FACILITATING CREATIVE THINKING
UMEED - LET HOPE PREVAIL
Prof - Kwela Hermanns
DMGT 732- Facilitating Creative Thinking
Contents 1.Project Overview 2. Brainstorming for Local Entity Selection Local entity selection 3. Why Umeed 4. Understanding the Problem 5. Problem Statement 6. Project Plan 7. Stakeholder Map 8. Recruiting Participants Participants Criteria Introducing the Participants 9. Warm up Activity 10. Workshop 11. Feedback
Project Overview By definition, “knowledge acquisition” involves the complex cognitive processes of perception, learning, communication, association, and reasoning. In this project, we develop and facilitate a collaborative workshop that reshapes how a group of people from a local organization acquires knowledge through hands-on creative exercises that apply lateral thinking strategies. The purpose is to transform material learning of facts and information into long-term memory through unique and powerful verbal-visual associations that bring text, images, and numbers to life. This course focuses on teaching design managers to creatively communicate both ideas and possible solutions to problems to non-designers. In order to meet this objective, we must apply lateral-thinking strategies. In other words, we have to think outside the box to communicate our message to a group of individuals who may not be familiar with creative-thinking concepts. Selecting a of local entity who are looking to solve problems and conduct research on that entity to see if it will benefit from a creative workshop.
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Brainstorming For Local Entity Selection
Gurukul old age home Old age homes
Aditya milk ice creams Ice cream manufacturing Vega Helmets
Rotract club of belgaum
Manufacturing Industries
Helmet manufacturing
NGO’s
Environmental issues
Facilitating Creative Thinking Umeed
Schools
Health and Sanitation Education system in India
Local Stores Social Innovation
Colleges Banks Co-operatives
Mahesh Foundation
Financial Inclusion for rural people of India Fin-tech companies
Cafe Book store
Wild sugar cafe
Wordpower
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Local Entity Selection
Clarity of existing problem
Need for Facilitating Creative Thiking Availability
Accessibility
Vega
Bandhan Bank
Umeed
Helmet Manufacturing
Financial Inclusion
NGO
7
7
5
6
9
7
5
4
9
8
7
9
Attributes Considered For Selecting The Organization Clarity of existing problem: When I was considering working with local organizations, I got in touch with them to discuss the problems they have been facing. In some cases, I approached them with the problem that I found with the secondary research and expected to collaborate with the organization to solve problems. Need for facilitating creative thinking: After having discussed the problem with the organization, I looked at which organization had the most scope and needed to incorporate lateral thinking into the current method of problem solving. Availability: This was one of the important criteria that had to be looked into. Due to busy schedules and certain other constraints, the availability of each organization had to be considered. Problems like company rules and regulations were also to be considered Accessibility: Another important aspect was accessibility. Different stakeholders were needed to solve the problems of the organization and accessing them had to be worked out.
Through the process of voting each attribute, the ďŹ nal entity was selected. Each criteria was voted on a scale of 10. The points have been marked after discussing each criteria with their respective concerned individual.
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Why Umeed? Umeed is an NGO operated in Belgaum, a small town in the South of India. It focuses on solving environmental issues in the town and smaller towns and villages in and around Belgaum. Umeed, being a fairly new organization has bought about considerable change. The take up one project a year and try and eradicate the problem. I chose to work with Umeed, because the problem they were tackling with could utilize lateral thinking in coming up with solutions and that they could implement the suggested outcome at the earliest. They were also keen on trying new ways of problem solving and how they could work more efďŹ ciently. For these reasons, working with Umeed would be a good pick.
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Understanding the problem
My first meeting with the director on the NGO, Rajlaxmi was about discussing the existing problems. After a telephonic interview we met and discussed possibilities for the workshop. This meeting also Included explaining the idea of lateral thinking and how it could be implemented in an organization. We then discussed all existing problems and then categorized which was the most important one. We then identified primary problems, secondary problems and problems which could be discussed later. We then finalized the three problems and did secondary research for each. This helped us get a broader idea of each problem.
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Recruiting volunteers Effective decision
Team development
making Raising funds
Main Issues
Marketing and Publicity
Primary Issues
Social Media Advertising
Financial Management
Sponsorships Collaborations
Secondary issues Facilitating Creative Thinking - 6
Problem Statement There are a number of NGOs in India, and each of them commonly face the issue of raising funds and generating sponsorship for their organization. There are a few NGO that get funded once in a while, but this huge sum of money at once does not help the organization sustain. There is a need to have constant source of money to run daily operations and carry out other logistics. Generating a constant sponsorship for sustainable functioning of the organization is the problem we will be addressing with the Organization for their growth and development.
