Mind Mapping Tool  Reflection Assignment for Design Thinking for Innovation Course

Challenge:

As management consultant and solving problems of clients is my most important professional outcome.  At different points of my career, I was intrigued by different types of challenges that my clients face.  Poor quality/defects, productivity concerns, throughput issues, failed projects, and lack of automation  are typical types of issues that my clients face and seek my help for resolution.

For this assignment, I would like to talk about a challenge that prompted me to leverage one of the  tools mentioned in design thinking course. The challenge was resolving customer quality issue failing to  resolve will derail their outsourcing plan.

Selection:

I selected Mind Mapping as the tool for supporting my analysis of the challenge that my client was  facing. My client was a manufacturing company which believed in Total Quality Management (TQM)  improvement methodology. Client team had good exposure to Fishbone diagram and was keen to use  it for problem analysis. I wanted to leverage concept of structured problem solving but since this issue  required additional flexibility to evolve casual domain as the team brain stormed. So I introduced Mind  Mapping technique during my working session with client team as it provides that extra flexibility.

Application:

We started with a central image – image of the defective component. Image was very powerful as it  generated multiple perspectives about what could have gone wrong. Vivid images inspired client teams  to come up with multiple failure modes. We captured these failure modes around our central image.  These failure modes were captured as images wherever feasible and as single words where images  were not possible. Once the client experts started visual thinking process, they started generating  multiple causes that could have influenced these failure modes. We used vivid color lines to connect  probable causes to failure modes. We grouped items that can be combined. We started to note down  experiments and observations that we need to conduct to validate our assumptions in the Mind Map  itself.

Our finished Mind Map acted as a thinking tool and as well as communication medium to highlight our  possible next steps. Client team went back to their day jobs from problem workshop that I conducted  and they promised to come back with observations on identified action points.

When we regrouped again in couple days, client team validated many of our hypotheses captured in  Mind Map and could pin point few areas where more trials to be planned. We communicated our

problem resolution progress (Mind Map and Next Steps documents) to client’s customer and they were  relieved and started trusting my client team for effective problem resolution.

Insight:

Key learning from the application of the Mind Mapping technique is, visual tools such as Mind Maps are  extremely good in bringing a large team to a shared understanding of current situation. This shared  understanding will drive effective team learning and eventually this will result in powerful insights that  will resolve big, seemingly unresolvable challenges.

Approach:

There are multiple ways how Mind Mapping can be leveraged, problem solving with a large team is one  key area where I have used this technique with very good success rate. I know that Mind Mapping is a  very effective personal organizer to manage ideas, kindle creativity and focus actions. Using Mind  Mapping for personal effectiveness is one area where I will try in the near future.


Mind Mapping Tool Reflection Assignment for Design Thinking for Innovation Course Challenge : As management consultant and solving problems of clients is my most important professional outcome . At different points of my career , I was intrigued by different types of challenges that my clients face . Poor quality / defects , productivity concerns , throughput issues , failed projects , and lack of automation are typical types of issues that my clients face and seek my help for resolution . For this assignment , I would like to talk about a challenge that prompted me to leverage one of the tools mentioned in design thinking course . The challenge was resolving customer quality issue failing to resolve will derail their outsourcing plan . Selection : I selected Mind Mapping as the tool for supporting my analysis of the challenge that my client was facing . My client was a manufacturing company which believed in Total Quality Management ( TQM ) improvement methodology . Client team had good exposure to Fishbone diagram and was keen to use it for problem analysis . I wanted to leverage concept of structured problem solving but since this issue required additional flexibility to evolve casual domain as the team brain stormed . So I introduced Mind Mapping technique during my working session with client team as it provides that extra flexibility . Application : We started with a central image – image of the defective component . Image was very powerful as it generated multiple perspectives about what could have gone wrong . Vivid images inspired client teams to come up with multiple failure modes . We captured these failure modes around our central image . These failure modes were captured as images wherever feasible and as single words where images were not possible . Once the client experts started visual thinking process , they started generating multiple causes that could have influenced these failure modes . We used vivid color lines to connect probable causes to failure modes . We grouped items that can be combined . We started to note down experiments and observations that we need to conduct to validate our assumptions in the Mind Map itself . Our finished Mind Map acted as a thinking tool and as well as communication medium to highlight our possible next steps . Client team went back to their day jobs from problem workshop that I conducted and they promised to come back with observations on identified action points . When we regrouped again in couple days , client team validated many of our hypotheses captured in Mind Map and could pin point few areas where more trials to be planned . We communicated our problem resolution progress ( Mind Map and Next Steps documents ) to client ’s customer and they were relieved and started trusting my client team for effective problem resolution . Insight : Key learning from the application of the Mind Mapping technique is , visual tools such as Mind Maps are extremely good in bringing a large team to a shared understanding of current situation . This shared understanding will drive effective team learning and eventually this will result in powerful insights that will resolve big , seemingly unresolvable challenges . Approach : There are multiple ways how Mind Mapping can be leveraged , problem solving with a large team is one key area where I have used this technique with very good success rate . I know that Mind Mapping is a very effective personal organizer to manage ideas , kindle creativity and focus actions . Using Mind Mapping for personal effectiveness is one area where I will try in the near future .