They take complex topics and make them easy to understand. They show us the trends and implications that underlie data. And they help us to understand our world better. Some people, like Dave Gray, founder of XPLANE, one of the thought leaders in this area, believe that infographics represent a new visual language.

As infographics have grown in popularity, so have websites and blogs that attempt to catalog the best examples of these colorful, charts, diagrams and illustrations. Here are five of my favorites:

• Cool Infographics
• Infographics Blog
• Information is Beautiful
• Well-Formed Data
• Flowing Data

There are many more. Just Google “infographics blog” and you’ll see what I mean!

Infographics and mind mapping

So what does this have to do with mind mappping? How can you become a better mind mapper by viewing compelling examples of infographics? Here are 5 ways:

1. Pattern recognition: The best infographics are all about extracting the patterns that underlie data and information. So it is with mind maps. Examples of the most compelling infographics help us to think in terms of the bigger picture, of the patterns that reside within the information we’re recording in our mind maps.
2. Poly-mapping: Infographics remind you that mind mapping is but one of many ways of representing and communicating information visually. Infographics go well beyond bar charts, Venn diagrams and business process flows. They encompass literally hundreds of ways of visual thinking.
3. Rich examples: Infographics provide you with some great examples of the ways in which creative designers have handled color, shape and spatial relationships.
4. Inspiration: They should inspire you to work at communicating your ideas in more compelling and impactful ways.
5. Should I mind map it? Infographics should help you to remember that mind maps are not a panacea – in other words, you should not mind map everything. Certain types of information lend themselves better to other types of visual diagrams. For example, a business process is usually better described by a flow chart than a radial mind map.

So why not check out some of these blogs and learn from the visual expressions of the best infographic designers?

• The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam
• Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures by Dan Roam
• Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity by David Sibbett
• Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanuto
• Mind Maps for Business: Revolutionize Your Business Thinking & Practice by Tony Buzan and Chris Griffiths
• resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte (new – I have this book on order from Amazon.com)

What are your favorite books on the topic of visual mapping for business? Why do you like them? Please share your thoughts in the comments area below. Thanks!

(The illustration above right is featured on Sunni Brown’s blog and is representative of visual thinking)

Dave Gray, Sunni Brown and James Macanufo, in their excellent new book, Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers, share a visual thinking technique called the “Pain-Gain Map” that can be a useful tool for helping us to determine how to influence our key executive. I have adapted their technique into a simple mind map that you can use to help you uncover what motivates the senior executive whom you want to influence – and how to obtain a favorable decision from him or her.

You can use this model to develop presentations, value propositions (what customers value and how your product or service meets their needs) or to position yourself to obtain approval or an important sales order.

In this latest Mind Mapping Insider report, I show you, step by step, how to create a pain-gain mind map – and provide you with the map used in this “how-to” guide in XMind and MindManager file formats, which you can customize to meet your needs.

This report is only accessible to Mind Mapping Insider members. If you’re ready to become an impact player in your organization, sign up today to join this elite group of executives who have made the decision to be more influential and creative in their jobs.

“Information anxiety… causes people to put off decisions so they have more time to think.  Time drags out as they try to process information.  It takes so long for them to find, understand and prioritize their options that business processes slow to a crawl.  By the time anyone takes action, situations have turned into crises and stress levels are high – the worst possible environment for good decision-making.”

As Steve Rothwell points out in a recent post in his Peace of Mind blog, the same thing often happens when a team is struggling to define a new project, and no one wants to commit themselves to it until it is defined. Perfection becomes the enemy of the good, and paralysis once again results.

Both of these challenges can be tackled by visualizing them, Gray explains:

“A visual explanation clears away this fog of confusion by depicting complex information visually, in order to make it more clear, concise and concrete. This allows people to quickly grasp key issues and make faster, better decisions.”

“A picture can connect to the strategic with the tactical in a way that no other communication possibly can. It can clearly articulates who does what, with whom, and when. And that is surely worth at least a thousand words.”

