Reflection - Mind Mapping

Challenge and Selection    The tool I used is Mind Mapping, to look for patterns and insights in the comments of

my team during the pandemic. The challenge we have is to develop a nice system of

communication that will allow us to share information easily and to maintain a sense

of purpose and belonging in the team and also not decrease productivity.    The organization is digitally centered, we develop a design and video templates that

anyone can make online and use for their business. But, we have never worked

remotely before, so we have to face the new challenge of team communication so

the workflow could work in these conditions. During the firsts weeks with this

modality of working, the operative members start to wonder how they can migrate

their necessities of the normal pipeline into the work from home scheme. We receive

many questions, and also some complaints about the organization system.    Some of the key concepts the admin team have to start working on were: How does

the backup system would work out if we could not use the server remotely, How we

could keep the same sense of purpose and collaboration in the team, How can we

give the necessary information to each member so they could work individually and

resolve their doubts if they will not be anyone there to help them, How can we still

keep and touch and have active listening to share concerns and make

improvements.    After we identify the main problems we were facing as a team, with the comments of

the members. I decided to implement the design tool of the Mind Mapping, so we

could easily visualize the possible options to resolve the inconveniences that the

pandemic can cause into the team. And then start to make some tests about those

options and get insights with the team.    Application    I start the process by putting in the center of the canvas the context of the problem,

in this case it’s the “Home Office Dynamic” and then with the previous brainstorm

ideas of the questions I write the main concept that represents a particular challenge.

Then some ideas of the possible solutions we could apply.    For example, some of the concerns we get from the team was that in remote working

they lose touch with their team, and sometimes feel disconnected from the vision

and goal of the whole company. In that way we set the challenge “Keep sense of

Purpose” and then think about some actions we could do to in order to solve this

problem, some of them are: Apply daily scrum virtual meetings, discuss big picture

goals in monthly meetings and recognize achievements weekly to each person of the

team.    Here is the whole goals and actions we develop:

Insight & Approach    After visualizing these ideas in the mind mapping we start with a small group of people to

test out the improvements we thinked about. For example, with changing the backup system

for the files, we needed to set a guide for follow the new steps, and to send that information

to test with a small group of people. After a week, they give us feedback, which results in

very positive insights. Each person could save 10 minutes a day to backup their files using

dropbox and not the odl server (which has a much longer process to connect remotely). After

that we implement the whole system to the rest of the team, so in total, we save per week

1,550 minutes into my team of 23 people.     With the communication improvements we test the new ideas to the whole team, but after

two weeks we asked for their feedback, which was also very positive, but still we made some

changes to make until the process felt smooth and easy for everyone. This includes training

for the new tool we started to use. After three weeks the complaints about the

communication system were eradicated.     The same happened with the rest of the goals we got, and some of them are still in process,

but I’m glad that now I got more understanding of these design tools in the big picture that

could help to keep improving my team dynamics.


Reflection - Mind Mapping Challenge and Selection The tool I used is Mind Mapping , to look for patterns and insights in the comments of my team during the pandemic . The challenge we have is to develop a nice system of communication that will allow us to share information easily and to maintain a sense of purpose and belonging in the team and also not decrease productivity . The organization is digitally centered , we develop a design and video templates that anyone can make online and use for their business . But , we have never worked remotely before , so we have to face the new challenge of team communication so the workflow could work in these conditions . During the firsts weeks with this modality of working , the operative members start to wonder how they can migrate their necessities of the normal pipeline into the work from home scheme . We receive many questions , and also some complaints about the organization system . Some of the key concepts the admin team have to start working on were : How does the backup system would work out if we could not use the server remotely , How we could keep the same sense of purpose and collaboration in the team , How can we give the necessary information to each member so they could work individually and resolve their doubts if they will not be anyone there to help them , How can we still keep and touch and have active listening to share concerns and make improvements . After we identify the main problems we were facing as a team , with the comments of the members . I decided to implement the design tool of the Mind Mapping , so we could easily visualize the possible options to resolve the inconveniences that the pandemic can cause into the team . And then start to make some tests about those options and get insights with the team . Application I start the process by putting in the center of the canvas the context of the problem , in this case it ’s the “ Home Office Dynamic ” and then with the previous brainstorm ideas of the questions I write the main concept that represents a particular challenge . Then some ideas of the possible solutions we could apply . For example , some of the concerns we get from the team was that in remote working they lose touch with their team , and sometimes feel disconnected from the vision and goal of the whole company . In that way we set the challenge “ Keep sense of Purpose ” and then think about some actions we could do to in order to solve this problem , some of them are : Apply daily scrum virtual meetings , discuss big picture goals in monthly meetings and recognize achievements weekly to each person of the team . Here is the whole goals and actions we develop : Insight & Approach After visualizing these ideas in the mind mapping we start with a small group of people to test out the improvements we thinked about . For example , with changing the backup system for the files , we needed to set a guide for follow the new steps , and to send that information to test with a small group of people . After a week , they give us feedback , which results in very positive insights . Each person could save 10 minutes a day to backup their files using dropbox and not the odl server ( which has a much longer process to connect remotely ) . After that we implement the whole system to the rest of the team , so in total , we save per week 1,550 minutes into my team of 23 people . With the communication improvements we test the new ideas to the whole team , but after two weeks we asked for their feedback , which was also very positive , but still we made some changes to make until the process felt smooth and easy for everyone . This includes training for the new tool we started to use . After three weeks the complaints about the communication system were eradicated . The same happened with the rest of the goals we got , and some of them are still in process , but I ’m glad that now I got more understanding of these design tools in the big picture that could help to keep improving my team dynamics .