Creating a mind map involves visual thinking in a way most people aren’t really used to. Taking a central word or idea and throwing related ideas at it in a sort of surrounding cloud is not the usual way society is taught to organize information. Yet making a map of ideas that relate to that central word, and then relating them to each other in categories that suggest themselves, is the core of this method. And it lends itself to many personal, educational and business-related mind map uses.
Among the mind map uses in contexts like business or school, there’s a more general benefit that applies every time a mind map is created; the rather rigid, uni-directional, linear way of describing concepts is done away with. Linear organizing of concepts automatically puts them into hierarchies and implicitly makes some more “important” than others. By engaging in this non-linear visual thinking technique, people retain all concepts on an equal footing, and may entertain ideas that would have been discarded using the linear method, but which can now be seen as innovative and valuable.
This helps with another of the mind map uses, which is problem solving. When hitherto unrecognized relationships appear during the exercise, the solution to a problem might emerge in ways it would not have been thought of before. At the very least, as mapping patterns suggest themselves, a framework for the information emerges, and a complicated idea begins sorting itself into distinguishable chunks. Creating a mind map is a great way for either groups or individuals to unravel problems or concepts that are very convoluted.
Another of the mind map uses on a smaller scale is more solitary, and involves taking notes. A student in a lecture on a complex subject, or even someone in a meeting who is trying to summarize the discussion, can both find mind mapping techniques valuable. As they recognize key words, they can list them in their notes and as other ideas come up that relate to the key words, they can be added in a cloud around those initial words. Whether used by a group to brainstorm, or used by an individual to summarize and clarify concepts, creating a mind map is an effective way of discerning the relationships of important ideas.
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Tags: mind mapping application, mind mapping techniques, mind mapping training, mind tools, visual thinking
