What is the “elevator pitch” that you use to sell others on the value of mind mapping?
Feb 10th, 2009 | By Chuck Frey | Category: Discussion
If you’ve used mind mapping software for any period of time, then chances are very good that it has become an indispensable part of your workflow. Naturally, you want to share your good fortune in finding this valuable productivity tool with others. How do you do that?
What’s your “elevator pitch” for mind mapping software? What is the essential value, the key benefit that it provides to you, and how would you describe that in just a few sentences?
(For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term elevator pitch, it refers to the idea of selling someone on your idea in 15-30 seconds, about the time it takes to ride an elevator from one floor to the next. That’s only enough time to highlight 1 or 2 compelling points.)
Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. I look forward to your ideas!
Popularity: 5% [?]
There are so many applications for mind mapping software, it’s hard to cover them all. However if I had to give an “elevator pitch” for mind mapping software it would be:
“Mind mapping software allows you to generate, organise and implement, ideas, thoughts and actions.”
“As a knowledge professional my working environment is neither straightforward nor routine. I must capture, process and track requests and activities from any number of sources and incorporating any number of complexities.
I use visualisation, specifically software based mind mapping, as a means to capture, organise, track and act. Software based mind mapping is both effective and rewarding.”
All you thoughts on one page. It shows what you know and how it all fits together. Without it you are flying blind.
Mind maps show interconnectivity among components of complexity, thereby simplifying and clarifying thought. Consider the phrase “I grasped it at a glance.” There’s no other way to say that, is there? Primacy of the visual.
Mind Mapping, (or Information Mapping as I prefer to call it), with a good software application simply manages information from many different sources. It can create clarity out of confusion, enables you to see the bigger picture in many cases and allows you to collate, structure, re-structure and distribute or share the resulting information.
It really can be a very useful software tool for everyone if applied correctly.
Imagine a systematic and graphical framework that supercharges your information management skills.
I call it Visual mapping: it utilizes mind mapping, concept mapping, flow charting and other graphical tools, and when you adopt this graphical framework, you’ll improve the way you generate, handle and exchange information.
Become a superior information manager who creates with clarity, manages effectively, delivers on time and improves continuously.
“Mind management is the essence of life management”.
Mind Mapping gives me the most valuable possibility of being able to integrate different concepts and ideas into a holistic model.
In any tough situation, I want to make sure I really understand it before I recommend decisions and action. Mindmapping builds a picture of the underlying structure of a complex problem, so I can respond to the problem rather than the symptoms. It’s an essential part of my consulting process.
Mind mapping helps me create a vision of what is possible in my life, both personally and professionally, as well as the steps to manifest it.
Mind Mapping makes the seemingly impossible, possible and more!
Key point – I do complex audits which might involve say 6-8 different people with different angles on the problems in the audit; ultimately I want to get the key risks and key recommendations. Each assignment is completely new to me so there is a big learning curve. By using maps for each meeitng agenda, together with attachements and related notes, I can manipulate all of the information from the meetings to get to one overall map with processes, risks, tests and recommendations. I cannot see how I could do this without at least 50-60% more work under any other method – it works in tandem with your brain so that new iddeas can be slotted in easily and moved later if needs be. By having my team use the same methodolgies we have greater controls, efficieciencies etc.. in addition we do not need any paper files as we use attachments including scanning paper documents, this also adds to efficiencies in a big way and makes it much easier to review a file.
Mind mapping let’s me get started quickly on complex projects – building and changing components simply as I flesh the structure out in further detail with each iteration. There’s an old Irish expression – “Tus maith, leath an oibre” – “a good start is the half the work” that seems a perfect fit for mind mapping.
Ray Murphy
Dublin
Mindmapping allows you to not only get a big, systemic, conceptual view of your subject , but quickly see relationships and dimensions not immediately obvious via other tools. You can see gaps, rearrange and fill in ideas, and get insights very quickly. Finally, it is easy to share your map with others for collaborative brainstorming or deeper analysis.
Mind Mapping is an alternative to traditional methods of taking notes. Whether capturing the thoughts of others or externalizing one’s own thoughts, the Mind Map offers a more comprehensive and memorable method of notetaking than traditional methods. Why? Traditional notes are linear (not the way a brain processes information) and restricted to the use of a few dominate, left cortical skills. Mind Maps are associative (the way a brain processes information) and, in a whole brain way, engage all cortical skills. Therefore, unlike traditional methods of notetaking, the Mind Map is a physical representation of how a brain processes information. The Mind Map is organic. As Tony Buzan once said, “It is always and deliciously incomplete.” The Mind Map is dynamic. Because the brain is a pattern seeking and pattern completing mechanism, adding blank lines to a Mind Map forces the subconscious to continue thinking about the subject matter and generate new ideas (creativity), even when one is off task. Anytime you use your brain, and wish to note the results, use a Mind Map!
As a middle management level professional of an IT organisation, I have quite a few projects (50+) to keep a tab of on an ongoing basis. Most of the time I need to get into conference calls or meetings where either I am being asked about a status of something or I need to check on the progress of certain things. So, I need a system which can give me
(a) an overview at a 30000 ft level which is easy to digest and remember and
(b) at the same time the ability to deep dive quickly into the details of the ground realities/issues which needs resolution.
And nevertheless the possibility of having relevant notes to make my understanding solid.
Here I find Mindmapping is something which is very hard to beat by any other method. My current favorite is Freemind as this is a simple tool and one cannot beat the price. However, at the same time, there are quite a few very capable paid cousins around.
Thank you for introducing this nice thread.
Mindmapping software allows me to achieve more, in less time. I can now prepare effective meeting plans and presentations in half the time it used to take me.
[...] weeks ago, I asked you to share your thoughts on the value proposition of mind mapping. In other words: What is the essential value, the key benefit it provides to you, and how would you [...]
Mind Mapping thinks like I do – synthetically. If, like me, you find yourself wondering where you put that document you need right now, and scrolling through nests upon nests of linear file folders to find it until it takes so long you actually have to remind yourself what you were looking for in the first place – then you need to try mind mapping for a change.