For a full replay of the webinar and to view all the content, sign up for a free trial of GTD Connect or, if you’re already a member, view it here.

I’ve posted (via SlideShare) the highlights of the presentation as well:

1. GTD’s Horizons of Focus map template – this template provides an incredible way to view and align your life’s work. From your life goals and mission all the way down to your projects and activities. Mapping helps you internalize your horizons which, in turn, help strengthen the internal compass you use to guide your moment-by-moment decisions.
2. GTD’s Weekly Review map template – each week I turn to my ‘weekly review’ template to walk me through the process of getting current and staying on top of my game!
3. GTD’s Mind Sweep map template – use this template alone or as part of your weekly review. Clear your mind of all its clutter so you can get creative & productive without having these unexplored areas taking over your subconscious mind.
4. Strategic Plan map template – it’s almost the turn of the year and time to build out your [organization, department, team, life] strategic plan! Assess your world and map out your path forward to success!
5. GTD’s Project Triggers list in a map template – use this trigger list to help define your next (and every) project!
6. Project Questions map template – use this technique to quickly assess any incoming project or task (hint: you can save this or others as map parts to reuse in existing maps)
7. Brainstorming results example map – this is the result of a brainstorming session where ideas were captured, then organized, then prioritized, and filtered to display priority 1 opportunities. Then, the team started to add next actions to their top choices.
8. Marketing Status Meeting map template – example map that can be used to plan and conduct meetings.
9. GTD Research – example of a research map that includes linked files (which will not work on your machine, RSS feeds, Google search results (via MindManager 8 for Windows), and more…
10. Writing an Article – example of a collaborative map used to visually outline an article written by myself and a mapping enthusiast from the other side of the country! We used Mindjet Catalyst to collaboratively update and outline the article. Then, inside MindManager’s embedded browser, we linked to a Google Doc to collaboratively write the article. It was published 2 months later in South Carolina Lawyer’s printed magazine, September issue.
11. Presentation Outline – this map example was created using the Beyond Bullet Points methodology (check out Cliff Atkinson’s book). A topic can be researched and organized into an in-depth presentation using maps. Expand or hide branches to review content at various levels of detail. The same map could be used to create a 15 minute presentation or a 45 minute (or longer) presentation based on the levels you expose… Export or reference the map to create your presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote.  For more information about this map, check out my Presentation Superhero post.
12. Learning with Maps: The Role of Photosynthesis in Plants – this map is an example of how mapping can aid your understanding of complex issues. It was created by Wendy Mack (see her post on mapping for students here or her twin sister Amy’s post). Maps are used to study for all types of exams at all levels of education including professional certifications. Give it a shot, you’ll be pleased!

Note: GTD and Getting Things Done are registered trademarks of The David Allen Company. The David Allen Company is also a trademark of…well, you guessed it, David Allen.

The post Productivity Prompts: Getting Things Done with Mind Maps appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

That’s where Mindjet ProjectDirector, introduced today, can help.  It keeps the whole team in sync right from the beginning all the way through successful completion.  It gives us all a better way to work together and overcome the  common challenges that teams face:

• Completed projects miss the mark due to a mismatch on expectations: There are few things more painful than working really hard to deliver what you think is needed, only to find out you didn’t understand  the objectives or requirements.  ProjectDirector’s virtual whiteboards and live co-editing let everyone actively participate in brainstorming, prioritizing and planning, so you can share and validate a clear picture of goals, scope and expected outcomes.  By explicitly mapping out project details in a format everyone can understand, you can identify issues and resolve them upfront, saving everyone a lot of time and heartache.

• Tasks don’t get done on time, leading to bottlenecks and resource conflicts: Sometimes all it takes is one person not completing his/her work on time to derail a schedule (and completely annoy everyone else). Automatic deadline reminders, along with shared visibility on dependencies and progress, help everyone stay on track.

• Inability to make timely changes: Even the best-drawn plans often need revision, but if you call too many meetings people stop attending. The alternative isn’t much better. Long email trails don’t usually lead to crisp decision-making as they inject lag times and invite opportunities for missed information.  ProjectDirector’s threaded comments means everyone can track requests for changes and make decisions based on the most current and complete information.

• Wasting time looking for information: It’s hard to find what you need when files are stored in multiple systems or are simply buried deep within nested folders. In addition to project folders that consolidate relevant files, embedded links in ProjectDirector maps easily and quickly guide team members to all relevant files, regardless of location.

