Posts Tagged ‘mind mapping’
First Use – Mindjet MindManager 9
I just upgraded my copy of Mindjet MindManager to version 9 and I wanted to update you on this tool. This isn’t going to be a product review in the sense of a list of features and my opinion on them. You can get that elsewhere in more detail than I can provide in my 500 to 800 word limit for this blog post. Last year I made another blog post on mind mapping that you can see here. You can review the whole idea of mind mapping here. I’ll try to offer something new and different in this post. However, for those of you who don’t want to look at my last post I will summarize the main point. Mind mapping is simply a technique that allows us visual thinkers the opportunity to capture some of our ideas in a visual way while retaining enough structure to keep our thoughts in context. I have included a link to the Mindjet site in their logo above. Just click on it and you can go there and check it out for yourself. The other image I’ve provided is just one of the templates that are installed along with the package. It’s here just to give you some context to what I’m talking about.
The only new capabilities I’ll discuss are the new Gantt chart feature and its improved utilization of resources. In earlier versions of the product, if you were using it on a laptop with just battery power, it would suck the life out of the battery in a hurry. They seem to have improved that with this version. That’s big if you’re using it on the road. The Gantt chart feature is also helpful if your chart includes linked topics (tasks in a project plan). It will display a Gantt chart which is useful for small, simple projects. If you want to include more complex projects in your map, the ability to export and import tasks between MindManager and Microsoft Project is very useful. Another non-feature I’m very happy with is the ability to make full use of a large monitor. My second monitor is 22″. In older versions of MM when I moved the diagram to the large monitor and told it to expand to full screen, it would only use a portion of the available real estate. I found that very frustrating. That is now fixed. That may not sound like a big deal 
but as your maps grow in size and complexity, being able to fully use a large monitor is a very big deal.
I am making extensive use of this tool in constructing the courses and strategy for the TechExecs Professional Growth Network, or PGN. It has been the subject of my last two blog posts (here and here). If you are using an approach like the one described in “Training the Active Training Way” it’s very handy to be able to build a core framework of the class in one section of the map and tie it to the appropriate sections of the methodology in another section of the map. We visual thinkers find that a much more useful way to keep the course structure aligned with the ideas presented in the book. Obviously, you can accomplish the same goal in a word processor like MS Word but this approach is much faster.
One idea under consideration is if mind mapping itself should be in the course material. Personally, I believe that it deserves some attention. What may complicate it a little is that not all mind mapping techniques are the same. For example, if you go the mind mapping link provided above you will see diagrams with a much more organic look to them. That was the original concept in mind mapping as invented by Tony Buzan years ago. I find that form of mind mapping to be a more deeply creative approach. That’s good for students but less useful for business use. The advantage of the approach taken by the Mindjet folks is its integration into MS Office tools and its enormously flexible visual outline style. Business analysis and decision making is a fundamentally hierarchical process that lends itself to the MindManger approach quite nicely for visual thinkers. Indented outlines can be very constraining to creative thought.
I’d like to encourage you to look at this tool and take it for a test drive. There are other tools available, like FreeMind (free) and iMindMap (similar price to MindManager). They are good tools as well. Heck, take them all for a test drive. I think that you will find at least one of them to your taste. I’d love to hear any comments you have on mind mapping being part of the PGN course material.
Thanks for stopping by…
Using mind mapping in BPM projects and methodology development
In thinking about this topic, it occurred to me that the core issue for me is really the visual representation of influence mapping and the transition from unstructured information to a more structured form. Initial ideas are rarely structured. They are organic, like the way we think. However, structured information, like lists, makes the implementation of those ideas much easier to execute. We use MindManager 8 from Mindjet for our mind mapping tool and to provide the transition to a more structured form for the information. You can check out their website for more information on that tool. You can also look here for more information on mind mapping in general. To make my point I have created an example containing three maps. Each map can represent a project, group activity or a methodology (a collection of methodologies is the case for us).
The solid black lines represent normal hierarchical relationships. The dotted lines represent connections of influence. For example, Topic B3 and Topic C3 both influence Topic A2. In our example, the bolder red dotted line represents more direct influence and the smaller blue dotted line represents less influence. You have to set your own standards, like bolder lines representing more influence or one color representing more influence than another. For StrAIT Advisors, our methodology needed to be influenced by other methodologies. A screen clipping is shown below to illustrate how that actually worked for us.
In our case, the dotted blue lines represent the influence of one methodology on our SLR methodology. Some steps were consolidated while others were not influenced at all. After any fine tuning needed for an individual client, the map is exported to Microsoft Project for project execution. In your case, the influences could represent the relationships between projects being handled by your Project Management Office (PMO). Influences between projects are much easier to show on this type of diagram than on a project plan composed of both projects and subprojects. They are much easier to change as well. In a project plan, the connections between tasks are actual dependencies, not connections of influence. Influence is too subjective and vague of a relationship for a project plan.
The need to capture unstructured ideas in team brainstorming meetings or just a casual meeting between collaborators is a vital part of the genesis of change. The conversion of those unstructured ideas into actionable projects is the next vital step. The use of mind maps periodically during the course of any project can be very useful, even if the ideas captured are just stored for the future. You can update them when ideas for improvement occur to the project team.
My core point for this post is that ideas start as unstructured things but must eventually evolve to structured things. Knowing how that process will happen is a key to being successful and adaptable. Identify your tools of choice before your project begins and make sure your leadership has buy-in into your approach. It will help in building credibility and communicating during the course of your project.
I hope this post has been valuable. Talk to you again later…