Reflection – Mind mapping

Challenge:

I am part of a large multinational corporation and my role is often to design and implement strategic  initiative in the Asia pacific region. That requires change management involving the business units and  staff from various professional backgrounds and cultures. There are 2 key challenges we generally face  while designing such programs

1- There is a huge amount of data available from our headquarters and other regions, but we

hardly don’t know what would apply to our region.

2- Due to the high power distance in Asian work culture, the feedback from ground is somewhat

muted and particularly people don’t speak in front of senior management.

Selection:

As we learned during the week-3 of this course, Mind mapping helps in finding the insights and  patterns in the available data and defining the design criteria through the collective power of “Minds”.  Mind mapping is the tool of my choice in such situations because,

-  It allows us to find useful patterns in the data

-  It provides visual and concise representation of the key points that shows the hierarchy and  inter-relationship of the ideas.

Application:

I had the opportunity to apply Mind mapping during a recent workshop. This workshop was to design  and plan the on-boarding program for a new office we are setting up at a new Asian location. The  context is that we have not yet significantly operated in that market and the office we are setting up  there will handle quite critical work. The objective for the workshop, which involved participants and  decision makers from various functions, was to design a program that ensures the new team starts on  the right foot and can quickly assimilate with teams working in other locations. During the first part of  the workshop that was solely focused on the program design, we first invited the participants to share  their thoughts along the few key questions, such as

-  What does the success of this program mean to me?

-  What constraints (e.g. time, money, logistics, etc.) do I see?

-  What can I do or have to help?

-  What would I likely expect if I am one of the staff at new location?

We captured the ideas on the flip charts and also encouraged the participants to jot down their  thoughts on sticky notes. Later we had a facilitated session to discover the common themes and  organize those in the mind map.

Insights:

This exercise provided us the design criteria of our program and also generated some useful ideas on  actions that can be considered in the next steps. For example, few key themes that emerged out from  the Mind mapping were

-  The consideration of new location culture,

-  Sharing the unwritten values of our current offices,

-  Importance of people connection (not just the policies and procedures),

-  Mentoring

The real value came from the combination of open discussion and the private inputs (through sticky  notes), which allowed us to capture richer feedback from the group in a collaborative way.

Approach:

The subsequent session has generated generate ideas and team has planned some of those for the  initial launch. We intend to have regular follow-up sessions to review and update our mind map and  incorporate new insights into our design criteria. This process is based on a feedback loop as we  interact with new staff and learn from our experiences and observations.


Reflection – Mind mapping Challenge : I am part of a large multinational corporation and my role is often to design and implement strategic initiative in the Asia pacific region . That requires change management involving the business units and staff from various professional backgrounds and cultures . There are 2 key challenges we generally face while designing such programs 1- There is a huge amount of data available from our headquarters and other regions , but we hardly do n’t know what would apply to our region . 2- Due to the high power distance in Asian work culture , the feedback from ground is somewhat muted and particularly people do n’t speak in front of senior management . Selection : As we learned during the week-3 of this course , Mind mapping helps in finding the insights and patterns in the available data and defining the design criteria through the collective power of “ Minds ” . Mind mapping is the tool of my choice in such situations because , - It allows us to find useful patterns in the data - It provides visual and concise representation of the key points that shows the hierarchy and inter - relationship of the ideas . Application : I had the opportunity to apply Mind mapping during a recent workshop . This workshop was to design and plan the on - boarding program for a new office we are setting up at a new Asian location . The context is that we have not yet significantly operated in that market and the office we are setting up there will handle quite critical work . The objective for the workshop , which involved participants and decision makers from various functions , was to design a program that ensures the new team starts on the right foot and can quickly assimilate with teams working in other locations . During the first part of the workshop that was solely focused on the program design , we first invited the participants to share their thoughts along the few key questions , such as - What does the success of this program mean to me ? - What constraints ( e.g. time , money , logistics , etc . ) do I see ? - What can I do or have to help ? - What would I likely expect if I am one of the staff at new location ? We captured the ideas on the flip charts and also encouraged the participants to jot down their thoughts on sticky notes . Later we had a facilitated session to discover the common themes and organize those in the mind map . Insights : This exercise provided us the design criteria of our program and also generated some useful ideas on actions that can be considered in the next steps . For example , few key themes that emerged out from the Mind mapping were - The consideration of new location culture , - Sharing the unwritten values of our current offices , - Importance of people connection ( not just the policies and procedures ) , - Mentoring The real value came from the combination of open discussion and the private inputs ( through sticky notes ) , which allowed us to capture richer feedback from the group in a collaborative way . Approach : The subsequent session has generated generate ideas and team has planned some of those for the initial launch . We intend to have regular follow - up sessions to review and update our mind map and incorporate new insights into our design criteria . This process is based on a feedback loop as we interact with new staff and learn from our experiences and observations .