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Project Plan Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Brainstorming Initial submission of group selection
Peer Feedback Initial submission of project activity plan, problem statement, problem definition
Finalize and submit project activity plan Facilitate/ document a warm up activity
Mid term progress review presentation Workshop day Complete peer feedback on warm-up activity documentation
Complete part 5. Facilitate and document visual storyelling activity. Complete peer feedback on visual storytelling activity documentation.
Submit process book of the course project Complete peer feedback on process book
Submit final video of the course project Complete peer feedback of final video
Complete peer feedback of final video
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MPETITORS CO
I want to do social service as my extra curricular in school
How can we make this NGO run on auto pilot?
SCHOOL / COLLEGE STUDENTS
What is the next problem we want to solve
I wish I could finish my schooling and get a good job
AC TIV I SI
We have a budget
BANKING SECTOR
Save nature and dont cut trees
BI
How much would we spend on philanthropy this year?
COMPANY OWNER
We need better and cheaper medical services
HEALTH CARE SECTOR
ACTIVISTS
How much will this benefit the public We need to fix te problems of this area
GOVERNMENT OFFICERS
MUNICIPALITY
Do we allow them to work in this area?
LOCAL
LIT
AUTHORITIES
Y
CSR MANAGER Can we sanction such a big loan to a NGO
How will this benefit our village?
We need a
new website
legalize this
We could give you a better offer since you are an NGO
project
LAWYERS
EMPLO YERS
ADVERTISEMENT AGENCY
FINANCE MANAGER
Can we put our money into a project like this
VILLAGE PANCHAYAT
GOVE
T
We need to
BANK MA
EN
DESIGNER AND WEB DEVELOPER
I want a loan at a lesser credit rate
We need to get some philanthropy work done
C N O O RPO SP RATE SO CIA L R E
FOUNDER
S ST
How do we get more funds and manage finance?
BOARD OF MEMBERS
We need better transport facilities and sewage system
PUBLIC
NEIGHBORHOOD
ORG ANI ZAT ION This would add to my CV
I want to do something for the society
TS
There is so much waste in our locality
OTHER NGO FOUNDERS
THE
OTHER PUBL IC
Should we collaborate for better development
S
BLIC PU
VOLUNTEERS
PUB LIC
After understanding and stating the problem, I created the stakeholder map. I did this to get a systemic view of the eco system and understand the mindset of all the actors. It also helped me categories them and plan and recruit participants accordingly. There is also an exchange in the value the actors provide for each other, here marked in red. Through this we can see the cycle and the value that has been exchanged.
STU DE N
Stakeholder Map
RS TO C E
NAGER
M RN
INVESTOR
INVESTORS / FUND RA
ISERS
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Recruiting Participants
This was the most important part of the process. It involved talking to the participants, setting up with a schedule that ďŹ ts everyone and planning the workshop accordingly. Participants were recruited based on the role they played in the organization. I decided to work with the board members and a few volunteers who work very closely with the NGO. Alot of volunteers were ďŹ rst considered, to be a part of the workshop, but after having a conversation with the board we came down to have three volunteers in the workshop. We wanted to restrict the participants to be upto 8, because our venue couldn't not hold more participants then that. Also, the participants had to be associated with the organization to be able to be a part of group discussions. And so by keeping this idea in mind, we chose 8 participants which included board members and volunteers of the organization.
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Participants Criteria 1. Should be a member of the Umeed Organization 2. Should be either a board member or a volunteer
There are a few criteria I set before beginning to recruit each participant. If the participant was eligible, I then sat down and spoke with the director to understand if each of the participant would be a good ďŹ t or not. Here are the criteria we kept in mind doe our ďŹ nal Selected participants.
3. Should have worked with Umeed on one project at least
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Introducing the Participants After much discussion, I ďŹ nally made a list of 9 partcipants. The participants included 5 board of members and 4 volunteers. 2 out of the 9 participants would be participating virtually. They would be on skype call. The workshop will be designed keeping in mind of their virtual presence.