Ultimately, success today is about teamwork. When it works, you win big.  And Mindjet’s ProjectDirector can help you and your team be more successful. Mindjet ProjectDirector will be released soon. To be the first to experience the latest project management software from Mindjet click here and sign up. Spread the news on Facebook and Twitter for insider access.

The post Mindjet ProjectDirector: Better Teamwork for Greater Project Success appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

Below are the 7 deadly sins that most companies commit when trying to carry big ideas from genesis to fruition without doing the proper groundwork or building a strong infrastructure, and how you can keep from indulging.

The Passionate Mistake (Lust)

There’s nothing wrong with having fervor for the job you do, or the company you work for — in fact, it’s sadly less common than working as a habit, necessity, or means to an end. But passionate people do tend to get very excited when they’re inspired, and sometimes change from super-charged motivators to impatient, mad-dashing-to-the-finish-line instigators.

An all-consuming rush rarely works out well for projects, and unless you’re a tabloid reporter, it’s not better to be first than to be accurate. Embrace passion and give it plenty of room to inspire creativity, but put checks in place to rein in your more whimsical employees when they start to push too hard or shoot for the impractical.

Too Much of a Good Thing (Gluttony)

You know those people who come up with something unique and wonderful, only to ruin it by adding too many features, extras, functions, or complexities? Companies do that, too, and that’s what I call innovation gluttony. They’ll hire smart people, gain access to veritable wellsprings of new ideas, but without direction, will turn any product into a Swiss Army Knife. This might work if you’re building the world’s next great smartphone, but often means timeline delays and negative impacts on resources — especially if the add-ons happen as the project unfolds.

When your team envisions a new solution or invention, make sure the end-goals are clear and you’re not including features for aesthetics alone.

Money-Saving and Money-Grubbing: Not Mutually Exclusive (Greed)

This one’s short and sweet: you get what you pay for. Companies that aren’t willing to invest in innovation can’t expect to maintain competitive advantage, since they’re reluctant to bankroll their own growth. It’s one thing to look for solutions that bring about the greatest advantage at the lowest cost; it’s quite another to focus so obsessively on the bottom line that you sabotage your own opportunities.

Had a Good Idea, But That Was It (Sloth)

Ideas aren’t enough on their own. Take a startup like TaskRabbit, for example, a service that pairs regular people who want to make a little extra cash with other regular people who need help with errands. Great idea, but if they’d just started letting people trade time, set prices, or assign tasks at random, they wouldn’t have a profitable business — they’d have a hot mess riddled with legal risks, or at best, an uncontrollable under-the-table bazaar. Sometimes companies think that the sheer originality of their product or service will be enough to drive business, but in today’s ultra-competitive market, an idea is really only as good as its sustainability.

Copycat Killers and the Inundated Marketplace (Envy)

It’s so, so hard to rise above the fray these days. Companies either have to find an unconquered segment to explore, or they have to beat the other 200+ companies pitching similar wares to the punch. Even if they manage that, there will still be a very long line of competitors right behind, itching to overtake them, exploit them, undercut their prices, trip them up, or capitalize on their service model with enough subtle tweaks to make it legal.

This causes impacted industries, price wars, and black market sales — all things that are unlikely to go away, but that can be alleviated by companies focusing on being truly innovative pioneers, instead of unoriginal pirates. After all, drawing an adorable robot on the back of a Kindle doesn’t make it an Android.

Anything You Can Do We Can Do Better. So There. (Wrath)

Business wrath isn’t a great deal different than innovation mimicry, but it takes on more of a smear campaign-esque attitude. Instead of succeeding by design, companies will sometimes single out and attack their biggest competitor, whether or not they’re directly comparable (are you a Mac, a PC, or not sure why your ironic trucker cap makes you the scorn of all Windows users?).

Competition is what keeps invention alive, but walking the line between actually improving upon methods and features versus undermining them in the hopes that no one will notice your weaknesses is an art that many companies haven’t quite mastered.

We Are the Untouchable (Pride)

Much like coming up with great ideas isn’t enough, innovating a single solution is unlikely to keep your company afloat past the initial bell curve. A constantly evolving world requires routinely improved solutions and services, expanded technology, faster functionality, and malleable business models.

Imagine if Apple had produced the 1976 Apple I Personal Computer Kit and called it quits.

