Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge & Selection

While I was quite curious to try out the different tools of the course, the first tool  I ended up using & being a part of the execution phase was mind mapping. With a  directive to improve the team’s overall health score, we were pushed to pull all  punches to improve the experience of everyone in the team, as they work on  multiple projects across different geographies. With multiple domains & levels of  the organization at place, it was necessary to get everyone under a single room to  record the overarching pluses, negatives & changes that could be made in the  daily workings to finally increase productivity.

Application

Being part of the team, I was an active part of this exercise that saw every  member in the team, taking time off to share the positives, negatives and changes  possible in an overarching team & project management standpoint to improve  the experiences of every single member in the team. The post-its used to record  the points were then categorized to arrive at some important factors that  required our attention, with the post-its in their member communicating the  scale & the range communicated through the different perspectives provided by  each of them. Though we are a huge team, considering we were all working in a  similar system, the number of outliers were quite less & most of the post-its  contributed to the major factors identified. The post-its based on the factors  identified were put up on boards for everyone’s consumption, discussed upon to  capture the overall reaction to the factors that had emerged. In my opinion, this  was a great initiative to capture the ‘what-is’ of the situation.

To arrive at functional changes that can be made by gathering the ‘what-is’ data  of the situation, all the stakeholders were split into multiple groups and were  asked to brainstorm on the changes that can be made to effectively change the  situation in a way, it makes our lives better. The changes prescribed by the team  members in the data gathering phase, also helped to drive to possible solutions. I  would like to also highlight that, no ground-breaking solutions were arrived at, yet

small functional & implementable solutions that can be experimented upon were  zeroed in on.

Insight & Approach

The power of the insights got from the exercise comes from the active  participation of the members of the team to improve their own eco-system at  work. It also helped to understand the various perspectives & ranges of issues  experienced by the ‘minds’ in the team, than a localized set of ‘minds’ higher up  in the organization.

But there are a couple of areas where I believe the exercise hit a couple of  roadblocks. Firstly, since members from different levels of the organization were  present in the session, there were 1-2 factors that appeared in both the positive  as well as negative boards. Also, ultimately to make a functional change in the  eco-system, for some factors, it was necessary to know at what level of the  organization was this issue a concern & how it could be suitably addressed.

Further, if we were to run a similar exercise, adding questions that employ  projective technique like word/image association to the process would be a good  idea, as usually it is noticed that there are many underlying aspects of the  experience that is lost in the daily motion.


Reflection – Mind Mapping Challenge & Selection While I was quite curious to try out the different tools of the course , the first tool I ended up using & being a part of the execution phase was mind mapping . With a directive to improve the team ’s overall health score , we were pushed to pull all punches to improve the experience of everyone in the team , as they work on multiple projects across different geographies . With multiple domains & levels of the organization at place , it was necessary to get everyone under a single room to record the overarching pluses , negatives & changes that could be made in the daily workings to finally increase productivity . Application Being part of the team , I was an active part of this exercise that saw every member in the team , taking time off to share the positives , negatives and changes possible in an overarching team & project management standpoint to improve the experiences of every single member in the team . The post - its used to record the points were then categorized to arrive at some important factors that required our attention , with the post - its in their member communicating the scale & the range communicated through the different perspectives provided by each of them . Though we are a huge team , considering we were all working in a similar system , the number of outliers were quite less & most of the post - its contributed to the major factors identified . The post - its based on the factors identified were put up on boards for everyone ’s consumption , discussed upon to capture the overall reaction to the factors that had emerged . In my opinion , this was a great initiative to capture the ‘ what - is ’ of the situation . To arrive at functional changes that can be made by gathering the ‘ what - is ’ data of the situation , all the stakeholders were split into multiple groups and were asked to brainstorm on the changes that can be made to effectively change the situation in a way , it makes our lives better . The changes prescribed by the team members in the data gathering phase , also helped to drive to possible solutions . I would like to also highlight that , no ground - breaking solutions were arrived at , yet small functional & implementable solutions that can be experimented upon were zeroed in on . Insight & Approach The power of the insights got from the exercise comes from the active participation of the members of the team to improve their own eco - system at work . It also helped to understand the various perspectives & ranges of issues experienced by the ‘ minds ’ in the team , than a localized set of ‘ minds ’ higher up in the organization . But there are a couple of areas where I believe the exercise hit a couple of roadblocks . Firstly , since members from different levels of the organization were present in the session , there were 1 - 2 factors that appeared in both the positive as well as negative boards . Also , ultimately to make a functional change in the eco - system , for some factors , it was necessary to know at what level of the organization was this issue a concern & how it could be suitably addressed . Further , if we were to run a similar exercise , adding questions that employ projective technique like word / image association to the process would be a good idea , as usually it is noticed that there are many underlying aspects of the experience that is lost in the daily motion .