Mind Maps & Imaging
Mind maps can help us to think in a more systemic (complex & inter-connected) way, which is in fact more natural for our brains - which tend to be 'scatter-brained', associative, etc.
The current culture and education system however tends to steer us away from systemic thinking, training us mostly in linear and atomized ways.
Video: Buzan on how mind maps make you smarter
Tony Buzan, inventor of the mind map, was in Hong Kong to promote the system to local students. He claims that educators need to change the way they teach or else our brains will turn to junk.
Click for more videos by Tony Buzán
How to Mind Map
Discover how to Mind Map with this simple step-by-step video guide for educators and students.
Mind Maps to solve problems?
How can you use Mind Maps to solve problems?
3 ways the brain creates meaning
http://www.ted.com Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big ideas?
Graphic Facilitation
A great way to facilitate is to transform people's ideas into images... so we can all 'be on the same page'.
more about this in the Visual Facilitation page ....
By Christine Valenza
Some of the Benefits of Graphic Recording
The recording is designed to meet the immediate and emerging needs of the group.
Like a time lapse series of photographs, graphic recording captures and holds the emerging thinking and dynamic process of the group.
Capturing and organizing the thoughts and words in a shared workspace can maximize the time that has been allotted for the work that needs to be done.
By visually combining what has been done prior to a meeting, with the thinking that will occur at this meeting, the process of the group's thinking together can become more streamlined without losing any opportunities for innovation.
The graphic facilitation process intensifies and energizes group efforts.
The visual triggers assist in recalling details and content of the meeting later.
By keeping a record of the ways that ideas build, nothing is lost, and ideas that might have been overlooked can be expanded. Subtle relationships can be seen. Ideas are not shown in a linear format and can be juxtaposed or superimposed upon one another. Seeing the big picture and the details simultaneously generally leads to more generative and creative thinking from the group (even if the group tends to be very creative to begin with!)
The group can take full advantage of the process of idea generation (creative) and funneling those ideas into a work plan (linear). The large charts harness the power of our vision to understand complex information at a glance.
The use of metaphor can unleash new thinking.
As ideas are represented on the group memory, people feel acknowledged and become engaged. Because their contributions are visible, involvement and cooperation build. Graphic recording centers the work on the ideas, not the personalities of a group. Creating and sharing this common experience can help people interpret events beyond their usual experience. This becomes a shared, continuous record that can help build team and organizational capability.
Digital reproduction of the charts created during the meeting can carry the thinking beyond the meeting and allow for further thinking, and create opportunity to invite input from other stakeholders.