Even when a business boldly bears the weight of singularity, successfully translates passion into product, stays true to simplicity, spends wisely, outlines intelligently and traverses the mob, their quest isn’t over. Unless you invented the paperclip, which is apparently so flawlessly architected that no one’s even tried to improve upon it since its inception in 1899, stay alert — it’s neither acceptable nor savvy to send something to market without a system in place for feedback, adaptation, and above all, progress.

The post Innovation Without Foundation: The 7 Deadly Sins appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

Obviously this is extremely useful for businesses as it helps to hone the offering and reduce mistakes if processes are changed to incorporate this kind of feedback. But what about the processes that make this possible?

What is Agile?

Many companies used to use the traditional waterfall approach to create a product vision, developing it and then launching it. But technological advances now mean this is no longer such an efficient way of working. One way businesses can look to embrace these advances and overcome complexity is through agile working.

PWC says that to be more agile, “businesses need to re-think the way they operate to reduce organisational complexity and create more flexible, scalable operating models that are capable of quickly responding to new market opportunities and/or operate at lower cost.” Agile working can be really beneficial in terms of achieving business goals rapidly, but changing processes can be scary and isn’t something that should be undertaken on a whim. Start small; pick a project to test the process out on, such as implementing a new IT system internally. Make it cross functional, so that different experts and departments can get involved and see the benefits of changing to a more reactive way of working.

Improving Agility

But improving your agility doesn’t just have to mean agile working; there are other ways of innovating internal processes that can help break down complexity. Try working to shorter planning cycles. Giving shorter time frames can encourage quick thinking, but there are a few important things to remember:

• Keep the team focused otherwise short term goals are likely to be missed. Try having one face-to-face meeting a day to help motivate and concentrate energies on the things that count.
• Don’t worry about failure (in the short term)
• Encourage experimentation and risk, place less importance on lengthy presentations and sign-offs

Another way of improving agility is through implementing simple social collaboration tools such as Mindjet Tasks or Yammer. Reducing email and taking things “offline” can be a great way to encourage conversation and content sharing, but make sure you invest in the right tools to support this for your organisation. For some people a conversational social tool is right, but for others something more visual may work better.

However you choose to innovate in your processes, remember that Agile working is not new, but it is a new way of working. Varying working practices, deploying new technologies and creating new working environments will reduce complexity and help the business provide a better product to customers.

The post Innovation: It’s Not Just About Product, It’s About Process Too appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

In the video below you’ll see how Mindjet’s software has specifically helped with the challenges that accompany that kind of order, such as the need for a solution that brings together dispersed teams, grants shared access, offers the ability to view content in context, and provides granular support for task management.

Most of the people we interviewed at EDC specifically spoke highly of Mindjet’s mind mapping features, but my favorite quote comes from the company’s Senior Instructional Design Associate, Carol Bershad: “I think that what I love about Mindjet and the mapping is that you see interrelated components and you understand their relationship to each other and, at a glance, you get the universe.”

The post Mindjet User Spotlight Video: Educational Development Center, Inc. appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

China’s Visual Search Engine

We started out communicating in images and, well, it looks like we’re moving back in that direction. Chinese search giant Baidu recently kicked out its first ever visual search engine, allowing users to query the web using images rather than keywords.

“We didn’t have any similar kind of product in China because we didn’t have the sufficient technology to handle this,” says Kai Yu, the project lead. “In the China market, this is the first of its kind.”

Source: Wired

5 Lessons Learned from the YouTube Acquisition

Now that Yahoo has acquired Tumblr, the cynics are just sitting back and waiting for a goof. In this article, Hunter Walk (one of the first Googlers to join YouTube after that acquisition in 2006) lists five lessons he learned from his first-hand experience with  what happens “when you bring a fast growing community property into a larger entity.”

Here’s one teaser:

“Although YouTube worldwide increasingly colocated staff in Google offices we maintained worldwide headquarters as a standalone building in San Bruno. Coming to an office every day that said YouTube in big letters and was filled with just other folks working on the same goal — incredibly motivating. We would have gotten lost on Google’s main campus. We needed separate space and identity. Not because we were better, but because we were different. How could we have a community that believed in us if we didn’t feel like a tribe ourselves? We had a building, we had a heartbeat.”

Source: Medium

There’s no Such Thing as Invention

Sad news: invention isn’t a real thing. At least, that’s the angle David Galbraith argues from in this article:

I believe that difference is that invention is an illusion based upon our instinct for a people centric view of the world and that all inventions are actually discoveries. When the environment changes to make these discoveries possible, there is a likelihood that anyone of suitable knowledge and intelligence will find them and this explains why invention often happens more than once in the same place or at the same time.

