Mind-mapping

Challenge

Research should not be an end in itself. To move towards the future which we all aspire to, scientists need  to think about societal challanges and aim to address these. Yet, staying behind the close doors of  laboratories, they will not be able to understand what these societal needs are. Facilitating the  communication process between science and society is critical in order to make science adequate to people’s  lives. To uncover citizens’ needs and understand how to make science more responsive to these and how to  create the future we wish for, a number of European organisations conducted design workshops with  citizens. As part of these events citizens identified the current challenges they are facing and formulated  insights about how they would like their future to look like, as well as shared first thoughts on what is needed  to achieve that. The results of these workshops have been used to formulate research priorities which aimed  to inform future research programmes.

Selection

The method that has been chosen to address the above described challenge was a mind-mapping workshop.  We wanted to make citizens first think of WHAT IS and describe the issues they currently face in their lives.   This stage of the design thinking process has been incorporated into the mind-mapping workshop as we  wanted to understand citizens’ real concerns and challenges rather than skew their opinion towards certain  issues that the organisers considered important. Based on the results of these discussions, citizens generated  ideas on what their desirable future will be. This methodology was developed in this way in order to:

1) give participants a chance to think about their own experience and formulate the way desirable future  looks like, according to their own perspective;

2) allow citizens to share their thoughts with the rest, enrich their perspective through group discussions;

3) identify the most pressing challanges for citizens thorugh the clustering of challanges made on the tables.

Application

The citizens taking part in this event were selected randomly, yet they as a group needed to cover a certain  number of criteria in order to ensure diversity in the panel. These included: gender, age, level of education  and occupation. We wanted to make sure that different perspectives are included in our analysis.

In the first stage of the workshop, participants sat together in small groups of 5-6 people. Each small group’s  discussion was moderated by a table moderator, who made sure that each participant can express their  opinion and that the group progresses with the tasks.

First, participants were asked to think about challenges from their everyday lives. Then, they were asked to  look into these challenges from a broader perspective and think about societal challenges (e.g. quality of  education, migration, technologies’ influence on people’s lives, etc.). At the end of this session, with the help  of table moderators groups clustered the challenges they identified with sticky notes on flipcharts. Groups  presented their results to the rest. This stage of the process allowed participants to build a common  understanding about major challenges of nowadays.

In the next stage of the process participants were asked to think about how they imagine the desirable future.  The participants had 30 minutes to walk around the room and browse through the groups’ results and the  flipcharts they created. They were encouraged to take notes of what they consider important and insightful.  After that participants went back to the tables. They were asked to write down on sticky notes aspects of the  desirable future, i.e. visions for the future (e.g. children go to schools where the needs of every child are  individually met). Then again themes were clustered on a flipchart to formulate broader categories. At the  end tables presented to the rest of the participants their results.

Insight

An interesting result from the workshops was that similar challenges and visions for the future emerged from  the different national workshops. This result evinced that the pressing challenges for the future people are  concerned with are rather of a global scale than nationally bound. This calls for more collaboration between  researchers across borders.

In regard to the design thinking methodology, an important insight was that to motivate citizens to actively  participate in the event, they need to understand well the purpose of the event and how the results they  produced will be used in the future.

Approach

The feedback of table facilitators was that in the beginning the participants found it difficult to think about  specific aspects of their everyday life they perceived as current challenge. In order to successfully apply the  methodology it was important that people think about their own experiences rather that formulate the  challenges they have heard in the media. Thus, in order to stimulate participants think about their own  experiences, a good approach might be to ask them write a short story about their everyday life before the  discussions in the first stage of the event commence. This will help participants think of specific challenges  they face.


Mind - mapping Challenge Research should not be an end in itself . To move towards the future which we all aspire to , scientists need to think about societal challanges and aim to address these . Yet , staying behind the close doors of laboratories , they will not be able to understand what these societal needs are . Facilitating the communication process between science and society is critical in order to make science adequate to people ’s lives . To uncover citizens ’ needs and understand how to make science more responsive to these and how to create the future we wish for , a number of European organisations conducted design workshops with citizens . As part of these events citizens identified the current challenges they are facing and formulated insights about how they would like their future to look like , as well as shared first thoughts on what is needed to achieve that . The results of these workshops have been used to formulate research priorities which aimed to inform future research programmes . Selection The method that has been chosen to address the above described challenge was a mind - mapping workshop . We wanted to make citizens first think of WHAT IS and describe the issues they currently face in their lives . This stage of the design thinking process has been incorporated into the mind - mapping workshop as we wanted to understand citizens ’ real concerns and challenges rather than skew their opinion towards certain issues that the organisers considered important . Based on the results of these discussions , citizens generated ideas on what their desirable future will be . This methodology was developed in this way in order to : 1 ) give participants a chance to think about their own experience and formulate the way desirable future looks like , according to their own perspective ; 2 ) allow citizens to share their thoughts with the rest , enrich their perspective through group discussions ; 3 ) identify the most pressing challanges for citizens thorugh the clustering of challanges made on the tables . Application The citizens taking part in this event were selected randomly , yet they as a group needed to cover a certain number of criteria in order to ensure diversity in the panel . These included : gender , age , level of education and occupation . We wanted to make sure that different perspectives are included in our analysis . In the first stage of the workshop , participants sat together in small groups of 5 - 6 people . Each small group ’s discussion was moderated by a table moderator , who made sure that each participant can express their opinion and that the group progresses with the tasks . First , participants were asked to think about challenges from their everyday lives . Then , they were asked to look into these challenges from a broader perspective and think about societal challenges ( e.g. quality of education , migration , technologies ’ influence on people ’s lives , etc . ) . At the end of this session , with the help of table moderators groups clustered the challenges they identified with sticky notes on flipcharts . Groups presented their results to the rest . This stage of the process allowed participants to build a common understanding about major challenges of nowadays . In the next stage of the process participants were asked to think about how they imagine the desirable future . The participants had 30 minutes to walk around the room and browse through the groups ’ results and the flipcharts they created . They were encouraged to take notes of what they consider important and insightful . After that participants went back to the tables . They were asked to write down on sticky notes aspects of the desirable future , i.e. visions for the future ( e.g. children go to schools where the needs of every child are individually met ) . Then again themes were clustered on a flipchart to formulate broader categories . At the end tables presented to the rest of the participants their results . Insight An interesting result from the workshops was that similar challenges and visions for the future emerged from the different national workshops . This result evinced that the pressing challenges for the future people are concerned with are rather of a global scale than nationally bound . This calls for more collaboration between researchers across borders . In regard to the design thinking methodology , an important insight was that to motivate citizens to actively participate in the event , they need to understand well the purpose of the event and how the results they produced will be used in the future . Approach The feedback of table facilitators was that in the beginning the participants found it difficult to think about specific aspects of their everyday life they perceived as current challenge . In order to successfully apply the methodology it was important that people think about their own experiences rather that formulate the challenges they have heard in the media . Thus , in order to stimulate participants think about their own experiences , a good approach might be to ask them write a short story about their everyday life before the discussions in the first stage of the event commence . This will help participants think of specific challenges they face .