Challenge

As part of a professional Architecture services firm that had been operating for 10 years and growing consistently

year after year. Revenue was growing steadily, but the operational data was showing a different picture. for example

there was rampant under utilization of resources, clients were upset during certain phases of the projects as they

complained that project managers were not meeting their promised timelines and in a scramble to meet the time

commitments, projects were forced to cut corners. the CEO complained that although the business was steady, he

notices loss of morale and lack of engagement in his management team that he has spent 10 years developing and

mentoring. In his mind the leaders should be in a position where they are delegating work, supervising the

production of work, and mentoring the new talent. But in his opinion, he felt that they had become more reliant on

him. He was simply not understanding what he needs to do get them to engage.

Selection

We were in search of insights as to why the management is demonstrating certain attitudes, and behaviors that were

stopping them short of performing at the level their CEO wanted. With this understanding it was clear that we

carefully need to understand 'what is' And for that purpose I selected mind map tool. According to Martha May, "Mind mapping is one of the most powerful tools in the designers toolbox, as mind mapping is more

engaging and more intuitive. According to the lectures mind mapping is defined as “looking for patterns and

insights in a large quantity of data you collected during your exploration of what is the current reality”.

I had access to operational and financial data to see what the trend in the company has been and I had already

conducted interviews with the CEO and members of senior leadership team to get their feedback on issues. I spent

significant time interviewing various members of the leadership, allowing myself to immerse in their day-to-day

activities and understand their pressure points. After that I proceeded to interview the rest of the staff. My role was

to only document and show my findings.

Application

The office took a couple of days off for a retreat, which presented itself as the perfect opportunity to conduct a mind

mapping exercise the information that I gathered through the process was then simply displayed in a gallery format.

Participants were asked to go through the data and were given post-it notes to document their findings. The

participants were asked to make groups of 3 -4 to distill their ideas and find a theme to categorize their notes and

trying to capture outliers. Once categories were formed, the participants were asked to find connections between the

categories. It was a very engaging session and the participants did not hold back their ideas.

Insights

Three broad categories that emerged from the distillation were something that the team was not anticipating and led

to identifying some very critical touchpoints between senior management and the teams they lead and also Senior

management relationship with the CEO. One of the interesting findings was that senior leadership is actually feeling

the burnout, because they appear to be ill equipped in managerial responsibilities like delegation of tasks, team

dynamics management, relinquishing control, even simple tasks such as task delegation, were becoming so

cumbersome that that instead of focusing on learning how to delegate, managers would take on the role

themselves which was leading to their burnout. Where the CEO originally felt that he had mentored his senior

managers to the point where they should become leaders, the participants responses said otherwise. The senior

managers felt that they feel incapable at times to cope with the stress of becoming a leader that instead of

performing basic managerial tasks they choose to focus on the work at hand, which was compromising leadership

and leaving other employees disengaged and with loss of morale.

The mind mapping exercise was the right tool to help the office understand that there is a serious problem and

coming together on the same page. This led to the entire organization realizing that their current way of operating is

unsustainable, inefficient, and perhaps detrimental to future growth. With buy-in from the entire organization of the

‘what-is’ state of the problem, it was clear that as a company we had to move into the next phase of innovation.

Approach

Mind mapping tool was perhaps the best approach for this kind of a problem as many employees in the company did

not even see management’s lack of efficiency as a problem, they would simply say that people are “too busy”. Mind

mapping tool is perhaps the best way to get people to see the issues that they have communicated through

interviews. It was essential to understand this ethnographic data before even attempting to identify solutions. In a

later stage of problem solving when different solutions have been identified, learning launches can be used to

quickly experiment with different scenarios of how the team can perform efficiently, productively and cohesively

and perhaps a hybrid of those learning launches might become the final solution.


Challenge As part of a professional Architecture services firm that had been operating for 10 years and growing consistently year after year . Revenue was growing steadily , but the operational data was showing a different picture . for example there was rampant under utilization of resources , clients were upset during certain phases of the projects as they complained that project managers were not meeting their promised timelines and in a scramble to meet the time commitments , projects were forced to cut corners . the CEO complained that although the business was steady , he notices loss of morale and lack of engagement in his management team that he has spent 10 years developing and mentoring . In his mind the leaders should be in a position where they are delegating work , supervising the production of work , and mentoring the new talent . But in his opinion , he felt that they had become more reliant on him . He was simply not understanding what he needs to do get them to engage . Selection We were in search of insights as to why the management is demonstrating certain attitudes , and behaviors that were stopping them short of performing at the level their CEO wanted . With this understanding it was clear that we carefully need to understand ' what is ' And for that purpose I selected mind map tool . According to Martha May , " Mind mapping is one of the most powerful tools in the designers toolbox , as mind mapping is more engaging and more intuitive . According to the lectures mind mapping is defined as “ looking for patterns and insights in a large quantity of data you collected during your exploration of what is the current reality ” . I had access to operational and financial data to see what the trend in the company has been and I had already conducted interviews with the CEO and members of senior leadership team to get their feedback on issues . I spent significant time interviewing various members of the leadership , allowing myself to immerse in their day - to - day activities and understand their pressure points . After that I proceeded to interview the rest of the staff . My role was to only document and show my findings . Application The office took a couple of days off for a retreat , which presented itself as the perfect opportunity to conduct a mind mapping exercise the information that I gathered through the process was then simply displayed in a gallery format . Participants were asked to go through the data and were given post - it notes to document their findings . The participants were asked to make groups of 3 -4 to distill their ideas and find a theme to categorize their notes and trying to capture outliers . Once categories were formed , the participants were asked to find connections between the categories . It was a very engaging session and the participants did not hold back their ideas . Insights Three broad categories that emerged from the distillation were something that the team was not anticipating and led to identifying some very critical touchpoints between senior management and the teams they lead and also Senior management relationship with the CEO . One of the interesting findings was that senior leadership is actually feeling the burnout , because they appear to be ill equipped in managerial responsibilities like delegation of tasks , team dynamics management , relinquishing control , even simple tasks such as task delegation , were becoming so cumbersome that that instead of focusing on learning how to delegate , managers would take on the role themselves which was leading to their burnout . Where the CEO originally felt that he had mentored his senior managers to the point where they should become leaders , the participants responses said otherwise . The senior managers felt that they feel incapable at times to cope with the stress of becoming a leader that instead of performing basic managerial tasks they choose to focus on the work at hand , which was compromising leadership and leaving other employees disengaged and with loss of morale . The mind mapping exercise was the right tool to help the office understand that there is a serious problem and coming together on the same page . This led to the entire organization realizing that their current way of operating is unsustainable , inefficient , and perhaps detrimental to future growth . With buy - in from the entire organization of the ‘ what - is ’ state of the problem , it was clear that as a company we had to move into the next phase of innovation . Approach Mind mapping tool was perhaps the best approach for this kind of a problem as many employees in the company did not even see management ’s lack of efficiency as a problem , they would simply say that people are “ too busy ” . Mind mapping tool is perhaps the best way to get people to see the issues that they have communicated through interviews . It was essential to understand this ethnographic data before even attempting to identify solutions . In a later stage of problem solving when different solutions have been identified , learning launches can be used to quickly experiment with different scenarios of how the team can perform efficiently , productively and cohesively and perhaps a hybrid of those learning launches might become the final solution .