Source: Medium

A Lightning Strike Survivor

After Jason Marlin, Technical Director at Ars Technica, was struck by lightning, he wrote an article about it. And I know that’s all I really have to say to pique your interest, because holy crap, what? But here’s a quote anyway:

“To describe the experience as surreal is an understatement. I’m not sure how things worked out the way they did. I was on a concrete floor surrounded by electronics, which was something like a worst-case scenario. Remarkably, even the laptop and monitors just a few feet away from me survived.”

Source: Ars Technica

The post Fun Friday Links: China’s Visual Search Engine, 5 Lessons Learned from YouTube + Struck by Lightning appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

In fact, some of the ways we’re using big data are just plain foolish.

Stupid, Scary and Weak: When Big Data Goes Wrong

What makes big data different? Basically, its reach (which is huge). It’s information that’s so all-encompassing and dynamic that the tools we have in place to handle smaller data sets can’t manage it. Think of it like a doctor with three patients a day versus a doctor with three-hundred — it’s not the tool’s ability to analyze so much as its the ability to analyze more, and effectively.

Joelle Kaufman of Bloomreach breaks big data down into three subtypes: big dumb data, big scary data, and big useful data. I love the way he describes each, but let’s start with my favorite:

“Big dumb data either provides no actionable takeaways or takes the wrong actions on its own in some misguided automated system.”

Marketers who buy in to big dumb data are under the impression that there’s simply not enough information. They’re data gluttons who think the tools are just fine, but they’re not privy to enough input to use them productively. Considering the findings of a recent CMO survey, which states that the number of marketing initiatives being backed with analytics tools is on a sharp decline, I’d say it’s the vast amount of statistics that’s the problem, not the missing link. Says Kaufman, “If marketers are already drowning in data or have given up trying to use it, more data points on a chart won’t help.” As a person who spends a decent amount of time yelling at analytics dashboards, I couldn’t agree more.

Next on the list is Big Scary Data. It gets capitalized because this is where it gets personal. The first time I ever felt the effects of BSD I blamed Facebook — they must’ve been up to something sneaky if they were offering me discounted diapers right after I uploaded photos of my newborn niece. It got weird when those same ads followed me around the internet, and although I understand this type of data-driven advertising as a marketer, consumers often find it creepy. Worse, when this kind of information isn’t vetted, they might find it irrelevant, annoying, or even offensive. People click on links by accident; they purchase gifts for people that they’d never use themselves. Failing to consider such a high level of fallibility is irresponsible — if companies aren’t using this technology to speak to the right audience, what’s the point?

Use Your Data Wisely

Big useful data is the third and, obviously, most desirable type of info marketers can gather. Unfortunately, a new report from Lyris found that digital marketers don’t know what consumers really want or how they prefer to engage with brands, which means they’re not translating what data they do have appropriately. Says CMSWire’s Barry Levine, “[The report] found several major disconnects between marketers’ strategies and consumers’ wants. For instance, consumers rank email as the single most important channel for getting an initial introduction to a product, cited by 37 percent of respondents. Only about one in five said that social media and blogs were preferred for assessing products for purchase.”

So what’s the key? Effectively scrutinizing data means not taking shortcuts. It means understanding customer intent, and applying findings strategically instead of conveniently. It also means not cherry-picking information to make a case for your approach, a practice that’s not only dishonest, but counter-productive. Knowingly developing a marketing plan based on incomplete or skewed information is kind of like our aforementioned doctor writing the same prescription for their three-hundred patients just because they all came to the same hospital. While the good doctor might be able to correctly assume that each patient is ill, providing a sweeping remedy to all of them is reckless and lazy.

Marketers, beware: cutting corners can compromise your brand’s reputation and alienate your customer base; too much information to sift through promotes carelessness and negligence. Put some effort into analyzing customers’ actual ambitions and patterns over time, rather than short-sightedly assuming their intent based on superficial info — it could be the difference between grooming brand advocates and breeding brand adversaries.

The post Big Data Dilemma: Marketers Don’t Quite Get It appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

So let’s look at the elements of doing more with less from a different, more approachable angle: 

Being Productive

Does “doing more with less” make you more productive? I’d say yes, given the classic definition of productivity. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, defines productivity as “the rate at which goods or services are produced, especially output per unit of labor.” But in the information economy, it’s a little trickier to measure. We’re not all producing widgets and calling it a day.

