Reflection on Visualization 

 Challenge & Selection     The first tool I used was the tool of Visualization , or Visual Thinking , to achieve a better and   shared understanding of a problem space among a group of colleagues , to raise their   awareness and to engage them in a call to action .      My role is the CFO of a mid size company and one of my duties is to monitor the financial   performance of the entity . Regularly , I present financial reports to line managers ‘ assembly .   As these managers do n’t have strong finance background , it is a fair assumption that my   reports were difficult to grasp for some , and outright confusing for others . In the past , I tried   different approaches to better tune in with my colleagues :   shift the scope of the figures to   the relevant areas and to generally trim the amount of figures presented . But the   understanding still remained an issue , and so was the energy , I could get from my audience   to support my plans .    At the end , being the senior expert in the room , was enough for most stakeholders to accept   my conclusions and to engage in whatever was suggested as management action plan .      Application     Last year ( this year still being new ! ) I tried a significant change in my presentation style :   Instead of powerpoint , I used an ‚ clean ‘   flipchart . ‚ Clean ‘ , because I had pre - drawn some of   the pictures in pencil , that I then just had to follow up with the big felt pen , used during my   presentation .       For the first part : ​‚Where do we stand financially​ ‘ , I used   the metaphor and the symbols of a   weather forecast . There were symbols of   thunder , lighning , wind and clouds , suffice to say   the actual financial were not in a good shape at that time .    For the second part , ​‚What do we now have to do​ ’ , I used the metaphor of a soccer game ,   and how to turn the game around after an unfortunate drawback in the first half . There I used   symbols of a soccer game‘s tactical map , like a coach would use : how to plan our offense   moves and how to set up the defence . In each of these moves , I placed suggested financial   actions , like   reduce costs , increase revenues , avoid spending , etc .      The result was astounding : the audience immediately engaged in very intense discussion   about what was apparently going wrong and how to fix it . They came up    with additional improvement ideas and spent a good deal more energy to really turn around   the financial situation . More importantly , they also understood , that it was necessary to   orchestrate all different actions at the same time and as a team , in order to achieve a   successful outcome .     Insights     I have three take aways from this : 

 1 ) Visualization helps to convey the important ideas and topics , in a group of   people with   different professional background . With that , it can be a helpful tool to focus the discussion   onto the real issues .    2 ) Visualization can bring higher engagement and participation , and together with right   metaphor and analogies , it can boost team spirit and affect a greater buy in . One reason is , it   lowers the barriers for engaging in a discussion - no need to be afraid to misinterpret some   technical jargon or ratio of   figures . The other is , the graphical representation is engaging   other brain regions and triggers creativity at a different level .   3 ) Preparation as always is key , choose your graphics /drawings   wisely - or risk to confuse   the audience !   And , I found it helpful to have my drawings prepared in advance , so that I   knew , drawing space was properly used   and the drawings were recognizable . After all , I am   still a miserable artist;- )     Approach     The approach of visualization is certainly something to explore further , especially when   reaching out to experts in a different professional family . Which visual symbols to use and   how to structure their connections most meaningful .   I see already aspects of storytelling in my application example , when using the metaphor of   a soccer game . I would use visualization and storytelling further , in all situations , where I   want to share a problem and engage my audience in a creative solution finding process . 


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 on Visualization 

 Challenge & Selection     The first tool I used was the tool of Visualization , or Visual Thinking , to achieve a better and   shared understanding of a problem space among a group of colleagues , to raise their   awareness and to engage them in a call to action .      My role is the CFO of a mid size company and one of my duties is to monitor the financial   performance of the entity . Regularly , I present financial reports to line managers ‘ assembly .   As these managers do n’t have strong finance background , it is a fair assumption that my   reports were difficult to grasp for some , and outright confusing for others . In the past , I tried   different approaches to better tune in with my colleagues :   shift the scope of the figures to   the relevant areas and to generally trim the amount of figures presented . But the   understanding still remained an issue , and so was the energy , I could get from my audience   to support my plans .    At the end , being the senior expert in the room , was enough for most stakeholders to accept   my conclusions and to engage in whatever was suggested as management action plan .      Application     Last year ( this year still being new ! ) I tried a significant change in my presentation style :   Instead of powerpoint , I used an ‚ clean ‘   flipchart . ‚ Clean ‘ , because I had pre - drawn some of   the pictures in pencil , that I then just had to follow up with the big felt pen , used during my   presentation .       For the first part : ​‚Where do we stand financially​ ‘ , I used   the metaphor and the symbols of a   weather forecast . There were symbols of   thunder , lighning , wind and clouds , suffice to say   the actual financial were not in a good shape at that time .    For the second part , ​‚What do we now have to do​ ’ , I used the metaphor of a soccer game ,   and how to turn the game around after an unfortunate drawback in the first half . There I used   symbols of a soccer game‘s tactical map , like a coach would use : how to plan our offense   moves and how to set up the defence . In each of these moves , I placed suggested financial   actions , like   reduce costs , increase revenues , avoid spending , etc .      The result was astounding : the audience immediately engaged in very intense discussion   about what was apparently going wrong and how to fix it . They came up    with additional improvement ideas and spent a good deal more energy to really turn around   the financial situation . More importantly , they also understood , that it was necessary to   orchestrate all different actions at the same time and as a team , in order to achieve a   successful outcome .     Insights     I have three take aways from this : 

 1 ) Visualization helps to convey the important ideas and topics , in a group of   people with   different professional background . With that , it can be a helpful tool to focus the discussion   onto the real issues .    2 ) Visualization can bring higher engagement and participation , and together with right   metaphor and analogies , it can boost team spirit and affect a greater buy in . One reason is , it   lowers the barriers for engaging in a discussion - no need to be afraid to misinterpret some   technical jargon or ratio of   figures . The other is , the graphical representation is engaging   other brain regions and triggers creativity at a different level .   3 ) Preparation as always is key , choose your graphics /drawings   wisely - or risk to confuse   the audience !   And , I found it helpful to have my drawings prepared in advance , so that I   knew , drawing space was properly used   and the drawings were recognizable . After all , I am   still a miserable artist;- )     Approach     The approach of visualization is certainly something to explore further , especially when   reaching out to experts in a different professional family . Which visual symbols to use and   how to structure their connections most meaningful .   I see already aspects of storytelling in my application example , when using the metaphor of   a soccer game . I would use visualization and storytelling further , in all situations , where I   want to share a problem and engage my audience in a creative solution finding process .
### Output: 