, building on  the work of the previous group. In the last round, the last group would summarize and present  the discussion that they had to the plenum, consolidating their discussion to the 3-4 key  challenges and questions that they saw for that part of the structure.     After a short break, we clustered those challenges. Then, participants self-selected into  working groups that would develop solutions for each specific challenge. The mission was not  to come up with the best solution, but as many solutions as they could. They would note  down these solutions on post-its. After the group work phase, we came back into the plenum  and clustered solutions, prioritized and rated them and distributed responsibilities for  following them up after the workshop, which then was noted down as an action plan.

Insight and Approach    Having taken this course on Design Thinking, I would approach the workshop in a more  insight- and less solution-focused way, i.e. more clearly separating the “What Is” from the  “What if” phase of Design Thinking. While the first two steps (collection of the data and  setting up the “gallery” for participants to view the data) where in line with the mind mapping  approach, instead of formulating clear insights and design criteria, we looked at the existing  structure and very quickly moved into coming up with solutions. This narrowed the room for  innovative solutions too much and didn’t offer space for the most creative ideas. Therefore, I  would now alter the process with the new insights that I have gained from this course:

1) Instead of focusing on the existing structure in the “World Café” approach, I would

ask participants, in 4-5 groups, to come to a blank page and share and cluster the notes  they have taken of the data, truly drilling down to the key insights they have gained and  developing a real mind map. Having collected those key insights and visualized the  connections in the shape of a mind map, I would then in the big group formulate  concrete design criteria that the new structure would have to meet.

2) Instead of only inviting the employees and their manager to redesign their own

department, I would invest in diversifying the team, e.g. also inviting upper level  management, employees from neighboring departments and experts from outside the  company to participate in the workshop. This way alignment with upper management  would already be guaranteed and the results would not be limited by the narrow frame  in which the employees are moving, but allow for more innovation by including an  outside perspective.

3) Only after abstract design criteria were formulated, I would move into the

brainstorming of concrete ideas and solutions. I would then invite participants to  cluster those ideas and set up a new workshop for developing those ideas into  executable prototypes instead of leaving them with a diffuse and extensive action plan  that demanded a lot of additional time investment from the employees.

