When it comes to unraveling a complex business challenge, sometimes it helps to get a bit of “altitude” above it – to view it from a panoramic perspective where you can see all of its components and how they relate to each other.

Mind mapping software can be an  excellent tool for deconstructing a challenge, analyzing  its root causes and envisioning creative solutions to it.

The Tom Peters Times e-newsletter for October contains  a story that does an excellent job of illustrating this  principle in action:

“As a young Army Officer, I was once tasked with  planning an attack on an enemy position. For hours I  pored over maps, studying known friendly and enemy  dispositions, weather, tide, intelligence reports, and so  on. I got completely bogged down in my thinking. I had  lost clarity. My Commanding Officer offered me a twenty-  minute flight in a helicopter to sight the ground over which  we were to advance. Twenty-one minutes later I had a  crystal clear plan in my head and knew exactly what we  had to do. I had quite literally gained altitude over my  problem. Heightened my awareness.

“Do you have ‘altitude’ over your organization, or are you  bogged down in the detail? Do you have a brutally clear  view of your current performance? Can you define the  competitive challenges and disruptive forces at work on  you?”

I love this story, because mind mapping software enables  you to create a “helicopter view” of your challenge that  reveals its core elements and relationships – and therefore  helps you to solve it faster and more creatively!

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