Challenge: In my field of Work, in nonprofit organizations, we target Youth in the community to  engage in voluntary work as well as encourage them to find innovative technological and design  solutions for common problem in the community where they live. To do so, we have a huge  database of information concerning the targeted Youth. The challenge I face when applying the Mind  Mapping tool was the unstructured outdated Data. However, I worked hard to try and identify  patterns in the Data to find a group of Youth with a specific set of skills to be part of a voluntary  opportunity.

Application: I chose the Mind Mapping Tool to address my challenge because it allowed me to  brainstorm and find ways to restructure my data. I started by quickly scanning and identifying the  exact skills I need my volunteers to have to comply for the volunteering opportunity, and then  Mapped out the Database, filtering data accordingly to shrink down the sample of possible Youth to  be selected.

Once I had a reasonable sample number, I created a simple Map of skills and simple questions to  ask to categorize data and reach a final list of candidates.

I shared the process with a couple of colleagues to create a small team and work on this task  together, we sat down and had a quick brainstorming / Discussion session to make sure the Mapped  out criteria were addressing all points and skills needed and then moved into application.

Insight and Approach: What I’ve learned using this tool was that having a clear set map or plan makes  analyzing data much easier which in its roles help in achieving my accurate desired results. It also helps  working in a team and exchanging thoughts and ideas, it opens up your mind to new ideas and  encourages creativity in tools and methods chosen to address certain challenges.

We ended up choosing a number of volunteers real quick with the needed skills to be part of this  volunteering opportunity in no time, from a database that has old Data and is completely unstructured  and also helped in creating a structure for the same Database.

I have found this tool very useful, and will definitely be utilizing the other tools for future challenges.

