Reflection 

 Submitted by Merna Ashry 

 Challenge : 

 In my role as an HR Business partner , one of the projects recently undertaken was to work directly with   my client groups on a People Strategy exercise with the intent of ensuring that we have the right   organizational structure manned with the right talent and capabilities , to achieve the company goals .   This approach required intensive scrutiny of the current organizational structure and a detailed thought   analysis of the workflow and activities being executed within the functional area .   Some of the other   imperatives we needed to address were : 

 •   How to prioritize the functional imperatives that face each leaders ’ functional organization .     •   Identifying critical roles within the team    •   Highlighting talent that currently exists   •   Highlighting gaps in capabilities which are needed to support the business and determine how   to build talent in these areas to address these gaps   •   Identifying and selecting digitization opportunities within the function 

 Selection : 

 For this exercise I chose to use the mind mapping tool .   For me , this is the best way to break down a   complex situation . There was a large amount of data that we needed to review and synthesize , and as a   result we needed to break down the project into distinct areas to enable us to focus on each piece of   the strategy . We needed to outline each of the above - mentioned areas and establish the framework for   the strategy ; and then work to generate the ideas to formulate the structure . This method is a creative   and visual way to capture the thoughts of the client and ensure we identify the appropriate information   in order to retrofit the data into the overall strategy . The example provided of the yard sale resonated   with me as you are going from a large and messy problem and categorizing the items into distinct areas   so they can be easily understood – or in the yard sales analogy – purchased . 

 Application : 

 From looking at the current reality of the situation , I chose to schedule an initial meeting of 30 minutes   with my clients to socialize the exercise .   This was to merely get them thinking about their organization   and what to expect when we delved into the actual exercise . After that , I scheduled a 2 - hour block of   time with the Sr . Leadership team member and asked him to invite others to the meeting that would be   able to provide insight and add value to the process . During this meeting there was a great deal of   brainstorming that occurred and the questions ‘ why ’ and ‘ why not ’ were frequently used to force the   team to think out of the box and visualize utopia .   What would the department look like ?   We asked   them to visualize a clean slate and inquired , “ if you could restructure your department anyway you like ,   what would it look like ? If anything was possible , what would that look like ? ” This gave the team the   opportunity to unleash their creativity and intuition and come up with ideas that were perhaps a little   out there , but none the less , potentially brilliant . Lastly , we conducted a work - flow analysis and listed all   the activities executed and placed them into a 4 - bucket prioritization matrix asking the questions , “ What   are the must have / value added resources necessary ?   What are the must have / nonvalue added   resources necessary ?   Can these be automated or outsourced ? ” 

 There were many more sessions that occurred after that , and all in all the time spent with each client   group totaled approximately 10 - 12 hours .   This was an effective exercise and ultimately was presented   to the Sr . Leaders who were pleased with the outcome . 

 Insight : 

 Having to do this for 4 different client groups was a very burdensome task , but one that I am very glad I   undertook .   It was difficult at first for the leaders to look at a blank slate and fill it with ideas .   Equally   difficult was to constantly be asked the questions ‘ why ’ and ‘ why not ’ . Eventually the difficulty subsided   and once they got the hang of it , the creatively juices started flowing . 

 Approach : 

 I do n’t know if I would do this differently net time – the mind mapping worked very well for this   situation .   Visualization may also work well and it ’s possible I will combine 2 of the tools the next time I   have a project of this magnitude . I really enjoyed the challenge of implementing this process in design   thinking and it helped to position me as a strategic business partner , but also one that was able to allow   the group to really become embedded in this design challenge . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Merna Ashry
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 

 Submitted by Merna Ashry 

 Challenge : 

 In my role as an HR Business partner , one of the projects recently undertaken was to work directly with   my client groups on a People Strategy exercise with the intent of ensuring that we have the right   organizational structure manned with the right talent and capabilities , to achieve the company goals .   This approach required intensive scrutiny of the current organizational structure and a detailed thought   analysis of the workflow and activities being executed within the functional area .   Some of the other   imperatives we needed to address were : 

 •   How to prioritize the functional imperatives that face each leaders ’ functional organization .     •   Identifying critical roles within the team    •   Highlighting talent that currently exists   •   Highlighting gaps in capabilities which are needed to support the business and determine how   to build talent in these areas to address these gaps   •   Identifying and selecting digitization opportunities within the function 

 Selection : 

 For this exercise I chose to use the mind mapping tool .   For me , this is the best way to break down a   complex situation . There was a large amount of data that we needed to review and synthesize , and as a   result we needed to break down the project into distinct areas to enable us to focus on each piece of   the strategy . We needed to outline each of the above - mentioned areas and establish the framework for   the strategy ; and then work to generate the ideas to formulate the structure . This method is a creative   and visual way to capture the thoughts of the client and ensure we identify the appropriate information   in order to retrofit the data into the overall strategy . The example provided of the yard sale resonated   with me as you are going from a large and messy problem and categorizing the items into distinct areas   so they can be easily understood – or in the yard sales analogy – purchased . 

 Application : 

 From looking at the current reality of the situation , I chose to schedule an initial meeting of 30 minutes   with my clients to socialize the exercise .   This was to merely get them thinking about their organization   and what to expect when we delved into the actual exercise . After that , I scheduled a 2 - hour block of   time with the Sr . Leadership team member and asked him to invite others to the meeting that would be   able to provide insight and add value to the process . During this meeting there was a great deal of   brainstorming that occurred and the questions ‘ why ’ and ‘ why not ’ were frequently used to force the   team to think out of the box and visualize utopia .   What would the department look like ?   We asked   them to visualize a clean slate and inquired , “ if you could restructure your department anyway you like ,   what would it look like ? If anything was possible , what would that look like ? ” This gave the team the   opportunity to unleash their creativity and intuition and come up with ideas that were perhaps a little   out there , but none the less , potentially brilliant . Lastly , we conducted a work - flow analysis and listed all   the activities executed and placed them into a 4 - bucket prioritization matrix asking the questions , “ What   are the must have / value added resources necessary ?   What are the must have / nonvalue added   resources necessary ?   Can these be automated or outsourced ? ” 

 There were many more sessions that occurred after that , and all in all the time spent with each client   group totaled approximately 10 - 12 hours .   This was an effective exercise and ultimately was presented   to the Sr . Leaders who were pleased with the outcome . 

 Insight : 

 Having to do this for 4 different client groups was a very burdensome task , but one that I am very glad I   undertook .   It was difficult at first for the leaders to look at a blank slate and fill it with ideas .   Equally   difficult was to constantly be asked the questions ‘ why ’ and ‘ why not ’ . Eventually the difficulty subsided   and once they got the hang of it , the creatively juices started flowing . 

 Approach : 

 I do n’t know if I would do this differently net time – the mind mapping worked very well for this   situation .   Visualization may also work well and it ’s possible I will combine 2 of the tools the next time I   have a project of this magnitude . I really enjoyed the challenge of implementing this process in design   thinking and it helped to position me as a strategic business partner , but also one that was able to allow   the group to really become embedded in this design challenge .
### Output: 