Reflection – Visualization – A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words 

 Challenge   A common challenge I face when trying to design change is that I am often remote from the parties that   are involved in the session .   We are all in different offices , in different time zones , and come from   different backgrounds and levels of understanding .   A lot of my peers utilize wordy presentations with   many bullet points that lead to distraction during the presentation due to people reading the slide .    Alternatively , some of my peers utilize no presentation materials and simply rely on verbal transfer of   information and collaboration . 

 In a recent project I had to convey concerns with how our software is delivered to our customers .   A lot   of the concepts are very esoteric and require a lot of domain knowledge to understand .   I had to create   a presentation to lay the groundwork for the need to change to people ranging from direct line workers ,   managers , executives , and even people outside of the company .   The presentation had to be remote ,   but it could include visuals through desktop sharing tools and video conferencing . 

 Selection   Despite the remoteness , the selected tool was visualization .   I chose to take advantage of the desktop   and video sharing to help convey my message that the way that we design and develop our software is   completely different than how our customers deploy it .   From the lesson on the visualization tool , we   learned that visualization unlocks another side of the brain that is more powerful and creative than just   words .   This tool allows me to take concepts where I may have had 7 bullet points on a slide and   condense it down into couple of pictures that have a much larger impact .   My thought was that a picture   is quite literally worth a thousand words .   Instead of me trying to describe my concepts in industry   jargon , I could let the pictures bring together the more abstract concepts . 

 Application   To apply this tool , I did utilize Microsoft Power Point .   I clearly defined the problem statement , and one   of the first slides I utilized was a slide to show in an abstract way , how our internal environments differ   from our customer environments .   I found a picture showing a white glove lab environment to picture   our own internal process , and a picture of the wild west to illustrate the customer environment . 

 The purpose of this was to really hit home on the challenges that we face as a company and to open the   door for discussion on how we can improve our software delivery to the customers .   Prior to this   approach , it was all just words trying to convey the problem , but it really was not brought home to the   executives that there really was a problem until they were able to picture it in an abstract form . 

 Past the initial presentation , we used the power point in a shared location as a “ vision board ” to apply   thoughts on how to improve our software delivery .   Participants were encouraged to add graphs ,   drawings , or pictures to help illustrate things that could be improved or really the ideal state for our   delivery program . 

 Insight   By applying a very visual approach to the problem definition , we ensured that everyone was on the   same page for understanding the scope and the magnitude of the problem .   The “ vision board ” power   point allowed group collaboration across the miles .   In the past it has been very difficult to hold ideation   sessions with a group of remote participants .   This added an element of fun and challenged that really   ignited some innovative thinking . 

 Approach   An alternate approach could have included the more encompassing mind mapping tool .   This would   have required a physical space or some way to simulate in the virtual world .   It would have been more   expensive to bring everyone together , but it could have provided a richer outcome with more opinions .    Going forward , there may be a way to incorporate group think by having different groups create   PowerPoints to share .   Those presentations can then be critiqued and modified by the other teams   eventually being brought together to create a more cohesive vision .   In any case , the visual aspect   should not be lost , and people should be encouraged to utilize whatever pictures , drawings , graphs they   have available to convey ideas .   Too many things get lost in just using words , and words can be   interpreted a number of different ways . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Visualization – A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words 

 Challenge   A common challenge I face when trying to design change is that I am often remote from the parties that   are involved in the session .   We are all in different offices , in different time zones , and come from   different backgrounds and levels of understanding .   A lot of my peers utilize wordy presentations with   many bullet points that lead to distraction during the presentation due to people reading the slide .    Alternatively , some of my peers utilize no presentation materials and simply rely on verbal transfer of   information and collaboration . 

 In a recent project I had to convey concerns with how our software is delivered to our customers .   A lot   of the concepts are very esoteric and require a lot of domain knowledge to understand .   I had to create   a presentation to lay the groundwork for the need to change to people ranging from direct line workers ,   managers , executives , and even people outside of the company .   The presentation had to be remote ,   but it could include visuals through desktop sharing tools and video conferencing . 

 Selection   Despite the remoteness , the selected tool was visualization .   I chose to take advantage of the desktop   and video sharing to help convey my message that the way that we design and develop our software is   completely different than how our customers deploy it .   From the lesson on the visualization tool , we   learned that visualization unlocks another side of the brain that is more powerful and creative than just   words .   This tool allows me to take concepts where I may have had 7 bullet points on a slide and   condense it down into couple of pictures that have a much larger impact .   My thought was that a picture   is quite literally worth a thousand words .   Instead of me trying to describe my concepts in industry   jargon , I could let the pictures bring together the more abstract concepts . 

 Application   To apply this tool , I did utilize Microsoft Power Point .   I clearly defined the problem statement , and one   of the first slides I utilized was a slide to show in an abstract way , how our internal environments differ   from our customer environments .   I found a picture showing a white glove lab environment to picture   our own internal process , and a picture of the wild west to illustrate the customer environment . 

 The purpose of this was to really hit home on the challenges that we face as a company and to open the   door for discussion on how we can improve our software delivery to the customers .   Prior to this   approach , it was all just words trying to convey the problem , but it really was not brought home to the   executives that there really was a problem until they were able to picture it in an abstract form . 

 Past the initial presentation , we used the power point in a shared location as a “ vision board ” to apply   thoughts on how to improve our software delivery .   Participants were encouraged to add graphs ,   drawings , or pictures to help illustrate things that could be improved or really the ideal state for our   delivery program . 

 Insight   By applying a very visual approach to the problem definition , we ensured that everyone was on the   same page for understanding the scope and the magnitude of the problem .   The “ vision board ” power   point allowed group collaboration across the miles .   In the past it has been very difficult to hold ideation   sessions with a group of remote participants .   This added an element of fun and challenged that really   ignited some innovative thinking . 

 Approach   An alternate approach could have included the more encompassing mind mapping tool .   This would   have required a physical space or some way to simulate in the virtual world .   It would have been more   expensive to bring everyone together , but it could have provided a richer outcome with more opinions .    Going forward , there may be a way to incorporate group think by having different groups create   PowerPoints to share .   Those presentations can then be critiqued and modified by the other teams   eventually being brought together to create a more cohesive vision .   In any case , the visual aspect   should not be lost , and people should be encouraged to utilize whatever pictures , drawings , graphs they   have available to convey ideas .   Too many things get lost in just using words , and words can be   interpreted a number of different ways .
### Output: 