1. Rajlaxmi Bohite Board of Member
2. Abhishek Shreyakar Board of Member
3. Vaidehi Zanvar Board of Member
4. Anirudh Banahatti Board of Member
5. Sharmad Tadkodkar
(Virtual Participant)
6. Nivedita Jagjampi
(Virtual Participant)
Board of Member
Volunteer
7. Hanish Singhania Volunteer
8. Akshata Kulkarni Volunteer
9. Pruthhivraj Chavan Volunteer
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Warm up Activity Warm up activity was a kick starter to our main workshop. It was conducted to introduce lateral thinking and how the workshop would be conducted. Due to availability of all the participants, the workshop had to be conducted on skype. I facilitated the warm up activity but introducing myself and asking the participants to introduce them selves and the role they play at the organization. We then discussed the idea of lateral thinking and how we would be using it to solve problems. I later sent them out a form that included questions about the Organization. These were questions that would get them to think about how they perceive the NGO and the role they play at the organization. Following page will have a few answers we collected during the Activity and the questions that were given out to the participants.
Duration: 15 mins
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Questions for the warm up activity
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Scanned with CamScanner
Scanned by CamScanner
Answers collected
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Answers collected Facilitating Creative Thinking - 16
Workshop The ďŹ nal workshop was conducted at the meeting hall of co-working space. The duration of the workshop was two and a half hours as planned. The workshop was divided into two different parts. The ďŹ rst part involved individual thinking exercise and the second part would be group thinking activities and brainstorming. The agenda of the workshop was to ideate ways to generate sustainable sponsorship and raise funds for the organization.
Duration: 2 and half hours
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Setting up for the Workshop
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Individual thinking activities Facilitating Creative Thinking - 19
Voting for Ideas
Discussion post individual Thinking activities Facilitating Creative Thinking - 20
Facilitating and Encouraging Lateral Thinking
Virtual Participant Facilitating Creative Thinking - 21
The Six Thinking Hats Activity
Brainstorming
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Concluding
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Collected Insights
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Key Insights Annual events for generating a sustainable amount for yearly projects
Expand reach through social media and traditional Advertising methods
Collaboration with mid-size organization for sponsorship
Awareness about the social work the organization is doing currently to get sponsors
Approaching school and colleges for creating awareness and recruiting students
Target the current political wave to create awareness and generate sponsorship
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Feed back The workshop was a great learning experience. This was my ďŹ rst time in conducting a workshop. I was nervous in the beginning but it all went very well. The warm up activity was on skype and so I was a little anxious about the story telling workshop. As a facilitator, I learned a few things I would always like to remember. In my opinion, preparing yourself with the subject and doing research before hand is very important. A well informed facilitator will be able to lead a group, and also manage the process if it does not turn out the way it was planned. This was something I worked on which really helped me. I was more conďŹ dent because of the number of times I planned and prepared for the workshop. Another thing that worked well was that I had a friend who helped me document the process. This was good for me since I could concentrate on the activity. In my opinion, the workshop was very productive. It led to good discussions and unbiased insights. One of the drawbacks were that, since I conducted the warm up activity on skype, it took me time to get the group to be comfortable on the workshop day. Virtual presence and physical presence of the group made difference which could have been worked on. The activities involved were all serious problem thinking questions. With more time in hand, maybe a few fun playful activity could be done, to make the participants relax and take a break from thinking. However, the activity was a successful one and I manage to achieve what I had planned. I will be developing a concept map for my ďŹ nal deliverable, but as of now I have collected the insights I generated during the workshop. It was also great to get feedback from all the participants of the workshop. One of them was that, the workshop was very planned and convenient. It was facilitated well as they were made to do activities to get an overall idea about the problem they have been wanting to solve. However, there were suggestions to involve some more fun activities and have a few more activity for the individual thinking. Having a presentation running alongside the activities was helpful as they were constantly guided and could refer to the presentation every-time they had questions about the activity. The participants had a great time and thought it was productive. They are planning on having another workshop which would be building the core team for the NGOS coming projects. I hope that works out too. Other then that, the Indian snacks samosa and chips which was served later were quite a treat.
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References Joanne Fritz - https://www.thebalancesmb.com/differences-between-ngos-and-nonproďŹ ts-4589762 Gerald Nussbaumer- Ofentse- Tebello-Amrik Sohal- Senele- Lerato-Ma Dai- Tash- Tracey- Selepe-Lisa sodiya - https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-ngo-and-npo.html
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Thank you