Reflection – Visualisation 

 Challenge 

 I work for a Charity in the UK set up by local government to manage a range of buildings and services on its   behalf . These services include 9 museums , 64 sports facilities , 28 community centres , 32 community libraries , 4   music venues , 1 arts venue and a team of employees and volunteers to host several international sport and   cultural events in the city each year . In addition to the management of these facilities and events , the charity   has several teams who work to engage the most deprived people in the city to ensure they live richer lives   through sport , learning and cultural activity . Whilst the local government funds up to 70 % of the charity ’s   activities – our teams must work to bring in the additional 30 % through a range of income streams including   ticket and membership sales , partnership funding and charitable initiatives . 

 I joined the charity a few years back at a time of service reform where many of the long - serving managers had   taken voluntary redundancy and early retirement packages . This left a more streamlined operating model –   largely made up of middle - managers , team leaders and supervisors who were fairly inexperienced and needed   some immediate leadership and management development to build their capability and confidence to deliver   the results set out in our strategy . 

 As a learning and development professional it was part of my new role to identify their learning needs and   design , deliver and evaluate a programme that built capability – across this diverse audience . 

 Selection 

 Initially I spent time with senior managers from each of the different services , understanding their perception   of what the learning needs of their middle - managers were . I then set up structured focus groups with a   selection of team leaders , supervisors and managers from each of the service areas to get their perspective . 

 Still at the ‘ What is ? ’ question , sitting between Step 6 – Identify Insights and Step 7 – Establish Design Criteria   from the ‘ Steps for Designing for Growth ’ , as learned on this course , my manager arranged a 15 minute slot for   me to present my insights to the board of directors and to gain agreement on the next steps . 

 Given this relatively short time slot I persuaded my manager to let me use a couple of PowerPoint slides to   visualise my findings and recommendations . I was certain that given this short time slot , that visualisation   would be the most impactful way to present my insights and recommendations and get to a decision within   the same time slot . 

 Application 

 I revealed my identified insights , in layers on the PowerPoint Visualisation using a colour coded approach . 

 First , I revealed the bottom layer , service by service – sharing the unique learning needs identified by   attendees at each of the specific service area focus groups . 

 I then revealed the blue icons to share the common learning needs identified by attendees from across all   service area specific focus groups . 

 I then revealed the orange icons to share the common learning needs described by senior managers in my   initial discussions . 

 I then used animation to turn some of icons red . These highlighted areas that through further investigation   with some of the support services in corporate office as well as insights gleaned by performance reporting ,   were learning needs that needed addressed across a wider audience . These were learning needs for not only   middle managers but also senior teams and justified being separate projects that would eventually form part   of the further development solution for the identified group . 

 Insight 

 The insight presented in the visualisation allowed me to articulate my findings in a quick and easy way . I was   able to recommend that we consider turning the common learning needs into a modular programme of   blended activities delivered over one - year period . I was also able to recommend that we use the unique   learning needs as individual projects for participants , where they were assigned a senior mentor from within or   across services or a coach to support them in the delivery of their projects over the duration of the   programme . 

 The approach allowed the board , not generally known for making decisions quickly , to think visually and to   immediately approve my progression onto what I now know as steps 7 to 12 of the ‘ Steps to Designing for   Growth ’ . 

 Approach 

 The approach initially requested by my manager was for me to write a report on my findings which she would   email to the senior team asking for feedback . My concern was that this would have taken much more time ,   would not have provided the opportunity to answer questions and most importantly it would not have   achieved the same immediate sense of agreement and consensus provided by visualisation . I used visualisation   again at the Learning Launch step further down the line , which cements for me what I know to be a tried and   tested means of engaging and influencing key stakeholders . 

 In addition to visualisation , I also enjoyed learning about the part that Storytelling plays in design thinking . As   storytelling is not a strong skill for me , I am keen to learn more as I believe that this alongside visualisation will   prove invaluable for future work . 


