Mind Mapping Delivers Superior Results in Less Time

Long used in primary and secondary educational settings to help students plan their writing, communicate clearly and prepare for exams, mind mapping is a technique that is increasingly applied in business to help professionals think more creatively, communicate and collaborate more effectively, beat information overload, and manage day-to-day tasks and projects more productively.

A map can be hand-drawn or created in mind mapping software. Maps are built around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which radial branches of associated ideas, words and concepts are added. Relationship lines can be drawn between topics. Unlike the largely left-brain (rational and linear) style of thinking and learning which dominates the university experience, mind mapping is a whole brain thinking technique, combining colour and imagery with logic and organisation. Professionals who are asked to ‘think outside the box’ will find it easier to do so through the creative process of mind mapping.

Mind mapping is not new. Graphic organisers, or diagrams used to demonstrate relationships and communicate ideas, were used by ancient people groups. The modern technique of concept mapping was developed in the 1970s by psychologists, and mind mapping has been popularised more recently by British psychology writer Tony Buzan.

While searching for an alternative to traditional liner note-taking at university, Buzan says, “I quickly discovered that most of the great thinkers, especially Leonardo da Vinci, used pictures, codes and connecting lines in their notes. They ‘doodled’ and thus made their notes come alive.” (from How to Mind Map)

Because maps use key words and spatial organisation to demonstrate hierarchies and connections visually, many ‘mappers’ claim they experience accelerated capture of information and ideas, and they brainstorm and innovate more readily than if they were working in a linear or list-driven manner. The free flow of thought fostered by mapping taps into the largely unused associative and imaginative potential of the brain.

Maps also help time-poor audiences take in a great deal of information by scanning. Traditional outlines, reports and bullet lists carry an implicit sense of prioritisation; readers tend to give the information on the first page of a 5-page document more time, attention and weight. By contrast, a mind map can communicate all the key ideas in one glance, on one page. Details can follow in the form of subsequent maps or written reports.

Electronic mind mapping can be used effectively to organise large amounts of information and help users to leverage content in context to drive the success of their projects. Rather than stockpiling masses of potentially useful information as it arrives in the inbox or in-tray, mappers can quickly assess the value of an incoming article to their current or planned work, and then save the ideas or reference to the information source on a map for easy recall and retrieval the next time they are working on the relevant project. Links to related spreadsheets, documents, presentations and websites can also be captured on a map, creating a project dashboard with all resources organised in one place.

Mapping has been demonstrated to hep business leaders make better decisions as the free process helps them analyse pros and cons, identify threats and opportunities, clarify relationships between distinct parts of an initiative and maximise input from stakeholder groups.

Many project managers utilise electronic mapping to facilitate the easy capture of collective brainstorming, provide a common framework for organising thought, to streamline processes and quickly identify and track follow-up actions and timelines.

Sales and marketing professionals report significant time savings and increased sales when using mapping to prepare presentations, capture key client information during sales conversations, and consolidate all relevant information in one place. Maps can be used as a visual sales tool to communicate a great deal of information at a glance, allowing salespeople to quickly identify and focus on a client’s area of interest and need. Less up-front explanation is needed, thus more can be accomplished in a meeting.

Mind mapping has seemingly endless applications for professional and personal use, including goal setting and visualising, brainstorming, planning, communication, collaboration, decision-making, problem solving, task and project management, and the organisation of useful information.