Visual mapping gives you a flexible, open “canvas” where you can capture key questions, gaps in your existing information, key contacts you need to approach to find that information, and track tasks, assignments and deadlines. It can also help you to evaluate the information that you have gathered, separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff and enabling you to overcome information overload. And it can become a potent tool for collaboration among team members and for tracking team and individual progress, capturing lessons learned and other key information. In short, it’s the perfect antidote to project paralysis.

If you haven’t tried to employ mind mapping software to bring structure, definition – and, most importantly, desirable action – from a new, ambiguously scoped project, why not do so today? I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!

Successive approximation is a problem solving strategy that many of us use without even being aware of it. Conversation between two people is a perfect example, Gray explains. You say something to the other person, and they reply. Based on their verbal and non-verbal feedback to what you said, you discover something about that person, which you then incorporate into your next reply.

How does this concept apply to visual thinking? When you’re first trying to solve a problem or create a plan, your first efforts are an approximation, a guess – an incomplete picture, if you will. This is especially true if you’re facing a unique problem or challenge that you’ve never experienced before, because in situations like this, you have no prior context to rely upon. In these types of situations, your problem-solving power comes not from using a linear style of thinking, but from getting feedback and then improving your thinking, in a fast-moving, iterative cycle, as Gray explains here:

“If you wait until your plan is complete – till every contingency is covered – you will never get anywhere. Progress, not perfection, is the goal… Build feedback loops into your execution mechanisms, so you can improve as you move… (Use) feedback… to enrich your thinking and improve your understanding of the situation.  Feedback is the most important and often neglected piece of the puzzle. When you first contextualize, you are guessing. When you incorporate feedback and use it to re-contextualize, you are improving… Success does not come from perfect execution, but from a fast-moving cycle of continuous improvement. The faster you go, the more you learn. The more you learn, the stronger you get.”

Finally, how does this concept apply specifically to mind mapping? Your first iteration of a mind map is an approximation of the existing situation. To get feedback, you can share the map with others; they can annotate the map with their comments, or you can simply walk away from the map for a day or two, and then come back to it with fresh eyes. In either case, you are improving your map from a rough approximation to a more accurate representation of the situation, using an iterative feedback cycle.

Mind mapping software has another benefit when it comes to successive approximation: As you implement your project, you can incorporate what you’ve learned into your map. In this way, it becomes a living document, not something you create once and then forget about. It becomes a management tool that you can utilize to help envision and make mid-course corrections to keep your project on track.

I think this is a powerful concept that is very relevant to the needs of many business-oriented visual mappers. What do you think?

Published via print-on-demand service Lulu.com, Dave calls “version zero” of his book a work in progress, an evolving exploration of visual language, visual thinking and visual work practices. It is described as “part sketchbook, part textbook, part workbook.” I recently ordered a copy of it, and was blown away by the depth of insights that are already contained in this rough, unfinished draft. It’s like seeing the tip of an iceberg; you just know there’s much more under the surface compared what is now visible.

Dave’s entire focus is on helping today’s information worker (that describes just about all of us!) to understand how to present information visually, in a meaningful and compelling way. The book is chock full of hand-drawn information models and examples, which I found to be quite interesting. It contains blank pages, where you can add notes and insights gained from it.

Dave also provides some very compelling explanations of his visual thinking theories. On more than one occasion, I found myself murmuring out loud, “Wow – that’s deep!” In short, this guy has put a lot of deep thought into the art and practice of visual communication, and it shows, even in this rough draft.

What does this have to do with mind mapping? Many of the principles and practices Dave describes in Marks and Meaning have direct application to visual mapping. I have obtained his permission to explore a few of these in this blog, which I will do over the next week or so.

Because this book is at such an early stage, there’s a real opportunity for readers (that be you) to give Dave detailed feedback on every aspects of the content of Marks and Meaning. Some people may be put off at spending US$34 on an “unfinished” book, but I consider it to be a great opportunity to contribute to a book that I predict will be considered to be one of the seminal works in the world of visual thinking.

I strongly recommend that you order a copy of Marks and Meaning – I think you’ll be very impressed, and will gain plenty of insights that you can use in your visual communication at work – mind mapping and otherwise!