Challenges and Selection

Mind-mapping Challenge Research should not be an end. To move towards the future which we all  aspire to, well qualifies people should think think about challenges faced by society and aim to  address these issues. Staying behind the close doors will not be able to understand what these  societal needs are. Facilitating the communication process between science and society is critical in  order to make science adequate to people’s lives. To uncover needs of society and understand how  to make science more responsive to these and how to create the future.

I, have chosen the Mind Mapping method to address the above challenges. First of all citizens should  think what are the challenges they are facing in their lives. Through this we wanted to understand  the actual problems rather than skew their opinion towards certain issues that the organisers  considered important. Based on the opinions below points can be implemented.

1. Let them think about their own experience and and formulate the way desirable future looks

like according to their own perspective.

2. Allow them to express their thoughts with rest and let them make them knowledgeable.

Application

Citizens who have taken part were with different gender, age, occupation, education they hold,  different states and some even from different countries. Just wanted to make sure that different  opinions are included in the study.

When tasks are assigned they came with different challenges and some also addressed the solutions  for it. At the first stage they are ask to think about the challenges they have faced in their lives and  then look the challenges in broader perspective This stage of the process allowed participants to  build a common understanding about major challenges they were facing. They were encouraged to  take notes of what they consider important and insightful. After that participants went back to the  tables. They were asked to write down notes in the book provided and  aspects of the desirable  future, i.e. visions for the future. Then again themes were clustered on a flipchart to formulate  broader categories. At the end all of them presented to the rest of the participants their results.

Insight

An interesting result from the workshops was that similar challenges and visions for the future  emerged from the different national workshops.

This result evinced that the pressing challenges for the future people are concerned with are rather  of a global scale than nationally bound.

This calls for more collaboration between researchers across borders. In regard to the design  thinking methodology, an important insight was that to motivate citizens to actively participate in  the event

Approach

The feedback was that in the beginning the participants found it difficult to think about specific  aspects of their everyday life they perceived as current challenge. In order to successfully apply the  methodology it was important that people think about their own experiences rather that formulate  the challenges they have heard in the media. Thus, in order to stimulate participants think about  their own experiences, a good approach might be to ask them write a short story about their

everyday life before the discussions in the first stage of the event commence. This will help  participants think of specific challenges they face.

