Reﬂection - Mind Mapping

Challenge

As the President of Toastmasters Club in my college, a club that helps in improving communication  and builds leadership skills, my responsibilities were to supervise the working of all the other  members of the executive committee. Along with that, my role was to assist them or help them if  they had trouble fulﬁlling their designated responsibilities. The club has both unpaid members (who  can witness meetings and take up small speeches called table topics) and paid members (who can  give long speeches as per their pathway task along with table topics). The functioning of the club’s  ﬁnances is dealt with the amount received by the paid members for the particular path of  communication they choose. Now, our club had lots of members coming in to attend the meetings  but the Vice President, Membership had trouble converting the members from unpaid to paid and  selling them the membership. To be recognised as a good club among other Toastmasters Clubs, it  was essential to have at least 4-5 new paid members every year. Another challenge was the downfall  in already existing paid members to renew their membership, every 6 months to maintain at least  6-7 paid members in each meeting. For our club to not collapse/ dissolve, we had to do something  about its membership.

Selection

The challenge required us to peep into the brains of our members to understand ‘why’ didn’t they  want to renew/subscribe to the membership, where were we as a club lacking and what were the  things our members expected us to fulﬁl to make their self-developmental journey a success. After  having a detailed meeting with the executive committee, we came upon the conclusion that we  wanted to talk, one on one with each member and know them personally. It wasn’t that our  members were not willing to attend the meeting, only didn’t want to take up the paid course.  Therefore, mind mapping was the tool I decided to use to understand the members - their speciﬁc  and different reasons. We wanted to dive into developing a more platonic relationship with our  members and what could we provide as a club to them rather than just trying to sell them the course.  We wanted to look for patterns and insights to arrive on a consensus of how to ﬁnd out what the  members want to seek from the club (what is).

Application

To apply the tool mind mapping, we had to ﬁnd a way to gather our members other than the ofﬁcial  meetings of the club and to make sure all of them attended the gathering, we made sure to call each  of them personally and invited them to take part in an activity. We gathered each one of them in the  college auditorium, arranged for sheets and colour pens along with a video we created regarding our  club’s best speakers and their growth journey which added as the visual aid. We then asked each  one of them to pick up a sheet and two different colour pens. We gave a brief about how we wanted  to know their story, how did they like the club and what all did they learn. We guided to use one  side of the sheet using one colour pen to present what all they learned from the club in terms of  communication and leadership skills, what all did they like about the club and themselves through it  while the other side with the different colour pen to use for what all they wanted to learn more and

lacked in, what more they wanted to know about the club, what should be improved and where is it  that they ﬁnd the club can work more on (what if). We asked each one of them to scan their sheets  and present it on the projector screen. We asked them questions regarding their mind mapped  activity and they enthusiastically answered. It took us about two hours to sum up the activity.

The main problem our members had was connecting with the club’s essential information due to the  strict layout of our meetings we were unable to present them with adequate know-how. Most of  them were unaware that there were 10 different communication pathways according to one’s  personality. Apart from this, most of them had issues with using the online portal, some wanted the  meetings to become more interesting and others had issues with the course fee. All these patterns  and insights drew us closer to understand the personal yet combined issues of our members. To  overcome these, we started laying out plans to follow up with each issue (what wows).

We made sure to add various fun elements in the meeting whenever the meetings got boring. For  that, we even appointed a joke master who’d come and entertain us in the middle and added an  entertainment section at the end of our meetings. To make the members feel more involved we even  laid out new titles and responsibilities for them other than the executive committee titles. For the  issues that were associated with lack of information about the club, we made sure to organise one  detailed interactive session every month with videos and informative materials explaining the club’s  work and its services or to solve their queries. To help the members choose their particular pathway  properly, the executive committee helped them personally to take up the personality test available  on the club’s site. To help them further we went to the college authorities to tackle the course fee  issue and the authorities helped us by announcing to refund the fee as soon as the members ﬁnished  the levels of their course.

Insights

The mind mapping tool helped us to seep into the minds of our members, personally deal with  issues troubling them and pinpoint on basic issues that we were overseeing time and again. As the  executive members, it was essential for us to bond with our members and understand their problems  on a deeper level rather than simply asking them why they didn’t want to renew or pay for the  course. It made us more empathetic and open to looking for new ideas that helped our members  more than it helped the club for we realised if the members are happy and growing, the club will  grow too. I learnt how to break problems in small parts and then try to solve them rather than  solving them as a big chunk altogether. I even understood the importance of step by step analysis of  any problem for it to be effectively solved via design thinking.

Approach

Our club has made quite good growth as per the application of this strategy is concerned. We even  won various club awards but we further plan on organising more club events and activities other  than the general meetings using the Visualisation tool to attract more and more new members. We  even plan on making posters for weekly meetings that will help more people to know about the club  and want them to attend the meetings or at least attend one meeting and see what we have to offer.  In addition to that, we plan on creating videos featuring success stories of our club members to  make everyone believe that anyone can be a leader and communicate with ﬂuency. Visualisation  along with the currently applied strategy can help us create new leads and soar the club even more.