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 – Visualisation 

 Challenge 

 I work for a Charity in the UK set up by local government to manage a range of buildings and services on its   behalf . These services include 9 museums , 64 sports facilities , 28 community centres , 32 community libraries , 4   music venues , 1 arts venue and a team of employees and volunteers to host several international sport and   cultural events in the city each year . In addition to the management of these facilities and events , the charity   has several teams who work to engage the most deprived people in the city to ensure they live richer lives   through sport , learning and cultural activity . Whilst the local government funds up to 70 % of the charity ’s   activities – our teams must work to bring in the additional 30 % through a range of income streams including   ticket and membership sales , partnership funding and charitable initiatives . 

 I joined the charity a few years back at a time of service reform where many of the long - serving managers had   taken voluntary redundancy and early retirement packages . This left a more streamlined operating model –   largely made up of middle - managers , team leaders and supervisors who were fairly inexperienced and needed   some immediate leadership and management development to build their capability and confidence to deliver   the results set out in our strategy . 

 As a learning and development professional it was part of my new role to identify their learning needs and   design , deliver and evaluate a programme that built capability – across this diverse audience . 

 Selection 

 Initially I spent time with senior managers from each of the different services , understanding their perception   of what the learning needs of their middle - managers were . I then set up structured focus groups with a   selection of team leaders , supervisors and managers from each of the service areas to get their perspective . 

 Still at the ‘ What is ? ’ question , sitting between Step 6 – Identify Insights and Step 7 – Establish Design Criteria   from the ‘ Steps for Designing for Growth ’ , as learned on this course , my manager arranged a 15 minute slot for   me to present my insights to the board of directors and to gain agreement on the next steps . 

 Given this relatively short time slot I persuaded my manager to let me use a couple of PowerPoint slides to   visualise my findings and recommendations . I was certain that given this short time slot , that visualisation   would be the most impactful way to present my insights and recommendations and get to a decision within   the same time slot . 

 Application 

 I revealed my identified insights , in layers on the PowerPoint Visualisation using a colour coded approach . 

 First , I revealed the bottom layer , service by service – sharing the unique learning needs identified by   attendees at each of the specific service area focus groups . 

 I then revealed the blue icons to share the common learning needs identified by attendees from across all   service area specific focus groups . 

 I then revealed the orange icons to share the common learning needs described by senior managers in my   initial discussions . 

 I then used animation to turn some of icons red . These highlighted areas that through further investigation   with some of the support services in corporate office as well as insights gleaned by performance reporting ,   were learning needs that needed addressed across a wider audience . These were learning needs for not only   middle managers but also senior teams and justified being separate projects that would eventually form part   of the further development solution for the identified group . 

 Insight 

 The insight presented in the visualisation allowed me to articulate my findings in a quick and easy way . I was   able to recommend that we consider turning the common learning needs into a modular programme of   blended activities delivered over one - year period . I was also able to recommend that we use the unique   learning needs as individual projects for participants , where they were assigned a senior mentor from within or   across services or a coach to support them in the delivery of their projects over the duration of the   programme . 

 The approach allowed the board , not generally known for making decisions quickly , to think visually and to   immediately approve my progression onto what I now know as steps 7 to 12 of the ‘ Steps to Designing for   Growth ’ . 

 Approach 

 The approach initially requested by my manager was for me to write a report on my findings which she would   email to the senior team asking for feedback . My concern was that this would have taken much more time ,   would not have provided the opportunity to answer questions and most importantly it would not have   achieved the same immediate sense of agreement and consensus provided by visualisation . I used visualisation   again at the Learning Launch step further down the line , which cements for me what I know to be a tried and   tested means of engaging and influencing key stakeholders . 

 In addition to visualisation , I also enjoyed learning about the part that Storytelling plays in design thinking . As   storytelling is not a strong skill for me , I am keen to learn more as I believe that this alongside visualisation will   prove invaluable for future work .
### Output: 