Reflection: Mind Mapping, Idea Generation, and Leadership

Challenge   In my university, it is really common for student organizations and even professors in the academe

to use lists in trying to conjure and articulate problems and solutions, typically listing and writing

things down from left to right, and top to bottom. Being a sports science major, I am a very

kinesthetic person, who prefers a lot of free space to maneuver around in. The problem that I have

with this old, traditional way of listing is that it promotes very linear, and axial, 2-dimensional thinking,

instead of a planar, multidimensional perspective, thus inhibiting me from being able to map out all of

the problems I have, form connections between them and view them all at a glance in oversight. This

can limit the potential for idea generation and exploration because instead of a ground-up approach

when exploring ideas, a top-down approach is used in place by leaders and managers, attempting to

go deep into one idea, at the risk of myopia into and tunnel vision on one good idea, compromising

quality of the other succeeding ideas to be tackled.     Selection  Being involved in leadership roles, I must possess trait-openness and creativity in order to innovate

and explore new ideas. Thus the Mind Map is my Design Thinking tool of choice when helping a

team in laying their groundwork, and in articulating their observations and ideas to figure out their

direction.    Application    I once had a really important whole day, semester planning meeting with the executive board

members of my organization, wherein we had to lay down the foundation for a 5-month roadmap for

our organization and its respective sub-teams which we were in charge of. The big problem was that

in the year prior to our term, the turnover of past leaders to us was insufficient and failed to hand

over to us the direction our organization was supposed to be going in. Given this we had to pick up

whatever was left of the existing pieces and build a new direction from scratch to fit our context.     I decided to speak up and tell them that making a list, and thinking ‘vertically’ in the traditional sense

was not the best way to facilitate this brainstorming session for our new foundation, but instead

asked them to procure a massive whiteboard, some markers, and post-it notes to stick onto. In the

middle of the map was the name of our organization, and the next level of ‘nodes’ would be our

teams. We each took turns connecting to our team’s node all the questions, concerns and the state

of ‘what is’ that existed for each of our own teams off the top off our heads. After each of us had their

turn for their team, articulating what was and what is, we all took a moment to step back and view

the parts of the map we each laid out, similar to “touring an art gallery.” After this, came the moment

of insight and connection, Using our sticky notes which were color coded per person, we each stuck

personal insights on the paths on the map that weren’t ours so as to give insight and feedback on

these articulated concerns. What resulted was the synergy of team leaders and diverse input which

gave clearer direction and a unified set of criteria for the whole organization to then set their goals

around, all of which were due to building on the foundation of the questions of others.

Insight    Before the actual mind mapping process, one thing I learned from utilizing this tool was the

importance of an adequate, wide open space, to create a conducive environment before even filling

in the groundwork for your foundation and writing anything down. Making sure we had a big, blank

canvas upon which to lay and map out our foundational ideas for the semester onto was important

for priming us to create the most fruitful mind map possible.    When we started to do mind mapping, we were able to articulate our thoughts and mirror our ideas

to other team members, allowing them to think abstractly because of the spatial aspect of mind

mapping. Given the context that this team was the executive board of a management consulting

organization, it was of utmost importance that our own foundation was strong, as well as the

practices and systems we were to implement before we gave consultation services to other teams

and businesses.    Approach  Prior to this course, I never deliberately thought about mind mapping or how to optimize the way

mind mapping sessions are done. I had only read about them in some psychology books and used

them impromptu or when it crosses my mind in the moment. Being able to learn about terms such as

Clusters, Design Criteria etc. allows me to facilitate a guided and structured step-by-step approach

to the next opportunity on mind mapping I’ll have in similar foundation setting meetings.    In the coming weeks I also have a lot of new meetings for the year with junior teams wherein they

will conduct goal setting, and vision articulation. Introducing the mind map to these junior members

will help them think multidimensionally, and through a design thinking-oriented approach, to help

them see what is and what if. It will also help them better articulate where they stand and to be given

equal respect and attention by each member in their teams.

