One of our newest “MedMan Ways” is mind mapping. We’re rolling MindManager9 software from MindJet out to our entire company this week after early adopters decided they couldn’t live without it. Once when I was on the phone with a MindJet technical support representative, she pitched it as the “missing piece” of the MS Office suite and I’d say all of us at MedMan would agree.
Why do we like mind mapping so much? Here are my top three reasons:
- Project Management – our corporate team uses MindManager for our annual operating plan. We can add tasks, task information like resources and due dates, attach documents, link to websites, and move things from one area of our plan to another with the click of a mouse. Once you add your information you can view it in an integrated Gantt Chart or filter by resources. For example, anytime I want to see what has been assigned to me (and make sure my due date isn’t creeping up) I just do a power filter on my name and less than two seconds I have what I’m looking for.
Annual Op Plan
- Presentations – we recently used a map for the first time to give our marketing presentationto a new client. I think everyone was a little nervous at first to change from our trusty ol’ Power Point, but the whole idea of a map just makes sense. You can see the starting point and ending point at the beginning, but as you move through the map, you can focus on a bit of information at a time with the “walk through” view.
Presentation Map
- Visual organization – my personal use is where I really get the most out of mind mapping. I am one of those people that has to get the crazy, disorganized thoughts out of my brain before I can start to make sense of it all – from “operationalize technology plan” to “tell husband to pick up dog food.” Which leads me to another MedMan Way – GTD, or Getting Things Done (based on the book of the same name by David Allen). But that is a topic for another day…
Personal Brain Dump Map
