Page 104 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

Mind niappin; , \cellent technit11 R not only tor genet.

ating new ideas but also for developing one's intuitive

pacity. It is especially useful for identifying all the issues

and subissucs related to a problem, as well as the solutions

to a problem and their pros and cons. The latter is accom-

plished by making the main branches the solutions and the

subbranches from each of these the pros and cons. Mind

mapping also works well for outlining presentations, papers,

and book chapters. In fact, mind mapping can be used in a

wide variety of situations. For example, the extremely suc-

cessful socio/technological forecasting firm, Inferential Fo-

cus, founded by Charles Hess and Carol Coleman, uses mind

maps to spot trends and predict periods of change before

they occur. Hess and Coleman charge a hefty $24,000 a year

for their futurist publications. Their clients include the White

House, Chase Manhattan Bank, First Fidelity, and numer-

ous other Fortune 500s organizations. 32

Numerous managers are using the mind mapping concept.
For example, Michael Stanley, the engineer in charge of
Boeing's technical publications unit, uses mind maps exten-
sively. He keeps a spiral notebook of mind maps covering
the "basic subjects that I've got to know to do my job." He
even has a 40 foot by 4 foot mind map on his wall that he
used to show top management about a new process he had
designed for developing technical publications. 33 Joelle Mar-
tin, head of the agency that created Anheuser-Busch's
award-winning "Being Black in America" advertising cam-
paign, uses the technique to help her decide how and when
to terminate an employee. 34

About half of the people who learn this process find it ex- 101
tremely useful; the other half find it uncomfortable to use. CREATIVE
The latter seem to object to the lack of structure and find it
difficult to be as spontaneous as the process requires. But PROBLEM
for those who are comfortable with it, it can be a very useful
and versatile tool. As author Jill Neimark notes, "Once you've SQLYI NG
got the knack of letting your mind flow onto this visual chess-
board (a mindmap), you can apply it to anything from busi- TECHNIQUES
ness to relationships to your future." 35