Mind Mapping: Community animation

Challenge & Selection    By the end of this year, I’ve been asked to lead the animation of an internal community of 10 consultants  in my firm for 2015. I was happy to take on this challenge, which represents for me a new opportunity to  energize the community and experience new activities.   I suggested to all members to co-construct our 2015 activities plan, a break with what we have until now.    I discovered the “Mind Mapping” tool in May 2011 when one of my clients shared with me his reflections  about the construction of the project’s budget, at the time, I didn’t know that it was a design tool. Few  months later, a new consultant in my firm shared with us his many experiences using mind mapping tool,  and I really enjoyed the way he did, he started by an anatomic description of human brain (two  hemispheres and 4 lobes) to show us the innovative zone in our brain (right side).   While following this Design Thinking course, I realized that Mind mapping is a powerful design tool to  structure ideas. Therefore, I’ve decided to use it to build the community activities plan for 2015.      Application:     I suggested to the community to set up a workshop to list out all our past and current activities using the  Mind Mapping tool, on my recommendation following what I’ve learned on the course. This first phase  allows us to have a complete vision of all what we’ve done and to prepare the construction phase which  comes next.    We were together in a room equipped and designed for innovation. After recalling the purpose of our  workshop, we started by drawing the community name in the center of the main whiteboard. For this  phase, every participant was invited to wright in a post it all activities that he has done until today in the  community. After 5 minutes of individual reflection, everyone shared his activities with the group and  explained them. This explorations phase allows us, after coordination, to identify 6 mains major groups  of activities, which we called streams. We repeated the same process for each stream to identify all  activities regrouped in the 6 streams.      In a second phase, we used the activities cartography produced in phase 1 to start the idea generation  phase. We challenged streams and activities to bring up new ideas and prioritize them to build the 2015’s  community roadmap. I want to share with you a tool I used, it’s called “investor game” and it’s used to  prioritize activities, using toy money notes, everyone acts like an investor and invest in activities that he  likes.     At the end of the workshop, we had our activities plan co-constructed by all the members of the  community.     Insight & Approach:     Without being a designer or a mind mapping expert, this experience allows me, for the first time, to use  a design tool by knowing its true purpose (for mind mapping: looking for patterns and insights to establish  criteria for the ideation phase). This time, using mind mapping, I was expecting a concrete result: the “as- is” situation of our activities. If I have to do it again, I’ll take more time during the ideation phase (phase  2) by using a learning lunch, for example, to identify new opportunities and activities for the community.     I learned a lot from this course, especially the 4 phases of a design approach (The 4W). I’m convinced that  the design is accessible for everyone who wants to explore new ideas. And in my everyday job as a  consultant, I’m ready to use the design approach for problem-solving appropriate situations.


Mind Mapping : Community animation Challenge & Selection By the end of this year , I ’ve been asked to lead the animation of an internal community of 10 consultants in my firm for 2015 . I was happy to take on this challenge , which represents for me a new opportunity to energize the community and experience new activities . I suggested to all members to co - construct our 2015 activities plan , a break with what we have until now . I discovered the “ Mind Mapping ” tool in May 2011 when one of my clients shared with me his reflections about the construction of the project ’s budget , at the time , I did n’t know that it was a design tool . Few months later , a new consultant in my firm shared with us his many experiences using mind mapping tool , and I really enjoyed the way he did , he started by an anatomic description of human brain ( two hemispheres and 4 lobes ) to show us the innovative zone in our brain ( right side ) . While following this Design Thinking course , I realized that Mind mapping is a powerful design tool to structure ideas . Therefore , I ’ve decided to use it to build the community activities plan for 2015 . Application : I suggested to the community to set up a workshop to list out all our past and current activities using the Mind Mapping tool , on my recommendation following what I ’ve learned on the course . This first phase allows us to have a complete vision of all what we ’ve done and to prepare the construction phase which comes next . We were together in a room equipped and designed for innovation . After recalling the purpose of our workshop , we started by drawing the community name in the center of the main whiteboard . For this phase , every participant was invited to wright in a post it all activities that he has done until today in the community . After 5 minutes of individual reflection , everyone shared his activities with the group and explained them . This explorations phase allows us , after coordination , to identify 6 mains major groups of activities , which we called streams . We repeated the same process for each stream to identify all activities regrouped in the 6 streams . In a second phase , we used the activities cartography produced in phase 1 to start the idea generation phase . We challenged streams and activities to bring up new ideas and prioritize them to build the 2015 ’s community roadmap . I want to share with you a tool I used , it ’s called “ investor game ” and it ’s used to prioritize activities , using toy money notes , everyone acts like an investor and invest in activities that he likes . At the end of the workshop , we had our activities plan co - constructed by all the members of the community . Insight & Approach : Without being a designer or a mind mapping expert , this experience allows me , for the first time , to use a design tool by knowing its true purpose ( for mind mapping : looking for patterns and insights to establish criteria for the ideation phase ) . This time , using mind mapping , I was expecting a concrete result : the “ as- is ” situation of our activities . If I have to do it again , I ’ll take more time during the ideation phase ( phase 2 ) by using a learning lunch , for example , to identify new opportunities and activities for the community . I learned a lot from this course , especially the 4 phases of a design approach ( The 4W ) . I ’m convinced that the design is accessible for everyone who wants to explore new ideas . And in my everyday job as a consultant , I ’m ready to use the design approach for problem - solving appropriate situations .