Reﬂection - Mind Mapping Challenge As the President of Toastmasters Club in my college , a club that helps in improving communication and builds leadership skills , my responsibilities were to supervise the working of all the other members of the executive committee . Along with that , my role was to assist them or help them if they had trouble fulﬁlling their designated responsibilities . The club has both unpaid members ( who can witness meetings and take up small speeches called table topics ) and paid members ( who can give long speeches as per their pathway task along with table topics ) . The functioning of the club ’s ﬁnances is dealt with the amount received by the paid members for the particular path of communication they choose . Now , our club had lots of members coming in to attend the meetings but the Vice President , Membership had trouble converting the members from unpaid to paid and selling them the membership . To be recognised as a good club among other Toastmasters Clubs , it was essential to have at least 4 - 5 new paid members every year . Another challenge was the downfall in already existing paid members to renew their membership , every 6 months to maintain at least 6 - 7 paid members in each meeting . For our club to not collapse/ dissolve , we had to do something about its membership . Selection The challenge required us to peep into the brains of our members to understand ‘ why ’ did n’t they want to renew / subscribe to the membership , where were we as a club lacking and what were the things our members expected us to fulﬁl to make their self - developmental journey a success . After having a detailed meeting with the executive committee , we came upon the conclusion that we wanted to talk , one on one with each member and know them personally . It was n’t that our members were not willing to attend the meeting , only did n’t want to take up the paid course . Therefore , mind mapping was the tool I decided to use to understand the members - their speciﬁc and different reasons . We wanted to dive into developing a more platonic relationship with our members and what could we provide as a club to them rather than just trying to sell them the course . We wanted to look for patterns and insights to arrive on a consensus of how to ﬁnd out what the members want to seek from the club ( what is ) . Application To apply the tool mind mapping , we had to ﬁnd a way to gather our members other than the ofﬁcial meetings of the club and to make sure all of them attended the gathering , we made sure to call each of them personally and invited them to take part in an activity . We gathered each one of them in the college auditorium , arranged for sheets and colour pens along with a video we created regarding our club ’s best speakers and their growth journey which added as the visual aid . We then asked each one of them to pick up a sheet and two different colour pens . We gave a brief about how we wanted to know their story , how did they like the club and what all did they learn . We guided to use one side of the sheet using one colour pen to present what all they learned from the club in terms of communication and leadership skills , what all did they like about the club and themselves through it while the other side with the different colour pen to use for what all they wanted to learn more and lacked in , what more they wanted to know about the club , what should be improved and where is it that they ﬁnd the club can work more on ( what if ) . We asked each one of them to scan their sheets and present it on the projector screen . We asked them questions regarding their mind mapped activity and they enthusiastically answered . It took us about two hours to sum up the activity . The main problem our members had was connecting with the club ’s essential information due to the strict layout of our meetings we were unable to present them with adequate know - how . Most of them were unaware that there were 10 different communication pathways according to one ’s personality . Apart from this , most of them had issues with using the online portal , some wanted the meetings to become more interesting and others had issues with the course fee . All these patterns and insights drew us closer to understand the personal yet combined issues of our members . To overcome these , we started laying out plans to follow up with each issue ( what wows ) . We made sure to add various fun elements in the meeting whenever the meetings got boring . For that , we even appointed a joke master who ’d come and entertain us in the middle and added an entertainment section at the end of our meetings . To make the members feel more involved we even laid out new titles and responsibilities for them other than the executive committee titles . For the issues that were associated with lack of information about the club , we made sure to organise one detailed interactive session every month with videos and informative materials explaining the club ’s work and its services or to solve their queries . To help the members choose their particular pathway properly , the executive committee helped them personally to take up the personality test available on the club ’s site . To help them further we went to the college authorities to tackle the course fee issue and the authorities helped us by announcing to refund the fee as soon as the members ﬁnished the levels of their course . Insights The mind mapping tool helped us to seep into the minds of our members , personally deal with issues troubling them and pinpoint on basic issues that we were overseeing time and again . As the executive members , it was essential for us to bond with our members and understand their problems on a deeper level rather than simply asking them why they did n’t want to renew or pay for the course . It made us more empathetic and open to looking for new ideas that helped our members more than it helped the club for we realised if the members are happy and growing , the club will grow too . I learnt how to break problems in small parts and then try to solve them rather than solving them as a big chunk altogether . I even understood the importance of step by step analysis of any problem for it to be effectively solved via design thinking . Approach Our club has made quite good growth as per the application of this strategy is concerned . We even won various club awards but we further plan on organising more club events and activities other than the general meetings using the Visualisation tool to attract more and more new members . We even plan on making posters for weekly meetings that will help more people to know about the club and want them to attend the meetings or at least attend one meeting and see what we have to offer . In addition to that , we plan on creating videos featuring success stories of our club members to make everyone believe that anyone can be a leader and communicate with ﬂuency . Visualisation along with the currently applied strategy can help us create new leads and soar the club even more .