Andy Lewis

Challenge

I´m currently studying a bachelor’s in economics in which, very often, I have issues getting ideas to  solve a specific kind of project or exam and, also, solving them in a creative and tidy way. For  example, last summer I was left with a project in which I had to make a presentation about the  world´s economic situation due the Covid-19 pandemic. In this project I had the challenge of  working as efficient as I could with the time given, being as creative as possible to maintain the  audience entertained.

While the example mentioned has already happened, I will use it as a reference for further  opportunities.

Selection

As I already tried to apply a lot of techniques to solve this kind of projects or exams, now I realize  that a very useful tool that I´m sure will work for next opportunities is the mind mapping  technique, which consists in making a drawing of some kind of “spider web” about the relevant  information of the main topic.

Application

First, I should focus on the main topic to solve, identifying opportunities and making plans to  approach it (in this case, mind mapping). With that taken in count, I should start getting the what  is information (data about the topic, the way I must expose it, tools I can use, etc.). In the previous  example (in which the main topic was the world´s economic situation), all the economic info had  to be taken from official webpages. Then, using the mind mapping technique, the next thing to do  is categorize the steps to follow, taking in count the main areas of study (in the example  mentioned above, already having the data, the steps to follow could be analyze the company’s,  countries, individuals behavior, etc.).

After collecting all the information, the next step is solving the what if? part. With the mind  mapping already done, it should be much easier brainstorming about the best way to get the job  done. For example, since in the project about the world´s economic situation I had to be creative,  maybe the form of making it (power point, video, etc.) wasn´t as important as its content. For that,  it´s necessary to go ahead with the what wows and what works steps. Here, the main task is to  maintain the students and the teacher entertained, so the presentation had to be funny and easy  to assimilate (that´s what everyone wants). Also, I´m not an expert in editing, so I had to use a  easy-to-use program.

Finally, to ensure the work done actually works, it´s good to make several prototypes and get  feedbacks from family and friends.

Insight

Andy Lewis

The use of this technique will be, in further opportunities, useful to identify all the areas to  explore, as it will change the way I approach the issue, making it in a more efficient, complete and  tidy mode.

Approach

Of course, this course helped me get an example of how to structure in the best way possible my  ideas with this technique, so, if something in my structure fails, I should try to fix what´s missing  about the previous mind map made to improve it (because I´m sure there will not be any need of  using any other tool). However, it may be a good idea to complement it with the other tools  (visualization, storytelling or learning launch) to improve the mind map I´ve already done (without  substituting it).

