Mind mapping used to be an individual sport. You would simply get started with pen and paper at your desk or with some markers and a white board.
Even with software, mind mapping used to be a ‘productivity secret’ that was infrequently shared with others.
Recently though, over the last few years, mind mappers have started to emerge and go public.
Mind mapping is no longer limited to individuals. It’s being brought to meetings – both in person and online. And, it is creating immense value for teams!
“Yes, my name is Michael and I map!”
And I don’t map because I like to think visually. I map because it leads to better results!
Don’t just believe me when I say it, I asked you!
I asked in our online forums, user groups, Twitter and on phone calls. Here’s what ‘you’ had to say…
Collaborative Mind Mapping Enhances…
1. Communication and Collaboration: Streamline and improve how you communicate with your team and as a team!
“I love it! I used it to great effect with a team of geographically and professionally dispersed contributors to an e-learning programme.”
2. Problem Solving: Get a better understanding of problems, generate more solution ideas, and reach better results!
“It makes it easier to show relationships between different functions and groups and is also valuable in identifying gaps.”
Collaborative Mind Mapping Increases…
3. Idea Output: Combining our thinking in collaborative mapping creates idea synergy which leads to more ideas. More ideas lead to better results!
“Collaborative Mapping is a great way to quickly capture the ideas and processes during team meetings. It is good for allowing all ideas to be put down and tie them to the larger project items and goals.”
“Allows ideas to be caught and captured “on the fly!”
4. Speed: Mind mapping alone doesn’t guarantee speedy results. But when you apply a little meeting facilitation best practices, wow, the results are amplified. Try mapping for brainstorming sessions, requirements gathering, status meetings, or even problem solving. You’ll see what I mean.
“It literally gets all team members on the same page, brings decisions home more quickly, allows instant consensus, deliverables are signed off on almost instantly, moves the team ball forward by progressing project tasks and activities, garners preemptiveness and proactiveness from project managers, consultants, stakeholders, steering committee team members, from the client side, from the consulting side…you name it!”
5. Synergy: Synergy is one of my favorite high school lessons. 1+1=3. Put two minds together and you’ll get better results than each one could produce individually.
“By drawing upon and blending each individual’s experience, knowledge and skills, teams not only develop better solutions; they also learn and grow both individually and as teams.”
6. Alignment: At a project conference a couple of years ago, a project manager shared with the audience how mapping out a project charter used to take about a week. When he brought together stakeholders and mapped it out as a team, they were able to align and sign off on a charter in three hours! Another great by-product of collaborative mapping is the ability to align together as a team.
“I have found maps to be a great way to get a large group of people with different pieces of the puzzle (pretty much any project team that you care to name) to a common understanding of the bigger picture and all heading towards the same goal state.”
7. Engagement: Meeting maps create engagement with meeting participants. It’s a fast and easy way to capture conversations as they occur and collaboratively contribute in the creative process.
“It gets everyone that needs to be involved, around the table, no matter where they are on the planet. Makes it easy when you’re doing global projects and you can trigger ‘virtual project tables / sessions.’”
Collaborative Mind Mapping Decreases…
8. Meeting Costs: One benefit of ‘faster meetings’, ‘greater alignment’, ‘more ideas’, and ‘synergetic thinking’ is that you’ll be meeting less. In fact, you may find that it takes you less time to prepare for a meeting, less time in the meeting, and less time following up after the meeting. Multiply that by the number of participants to gauge the true cost savings.
9. Turf Issues: Another common problem on projects and many meetings are the hidden agendas that each stakeholder brings with them into the session. Mind mapping is a great way to level the playing field and capture input across all stakeholders.
“Facilitating a discussion that focuses on the map rather than people around the table helps move over and around the typical group dynamics issues of turf, loud voices and not so hidden agendas.”
“Collaborative mapping also blurs the lines of title/position, leveling the playing field by allowing everyone to have their say, which I find helps the team to communicate better in other aspects of their work.”
10. Time to…decisions and action: Getting past the ‘thinking’ stages of a project or problem faster lets you focus on what really matters, acting on your decisions to create and measure results. Whether you’re collaborating in real-time or overtime via maps in shared workspaces, having all the information in one place lets your various team members get up to speed, contribute, and make better decisions faster.
“Online collaboration saves time by having all key people when and where you need them.”
So there you have it, with one word of caution.
All of the above presupposes that you know how to mind map and have experience facilitating meetings effectively. It’s the magical combination of best practices for meetings and mind mapping that yields these great results. If you are not yet effective with your mind mapping techniques, start there. Afterwards, you can apply these techniques in your team meetings to become a more effective team.
P.S. Many thanks to EVERYONE who contributed in LinkedIn, Twitter, and everywhere else!
Comments