Reflection – Visualization 

 The Dreaded Staff Call 

 Challenge & Selection 

 I am part of a group of middle level managers who attend our director ’s weekly staff call .   Our   team is comprised of members of differing time zones and job duties .    Our calls generally follow   an agenda where I am the scribe and take notes , ensure all pertinent information is captured and   then shared on a corporate share drive .   Some team members are creative types who are   responsible for visionary goals and directives , other are process oriented and others perform   more technical development type of tasks .   We span from Mountain to Eastern time zones .   What   is consistently missing from this call is enthusiasm , engagement and a perceived good use of the   team ’s time .   How I determined this gap is the multitude of times comments need to be repeated   because someone was multi - tasking or not concentrating on the call at hand .   In addition , several   members of the team are not required to provide any feedback or information to the greater team   and therefore disengage during the call altogether . 

 I set out to choose a small sampling of stakeholders on the team .   I chose one representative from   each time zone , as well as one member from each genre of work described above .   This small   band of volunteers are setting off to define the scope of this project , what items of discussion   should be included , how all the team fits together and ultimately iterating on changes we could   make to the staff call structure to improve the overall retention and experience . 

 Application 

 Our initial meeting was set up to identify , from an individual user perspective , how they view the   weekly staff call ( empathy and journey mapping ) .   How does the staff call help or hinder their   daily / weekly work duties and expectations ?   This step we are reviewing the current process and   reflecting on which ( if any ) items work or do n’t work from the user perspective . 

 Users will define from their perspective what creates an environment that encourages   participation , retention and engagement .   Users will define what adds value for them   individually , what would make them engaged ?   The team will use virtual sticky notes to   participate .   If possible , future meetings will utilize a telepresence or Skype type of meeting   where each participant can “ see ” the other .   This would be to ensure the group is engaged in   dialog and focused on the task at hand . 

 Since the hardest part , is starting , I gave a very high overview of how my visualization looks   FOR ME .   My goal is to give my personal visual as a guidepost to engaging the larger group to   think outside what we do today .   I have put together a visual that shows the staff call in the   center , surrounded by all the items which stop me from being engaged in the conversation and   how those activities reduce my retention and input to the larger discussions happening . 

 I will ask the team to go deeper and share their version of what works and does n’t work for them   during our meetings and visualize any overlap that is found amongst the team members .   Are we   all experiencing the same thing ? Are there multiple distractions and topics that other members   we not aware of ? 

 I will use our visualizations and inputs to organize a mind map to see correlations and   differences from each of the participants .   Ultimately organizing iterative approaches to future   meetings by quickly tackling those common themes found with the participants . 

 Insight and Approach 

 What I have experienced and have struggled with initially is the goal of NOT having an end state   in mind .   I have had to work on using a beginner ’s mind to approach the issue .   I am naturally   inclined to want a quick fix for any situation and fall into the trap of the first option is generally   the one I choose .   It has been interesting thus far to see that some folks enjoyed the current   format .   When providing honest answers , they say this is a time for them to “ half listen ” and   catch up on other busy work they may have .   Others expressed frustration for the lack of   engagement from their peers . 


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 

 The Dreaded Staff Call 

 Challenge & Selection 

 I am part of a group of middle level managers who attend our director ’s weekly staff call .   Our   team is comprised of members of differing time zones and job duties .    Our calls generally follow   an agenda where I am the scribe and take notes , ensure all pertinent information is captured and   then shared on a corporate share drive .   Some team members are creative types who are   responsible for visionary goals and directives , other are process oriented and others perform   more technical development type of tasks .   We span from Mountain to Eastern time zones .   What   is consistently missing from this call is enthusiasm , engagement and a perceived good use of the   team ’s time .   How I determined this gap is the multitude of times comments need to be repeated   because someone was multi - tasking or not concentrating on the call at hand .   In addition , several   members of the team are not required to provide any feedback or information to the greater team   and therefore disengage during the call altogether . 

 I set out to choose a small sampling of stakeholders on the team .   I chose one representative from   each time zone , as well as one member from each genre of work described above .   This small   band of volunteers are setting off to define the scope of this project , what items of discussion   should be included , how all the team fits together and ultimately iterating on changes we could   make to the staff call structure to improve the overall retention and experience . 

 Application 

 Our initial meeting was set up to identify , from an individual user perspective , how they view the   weekly staff call ( empathy and journey mapping ) .   How does the staff call help or hinder their   daily / weekly work duties and expectations ?   This step we are reviewing the current process and   reflecting on which ( if any ) items work or do n’t work from the user perspective . 

 Users will define from their perspective what creates an environment that encourages   participation , retention and engagement .   Users will define what adds value for them   individually , what would make them engaged ?   The team will use virtual sticky notes to   participate .   If possible , future meetings will utilize a telepresence or Skype type of meeting   where each participant can “ see ” the other .   This would be to ensure the group is engaged in   dialog and focused on the task at hand . 

 Since the hardest part , is starting , I gave a very high overview of how my visualization looks   FOR ME .   My goal is to give my personal visual as a guidepost to engaging the larger group to   think outside what we do today .   I have put together a visual that shows the staff call in the   center , surrounded by all the items which stop me from being engaged in the conversation and   how those activities reduce my retention and input to the larger discussions happening . 

 I will ask the team to go deeper and share their version of what works and does n’t work for them   during our meetings and visualize any overlap that is found amongst the team members .   Are we   all experiencing the same thing ? Are there multiple distractions and topics that other members   we not aware of ? 

 I will use our visualizations and inputs to organize a mind map to see correlations and   differences from each of the participants .   Ultimately organizing iterative approaches to future   meetings by quickly tackling those common themes found with the participants . 

 Insight and Approach 

 What I have experienced and have struggled with initially is the goal of NOT having an end state   in mind .   I have had to work on using a beginner ’s mind to approach the issue .   I am naturally   inclined to want a quick fix for any situation and fall into the trap of the first option is generally   the one I choose .   It has been interesting thus far to see that some folks enjoyed the current   format .   When providing honest answers , they say this is a time for them to “ half listen ” and   catch up on other busy work they may have .   Others expressed frustration for the lack of   engagement from their peers .
### Output: 