Can Mind Maps Make You More Productive?

Situation: You Need to Organize All of This "Doing More With Less".

Recently we spoke with Michael Deutch, Chief Evangelist for MindJet, who offered us some insight into how people achieve productivity gains through the use of Mind Mapping.  I know from personal experience that a mind mapping approach can be very useful in collaboration, but I thought it would be interesting to get some specific examples that could generate some conversation about the way we work and how it can be improved.   Michael makes some great points here.  Once you read through it, please feel free to comment or start new discussions in Christine Sellers’ MindMapping GIG.



Q.  I’ve found that concepts presented in Mind Map form are generally easier to understand because of the way the information is broken down hierarchically.  A project WBS is naturally easy to work with in this format.  Can you provide examples beyond the WBS in the project management world where the hierarchy construct is particularly useful?

A.  When I first learned about mind mapping, I had heard that it was mostly used for project management. One of the first applications people think of is the building of the WBS. Others take it a step further and use mapping software to also manage their schedule.

Mind mapping is an excellent way to visualize your individual or team’s thinking. The visualization process helps bring to light the information that is known and the gaps that are missing. It can be used effectively to identify project risks and develop mitigation plans. Others have applied it as part of their problem solving process. Many use our software to facilitate brainstorming sessions and then organize and prioritize ideas within the structure of the map.

These examples are individual instances where you’ll find utility. As part of the project management process, mapping can be used as a team process to accelerate project meetings. At a PMI conference, a customer shared his story how creating project charters used to take 5+ days before he tried mind mapping. Today, he projects a mind map and uses our software to guide the entire process in less than 3 hours.

Here a list of some areas where mapping has been applied effectively:
•    Capturing and organizing project research
•    Solving problems and creating strategies for mitigating serious risks
•    Creating project dashboards, tying together disparate information & providing the ‘big picture’
•    Drafting and writing reports and presentations
•    Identifying milestones and required deliverables
•    Gathering requirements and conducting interviews
•    Analyzing stakeholders and project influences
•    Taking project and meeting notes



Q.  I’ve worked with Word docs collaboratively online and its helpful, but I think that dealing with the same information is sometimes easier in Mind Map form (at least in the early stages) because its easier to see where things fit into  the “visual outline”.  It invites people in to add blurbs and bubbles in a way that you might not do with a Word doc because its harder to figure out where new ideas fit.  What types of collaborative project situations do you see mind maps working best in?

A.  Working with Mind Maps collaboratively has several key benefits. Working linearly with written documents, presentations, spreadsheets and even project plans is often challenging because the details are spread across multiple pages (and even multiple applications), making it difficult to maintain perspective, see the big picture, and understand how all the pieces fit together.

In the first answer, I mentioned several project situations where mapping collaboratively is effective. A general rule of thumb would be if you don’t know the answer, map it out. Throughout the project process, you can map everything from your project charter to your lessons learned report.



Q.  Mind Mapping can lead to more effective problem solving by helping break down the problem first so you truly understand it.  Can you provide an example of how that would work in the context of a project?

A.  Absolutely. Project teams are constantly solving one problem or another. Using maps, teams can systematically clarify problems as they are discovered. A team can start with the ‘problem’ in the center of the map and then branch out with the following questions:

a.    What can you see that causes you to think there's a problem?
b.    Where is it happening?
c.    How is it happening?
d.    When is it happening?
e.    With whom is it happening?
f.    Why is it happening?
g.    What else do we need to investigate?

Once these questions are fully explored and answered, it should be possible to write a clear, specific problem statement. For complex problems, teams can repeat the process above until you have described all related problems.

On projects, this keeps teams focused on addressing and solving the ‘real’ problems, making incremental, measurable progress, and providing business value sooner.



Q.  I’ve heard that Mind Mapping is good for gathering input from folks who are coming at an issue from wildly different perspectives.  Can you provide an example of that?

A.  Many organizations are using mind mapping as part of their requirements gathering process. This takes place in the traditional project settings (e.g. IT and R&D projects) as well as areas that aren’t always considered projects (e.g. gathering client requirements as part of a sales process).

Judith Glaser of the Creating We Institute has said that within a team, mind mapping helps “create broader perspectives around ideas—to build bigger frameworks that include many peoples´ perspectives and connect them—which creates amazing inclusivity.”

David Wilson, Managing Director of Elearnity, has said that mind mapping helps his team “clearly structure ideas and information from all sources, support creative thinking, structure analysis and recommendations.”



Q.  If you have to name a top 5 best practices for using Mind Maps to make you more productive, what would they be?


A.
1.    Pick up a mind mapping book or check out some mind mapping blogs to learn the basics. Then forget the rules and start mapping.
2.    Let your ideas flow without judgment. You can organize and prioritize them afterwards.
3.    Use keywords for your topics. You don’t have to be overly verbose. This makes it easier to grasp the big picture without getting lost in a sea of text.
4.    Use notes, images & colors to provide richer context.
5.    For teams, build maps together. You’ll create great ideas together, walk away more aligned, and have fun in the process! Also, one last point: maps are reflections of what’s on (or in) your mind. It isn’t always safe to assume that someone who wasn’t present when the map was created can pick it up and follow along without additional explanations.



Q.  What’s the best way to measure or demonstrate productivity gains from using mind maps?  How would I prove it helps?

A.  My advice would be to not only look for productivity gains, but also at the Quality of your work and the Impact of making better decisions. In other words, if you used a mind map to arrive at a decision to cancel a project before spending millions and wasting time pursuing the wrong problem, how would that calculate in a simple survey?  

Demonstrating productivity for any software that improves your thinking process is a difficult challenge, especially since no two projects are alike.

Mindjet has developed a survey with Forrester Research that we’ve used to collect over 1,800 responses across several global organizations. The survey took ‘before’ and ‘after’ snapshots that captured both quantitative and qualitative feedback around time spent in projects, meetings, developing communications and managing information. The results? Dramatic. Most organizations yielded 3-5 hours in savings per employee per week. Several organizations reported much higher savings.  



Q.  MindManager Web seems to be a good environment for collaborating on issues or projects where security is not an issue.  Can you provide real world examples of these types of projects (in a typical business context)?

A.  Our clients are using either MindManager Web or Mindjet Connect to work on maps together collaboratively from different locations, use the web conferencing capabilities to give presentations and share information across distributed project teams and share project documentation in secure workspaces.

The Center Communications Director at the Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) shared that collaborative mapping has helped his team, “simultaneously collaborate on maps with distributed individuals. We also used Mindjet Connect to share documents as well as share desktops. It proved to be an invaluable productivity tool when working with a distributed group of people to keep everyone on track and up to date.”

Other project managers have used it to work more directly together, follow up with progress on projects, manage team "to-do" lists, and deliver presentations and hold collaborative brainstorming sessions with remote participants.