Mind maps as a graphic technique is a tool applicable to each and every one of the aspects of business management, as well as to the various activities of product, service and process design. Thus, its use in learning activities, analysis, problem solving and decision-making, planning, budgeting, software design, sales, detection and prevention of waste, cost reduction, productivity, quality, internal control survey, analysis. Prevention and development of business strategies are just some of the important applications of this important instrument that can be classified from now on as the tool of the 21st century.
Tony Buzan, who is the creator of this tool, tells us that for the last hundred years it has been taken for granted that the mind of man works in a linear way. This belief stems fundamentally from the increasing reliability of our two main methods of communication: the written word and the business word.
So when we speak or listen to another person, we are forced to speak or listen word after word. This is why the language is spoken as a linear process between several people.
As the printed language that has considered, not without reasons, an even more linear process. Not only is the reader forced to read the printed units in consecutive order, but these units are arranged on the page in lines or in rows. This emphasis on linearity has carried over into normal writing or note-taking procedures. This way of thinking is so old that very little has been done to change or modify it, however the most recent data shows that the brain has a multidimensional organizational capacity much greater than what has been assumed.
The argument that the brain works in a linear fashion due to the types of speech it has developed does not take into account the very nature of the organism. Words are obviously transmitted from one person to another in a linear fashion, but this is irrelevant. What really matters is discovering how the brain works internally when a person is speaking or listening to what another person says.
Advantages of mind maps
The mind map makes use of the full range of cortical capacities, including words, imagination, numbers, logic, rhythm, pictures, lists, details, color, and space. She does this work in a unique, singular and powerful way. The mind map favors those who put it into practice:
A fast possibility to monitor in a limited area problems or large issues.
Being able to plan a strategy or make decisions.
Being able to know well in which direction you are going, and where you have been previously.
Being able to collect and preserve large amounts of data on one page, allowing you to appreciate relationships and discontinuities.
The possibility of solving problems, exploring more creative ways.
Being able to dramatically increase your level of efficiency.
The Group Mind Map
For the manager of an organization, the group mind map is a very valuable application, as it can be used for the purpose of getting ideas, highlighting differences and similarities, and to ensure that everyone cooperates in achieving the goal (s). objectives.
How to build a Mind Map
The concept, idea or definition around which it is to be worked must be placed in the center of the graph, or nucleus. Example: Cost reduction.
Rays or lines must be extended around the central nucleus, at the ends of which or along them the factors must be taken into consideration for the reduction of costs. Example: productivity, quality, machine idle time, inventory level, capital structure, total cycle time, physical space, production line, etc.
Then, starting from each concept, the factors that affect them are linked. Example: for quality: training, statistical process control, product and process design, work teams, planning, quality definition, continuous improvement, benchmarking, empowerment, others.
The new sub-factors continue to be derived from each factor.
Links are established by lines between the factors that have interrelation.
The actions to be taken to achieve the proposed objective are derived in a new graph related to the first one. In the case treated as an example: cost reduction.
Colors and drawings can be used to make more comprehensive use of the brain, not limiting itself to logical questions, but extending them to imagination, emotions, and intuition.
The Map must allow one to glimpse in a single impression and intuitively the complexity, interrelationships and characteristics of the system or problem treated or object of analysis.
Concentrating on the map allows us to find new aspects, relationships and interrelationships not previously seen or contemplated.
The mind map must be subject to continuous analysis and re-analysis for the purposes of its improvement.
The maps can be made individually or jointly, and in the latter case as team work or as a sum and conjunction of individual contributions (maps made individually) and then contemplated in a joint or team effort.