I suppose it’s important for academics and analysts to understand and measure productivity, but I’ve found the definitions of productivity to be too limiting. What about the cost of productivity? And the quality of the outputs?

I touched on these questions a bit in a great podcast, “Going Beyond GTD” which you can download from the GTD Virtual Study Group here.

Being Efficient

Another interpretation of “doing more with less” is to be efficient. Merriam-Webster defines efficient as being ”productive without waste”. But, who can honestly claim that they’re efficient? Look at our culture and the world at large–we’re pretty inefficient. We produce, probably too much at times, and we create a lot of waste along the way. I look at myself and ask, “am I efficient at work, or life?” I am constantly producing, but at what cost to my limited resources – time, energy, and money.

And, is efficiency really enough…

Being Effective

The magic isn’t only about getting things done or doing more with less; it’s about getting things done well. It’s about producing the optimal, intended or desired result using the least amount of effort or resources. That’s where mind mapping and Mindjet helps us all shine. We’re creating visual reflections of our individual or team thinking. Externalizing and seeing our thoughts helps us understand ourselves in a deeper, more meaningful way. And, as a result, we take more powerful actions and make more effective changes in our businesses and lives. We’re building alignment across teams, increasing clarity, purpose and a true sense of ownership.

Mind mapping has been helping executives build better strategies, writers think more clearly, teams plan out realistic projects, analysts perform in-depth research, coaches provide great tools for their clients, and so much more.

Just take a look at what people are saying about Mindjet. Mind maps are definitely making an impact! Let’s share with each other to build out our mapping best practices, templates, and ideas. Our impact together is incredible and we’re changing the world, one map at a time.

Join the conversation:

• What does ‘doing more with less’ mean to you?
• And, how are you becoming more productive, efficient or effective?

The post Productivity Prompts: Doing More with Less appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

Document Collaboration = Power to the People

Once housed in file servers, content is now core to business processes and must therefore be front and center. Along with this new position comes a heightened need for content management, better security, increased findability, accessibility, compliance, etc. It’s a lot of work and a lot of change, but despite these major (and often difficult) shifts, companies are still recognizing and rising to the challenge.

“Investment in content and document management represents a significant portion of overall IT spend and is expected to grow in 2013,” reads the report. “This is consistent with Forrester’s conclusions that investment in technology solutions that support and empower knowledge workers remains a priority for organizations looking to better leverage their most expensive and valuable resources: their people.”

Mindjet’s Multiple Hats

The report’s findings are based on survey results from 3,000+ IT executives and technology decision-makers around the world. Mindjet was specifically called out for its potential ability to play several roles within a company’s document collaboration strategy, beginning with visual brainstorming in the cloud. The strength of both our SharePoint integration and our Web platform was also highlighted, along with the obvious strengths of tying document collaboration directly to our task management solution.

Sound like something you’d like to test drive? Go ahead and give us a whirl.

The post Mindjet Makes Forrester’s Document Collaboration Landscape Shortlist appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.

The report, a fully comprehensive and intellectual narrative crafted from in-depth research and discussions with over 1,500 participants, is filled with inspiring calls to action and applicable suggestions surrounding how businesses can discover new and unique ways to align innovation with market forecasts in order to develop a better framework for delivering sustainable value. Some highlights:

• 7 core principles to assist organizations in creating ways to better address innovative opportunities
• Examples and ideas for stakeholders on how to actively create and incorporate tools to improve sustainable development, set focused and measurable targets, and bridge the gap between customer and business needs
• Truths about the reality of technology in developing sustainable innovation practices, and how to grow gracefully with technological change
• How companies can organize themselves and harness opportunities in ways that will benefit society and create value that will keep them in business
• Parameters for crafting sustainable business approaches
• Overcoming the undesirable impacts of interdependent infrastructures, such as stranded assets and slow technical progress
• Discussions on bringing design, smart technologies and the “new economy” together to drive growth in ways that reflect the changing concerns and values of a connected world
• Statistics and case studies from surveying 80+ firms on how they manage innovation and the challenges associated with implementing sustainable development practices.

Companies struggling with driving innovation internally and externally will benefit greatly from the real-world examples and well-translated research, as will organizations focused on the future of a vastly interconnected marketplace. Read the full report here.

The post The Drivers and Barriers of Sustainable Innovation: The World Business Council Report appeared first on Conspire: A @Mindjet Publication.