DESIGN THINKING TOOL: MIND MAPPING

CHALLENGE

I work in a large company with a multicultural environment. One of the key aspects in such  organization is to ensure adequate employee satisfaction and engagement. Several of the  employees are expats which brought their families overseas and others are from different  areas of the country. The challenge faced is a low score in employee engagement identified by  the surveys conducted over the previous years. As a result, several employees are not retained  and this imposes a challenge for adequate manpower planning in order to have a proper  balance of age and experience in the company workforce.

SELECTION

The design tool selected is mind mapping technique. Through several employee surveys  conducted in the recent years, as well as exit surveys for those employees resigning, a large  amount of data has been collected. The tool can be used to process this information in a  systematic way and identify patterns and themes. The tool as well can help to identify if the  surveys are adequately covering all possible aspects to ensure that all possible motivations are  captured in a large company with a wide variety of nationalities and backgrounds represented.

APPLICATION

In order to organize the available data in an intuitive and visual way, mind mapping is  conducted by a multidisciplinary team. The information collected (tables, profiles, quantitative  data, etc) is displayed in a large wall and segregated by areas and motivations. The team works  intensively in clustering data. From these small clusters, connections are identified and insights  captured in larger post-it notes. Special attention in the mind mapping is given to the available  outliers that might indicated unrevealed motivations from the employees and might not be  commonly extracted with surveys and interviews conducted. To confirm potential hidden  motivations, outliers are used to tweak surveys questions and ensure adequate design criteria  is obtained for the challenge we want to solve.

INSIGHT

One of the main insights from the application of the technique is that the mind mapping  should not be a static exercise. On the contrary, it should be used for the organization in a  continuous basis to ensure it captures any time effect in employee motivations that might be  related to external factors such as a pandemic situation or any other particular situation. I  would recommend a continuous improvement process by ensuring that any new information  obtained in subsequent surveys is incorporated into the mind map.

APPROACH

For a most effective exercise, I would improve the data collection process to ensure that  employees are in an open-minded environment so that surveys will be even more revealing of  the real motivations for employee retention. I would also use visualization tools rather than  large questionaries as a more effective and quick data gathering process. It has been observed  that large surveys are counterproductive in delivering accurate information as they are  considered as a mandatory and time-consuming activity. Rather than that, an approach with  short and visual surveys about particular topics and aspects will result in a more valuable  information from a mind mapping exercise.


DESIGN THINKING TOOL : MIND MAPPING CHALLENGE I work in a large company with a multicultural environment . One of the key aspects in such organization is to ensure adequate employee satisfaction and engagement . Several of the employees are expats which brought their families overseas and others are from different areas of the country . The challenge faced is a low score in employee engagement identified by the surveys conducted over the previous years . As a result , several employees are not retained and this imposes a challenge for adequate manpower planning in order to have a proper balance of age and experience in the company workforce . SELECTION The design tool selected is mind mapping technique . Through several employee surveys conducted in the recent years , as well as exit surveys for those employees resigning , a large amount of data has been collected . The tool can be used to process this information in a systematic way and identify patterns and themes . The tool as well can help to identify if the surveys are adequately covering all possible aspects to ensure that all possible motivations are captured in a large company with a wide variety of nationalities and backgrounds represented . APPLICATION In order to organize the available data in an intuitive and visual way , mind mapping is conducted by a multidisciplinary team . The information collected ( tables , profiles , quantitative data , etc ) is displayed in a large wall and segregated by areas and motivations . The team works intensively in clustering data . From these small clusters , connections are identified and insights captured in larger post - it notes . Special attention in the mind mapping is given to the available outliers that might indicated unrevealed motivations from the employees and might not be commonly extracted with surveys and interviews conducted . To confirm potential hidden motivations , outliers are used to tweak surveys questions and ensure adequate design criteria is obtained for the challenge we want to solve . INSIGHT One of the main insights from the application of the technique is that the mind mapping should not be a static exercise . On the contrary , it should be used for the organization in a continuous basis to ensure it captures any time effect in employee motivations that might be related to external factors such as a pandemic situation or any other particular situation . I would recommend a continuous improvement process by ensuring that any new information obtained in subsequent surveys is incorporated into the mind map . APPROACH For a most effective exercise , I would improve the data collection process to ensure that employees are in an open - minded environment so that surveys will be even more revealing of the real motivations for employee retention . I would also use visualization tools rather than large questionaries as a more effective and quick data gathering process . It has been observed that large surveys are counterproductive in delivering accurate information as they are considered as a mandatory and time - consuming activity . Rather than that , an approach with short and visual surveys about particular topics and aspects will result in a more valuable information from a mind mapping exercise .