Monday, November 13th, 2006...9:34 pm
Planning Meetings with Mind Mapping
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I was planning a training session recently when I ran into one of those blocks. You know what I’m talking about. Where you just seem to reach a dead end in terms of mental organization and direction. I had to organize my thoughts. I had to get it together. After struggling for a while. I decided to mind map.
So I opened up Mindjet MindManager 6, and started to map out my thoughts. Fortunately, it helped me to clarify how I needed to approach my meeting. Now I can finish my presentation with the ease of knowing I am covering all of the material that I need to cover on Wednesday.
Oh BTW, the map came out looking like this.
5 Comments
November 15th, 2006 at 2:31 am
If you’re looking for a mind mapper to play with, but are a little nervous about spending money on a tool you might *not* use, you can also try FreeMind, and OpenSource application that has (most of) the same functionality.
November 15th, 2006 at 3:45 am
Hi there,
While Mind map is a good tool, I think the topic of putting together a presentation is tool agnostic. As a management consultant I put on presentations as a daily business and much rather work with an Excel sheet, with columns labeled “Key take away / message”, slide Message, slide description.
the point being, that I rather try to put a story together based on first what I want people to take away after it and then put the story together. But this can be done with a txt file as well.
November 17th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Personally I’ve never been able to get on with mind-mapping. I always seemed to spend more time reorganising the hierarchy ‘cos I put something in two branches that really needed to come back under one but already had a bunch of other bits underneath. I seemed to have better luck using a multi-level list outliner.
But I suspect it’s because I’ve never invested time in learning to use it properly. Can anyone recommend something (brief) to read about using them most efficiently? ie the step I should have taken before playing with one
Thanks
Tony
December 3rd, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Hi, I’m organising trip to mountains for me and 20-25 firends. I had idea to bring my friends to cottage and have great time there and I actually can’t imagine that to organize whole event without Mindmap.
I’m tracking people (decided, undecided), cars needed for trip, money, and many organizational things.
With mindmap I can afford to think about everything without constant reminders in my head that i’ve forget this and that…
Mindmaps are very useful if you know what you want to describe and what results you want to have…
In this case it is 4night trip with 25 friends, what will be the next? I can only tell you, that this is only the start.
Do it without mindmap brigs confusion, overwhelm and anger to whole planning process and we miss many things…
March 20th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I cover this issue in one of my e-books. Mind mapping software, with its powerful ability to gather and organize numerous bits and pieces of information, can help you to:
- Define the meeting objectives. What is the purpose of this meeting? What do you hope to accomplish? What will a successful outcome look like? Place each objective on a separate branch in the “objectives” section of your map.
- Determine who should attend the meeting and their roles. Who needs to be there? Who has the information or input you need for the project? Which decision-makers should be involved in this meeting, if any? Which of your subordinates will be working on this project, who need to be part of this meeting? Are there any outside partners, consultants or other people outside your organization who should be involved? Record each person’s name and pertinent contact information on a separate branch in the “attendee” section of your map.
- Define agenda items. Let the objectives you have defined help to drive the agenda for your meeting. List the topics to be discussed, and who will lead the discussion of each time segment. Place each agenda item on a separate branch in the “agenda” section of your map.
- Determine facility needs (especially if the meeting is being held off-site, say in a hotel meeting room). Next, create a new branch within your map to explore your needs for the meeting room. Will any participants be making PowerPoint presentations (or use mind mapping software for group brainstorming)? You can use your map to define audiovisual needs (such as an LCD projector and screen), support for teleconferencing, lunch arrangements and much more.
For more info, see http://www.mindmap-ebook.com/index-tips.asp
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