Mapping your roadmap for solving problems

Below I show a Tweet from this past week, highlighting a planning process diagramed using Kumu.io. Follow the links and you can go to the map and learn about it in detail. I also show a concept map that I created a few years ago to share an information based problem solving strategy that I've encouraged others to adopt in helping reach youth in high poverty areas with organized tutor, mentor and learning support that helps those kids move through school and into adult lives.

I saw this #conceptmap yesterday & viewed it at https://t.co/1vU0EBspWX I circled the part that shows "local/global data". This is where information libraries would have value in any planning process. Thanks @lstabler7 & @BrianDRPM for creating this. pic.twitter.com/6qRiC4VWEG

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) December 2, 2020

I circled an area at the left side of the Kumu map, which shows the role of information and data in supporting planning and innovation.  I circled the same functional area in the upper right corner of my concept map.

In the graphic at the right I show a goal we all share at the top of this inverted pyramid. "All kids move safely through school and into adult lives and jobs."

This process is supported by formal and informal knowledge and information systems. 

In this blog article I point to the many different sections of the information library I've been building for more than 30 years, which I started putting on the Internet in the late 1990s. 

Many of the links in my library point to other websites that are also libraries and that are bringing together people and organizations on their own platforms.  By pointing to them from my sites I expand what's available to people who visit.

Browse this set of articles and you'll find more examples of web libraries supporting innovation and collaboration.

Why do I think this is important? I've sat in planning meeting in the early 1990s where million dollar grants were being considered and those making decisions were only drawing from a small body information.  Too many project re-invent processes and solutions that others have already tried in different places. At the heart of the Tutor/Mentor library is my list of Chicago tutor mentor and learning programs and maps showing where such programs are most needed.   Knowledge libraries can be created by a few but accessed and used by many...if they are encouraged to do so. 

I'd like to find more examples of people mapping their problem solving process and pointing to the web libraries they use to support member learning and innovation. You can share links to such sites in the comment section. 

The graphic at the right visualizes a 4-part strategy that I've piloted since 1993.  Step 1 involves collecting and organizing information, or creating the knowledge base. Step 2 and Step 3 involved motivating a growing number of people to visit the library regularly and helping them find what they are looking for and understand how to apply the information in Step 4, different places where youth and families would benefit from organized, on-going, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs.  

I've never had a large organization to do this work and since 2011 when I formed the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, I've been doing this mostly without much help from others.  Thus, as I share this I encourage you to read how universities might form Tutor/Mentor Connection teams that duplicate what I've been doing, but focused on different cities than Chicago, or on specific areas of Chicago and its suburbs. If you know people who might be interested please share these articles with them.

Thank you for reading my blog articles. I encourage you to share them with your network and connect with me on one of these social media platforms.

Every December I launch two ways for people to contribute money to support the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

1) make a birthday gift to support my Dec. 19 birthday. click here
2) contribute to the T/MI Fund  - click here

Thank you to the small group of people who have made contributions in past years. You're the reason I'm still able to collect and share this information.