Reflection – Mind Mapping – Cesar Rivera

Challenge

I´m an innovation and design thinking consultant working with a Government State in México, one  of my objectives was to implement an Innovation Award to recognize all those brilliant ideas from  citizens about how to innovate government processes and services. A great challenge because you  need to make people think and understand what are those social problems, government programs  o services that could be redesign, innovated or changed but with a deep focus on proposing  innovative solutions and not only finger pointing what is wrong, a cultural change required.  In  Mexico when you talk about main social problems people tend to talk about their perception with  no facts or clarity about what the real problem is.

Selection

When you are designing a workshop and need to select the right tools  to develop new ideas to  solve government challenges, you will require to think about the different types or citizens that  will be participating on these events, you have students, non-government association,  professionals on different fields and universities, just to name some of them. You need to find an  easy tool that anyone can understand quickly and easy to use with pencil, paper sheets.

For the Innovation Award that I mentioned, I selected a tool that can help the participants to  explore real problems beyond the symptoms they see, most of the time what the citizens see as a  problem is the result of another problem not seen. There´s a need for a deep dive into what  exactly you are identifying as problem to propose the right solution.

The Design Thinking tool I selected to identify what are the potential sub problems is the mind  mapping tool, because it makes people think broader about what other problems can be seen  related to that.  Mind Mapping helps people and organization to be clear about a topic, any  related topics, called subtopic and ideas around subtopics as we see in the below picture

Application

For a workshop I present the main areas current government is focusing on, something called  “State Development Plan” that define the government priorities to align all the ideas around  government objectives and also to have budget assigned if a great idea comes from those  workshops that could be implemented

I organize the citizens by group of minimum three, maximum five, looking for diversity on age,  education, gender, etc., to have different perceptions and great discussions among the groups.  People take a flipchart sheet and stick it in the wall, start discussing what could be a problem that  needs faster and innovative solutions using the State Development Plan, write the problem  selected at the center of the flipchart sheet, the next step requires to identify from that selected  problem any other types of problems that could fall under this description, ask them to think and  write in post-it note all those problems related to the main one, one post-it note per idea, no  limits on number of ideas, usually the activity takes 20 minutes.

After that, you ask someone from each team to start reading all the post-it notes and start  grouping them if are related, looking for affinity groups among all or any connections, in this step  you have created different arms and secondary arms to the main problem, once you complete to  group them you can give a name of to each group with the most representative description,  connect with lines the main problem and the sub-problems. When this activity is completed you  have now defined multiple sub-problems, in most of the cases those are the ones that citizens see  as the ones to solve, problems specific to address.

Insight

Mind Mapping is a great starter when you need that everybody has the same understanding about  a concept; We at the government office expect that citizens can have a better understanding of  social problems and all the variation of those problems. We, as humans, tend to generalize our  perception about many things.  Mind Mapping helps us to have clear picture of what´s behind or  above the topic to analyze, and also helped citizens to think that social problems can´t be named  generically, they need to be clearly identified and the sum of all those problems solved will result  in a better perception of their reality. Design Thinking is a great problem-solving tool where  anyone can innovate

Approach

As an Innovation and Design Thinking Consultant I always make use of this type of tools that allows  teams to have a discussion, analysis, and agreements. I would applied the same tool but now with  engineering groups, mind mapping areas to do a research or trying to find different ways to solve a  problem, also with Human Resources teams I would use it identify employee needs listening to  their problems.


Reflection – Mind Mapping – Cesar Rivera Challenge I´m an innovation and design thinking consultant working with a Government State in México , one of my objectives was to implement an Innovation Award to recognize all those brilliant ideas from citizens about how to innovate government processes and services . A great challenge because you need to make people think and understand what are those social problems , government programs o services that could be redesign , innovated or changed but with a deep focus on proposing innovative solutions and not only finger pointing what is wrong , a cultural change required . In Mexico when you talk about main social problems people tend to talk about their perception with no facts or clarity about what the real problem is . Selection When you are designing a workshop and need to select the right tools to develop new ideas to solve government challenges , you will require to think about the different types or citizens that will be participating on these events , you have students , non - government association , professionals on different fields and universities , just to name some of them . You need to find an easy tool that anyone can understand quickly and easy to use with pencil , paper sheets . For the Innovation Award that I mentioned , I selected a tool that can help the participants to explore real problems beyond the symptoms they see , most of the time what the citizens see as a problem is the result of another problem not seen . There´s a need for a deep dive into what exactly you are identifying as problem to propose the right solution . The Design Thinking tool I selected to identify what are the potential sub problems is the mind mapping tool , because it makes people think broader about what other problems can be seen related to that . Mind Mapping helps people and organization to be clear about a topic , any related topics , called subtopic and ideas around subtopics as we see in the below picture Application For a workshop I present the main areas current government is focusing on , something called “ State Development Plan ” that define the government priorities to align all the ideas around government objectives and also to have budget assigned if a great idea comes from those workshops that could be implemented I organize the citizens by group of minimum three , maximum five , looking for diversity on age , education , gender , etc . , to have different perceptions and great discussions among the groups . People take a flipchart sheet and stick it in the wall , start discussing what could be a problem that needs faster and innovative solutions using the State Development Plan , write the problem selected at the center of the flipchart sheet , the next step requires to identify from that selected problem any other types of problems that could fall under this description , ask them to think and write in post - it note all those problems related to the main one , one post - it note per idea , no limits on number of ideas , usually the activity takes 20 minutes . After that , you ask someone from each team to start reading all the post - it notes and start grouping them if are related , looking for affinity groups among all or any connections , in this step you have created different arms and secondary arms to the main problem , once you complete to group them you can give a name of to each group with the most representative description , connect with lines the main problem and the sub - problems . When this activity is completed you have now defined multiple sub - problems , in most of the cases those are the ones that citizens see as the ones to solve , problems specific to address . Insight Mind Mapping is a great starter when you need that everybody has the same understanding about a concept ; We at the government office expect that citizens can have a better understanding of social problems and all the variation of those problems . We , as humans , tend to generalize our perception about many things . Mind Mapping helps us to have clear picture of what´s behind or above the topic to analyze , and also helped citizens to think that social problems can´t be named generically , they need to be clearly identified and the sum of all those problems solved will result in a better perception of their reality . Design Thinking is a great problem - solving tool where anyone can innovate Approach As an Innovation and Design Thinking Consultant I always make use of this type of tools that allows teams to have a discussion , analysis , and agreements . I would applied the same tool but now with engineering groups , mind mapping areas to do a research or trying to find different ways to solve a problem , also with Human Resources teams I would use it identify employee needs listening to their problems .