Idea Map #75 - Clouds

Steve Rothwell is a previous contributor to this blog and today he shares an idea map he created purely for his own enjoyment. His map about Clouds was inspired by Roberto Vidales's map on Trees. Above you will see both the full view and the folded view -- both created in MindManager. You can see a clearer pdf version of the FULL map on my website. If you click on any column it will sort the maps alphabetically and you can then search by author or title.

Steve's other two maps are from the April 19, 2007 posting and Idea Maps #10 and #11.

Idea Map #74 - Salesman Joel Series - Part 3

In last Saturday's blog I introduced you to Joel Landoe, an engineer at Boeing. This idea map is the third in this series and depicts the website design of how he will run his business. For the pdf version of this map go to my website. If you click on any column it will sort alphabetically and you can then search by author or map title, etc.

Idea Map #73 - Salesman Joel Series - Part 2

In Saturday's blog I introduced you to Joel Landoe, an engineer at Boeing. This idea map is the second in this series and depicts the operational side of how he runs his business. It addresses the needed tools, processes, and the infrastructure. Notice his nice use of imagery for things like "planting a seed", "fishing for prospects", etc. For the pdf version of this map go to my website. If you click on any column it will sort alphabetically and you can then search by author or map title, etc.

Idea Map #72 - Salesman Joel Series

This idea map was created by Joel Landoe who is an engineering at Boeing. It represents his personal development plan to get into sales. In order to this better than engineering, he needed to have a very solid development plan, and this idea map is designed to do that.

Some of the themes of the branches include:

1. A reminder of the recurring benefits that best friends bring over a lifetime and that his focus should be on building deep lasting friendships.
2. The Dale Carnegie conversation stack/model for interacting with prospects combined with Jeffrey Gitomer's "25 power questions". The trunk reminds him that he is rooted in strong values, “Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friends”. Put God and others before self.
3. “Family” reminds him that they can be his biggest asset for spreading the word about his business.
4. And the last branch reminds him to always be meeting new people.

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In the next two postings, he'll share maps that help with operational plans and website design. Stay tuned. For the pdf version of this map go to my website. If you click on any column it will sort alphabetically and you can then search by author or map title, etc.

Dynamic Dashboard Drastically Improves Productivity - Idea Map #71 Featured in today's January Mindjet Newsletter

Overview
In the Spring of 2007, I introduced Denny Sikkila (Mindjet Central Region Manager) to one of my clients at a large automotive company here in Michigan. Denny helped her build a MindManager prototype to develop a Program Dashboard that has transformed their weekly status meetings. Not only has it saved them time in preparing for meetings, it has also resulted in more effective meetings.

Before
Every week a group of 35 IT project leaders would gather to review the status of the most major IT projects happening within the organization. In order to prepare for the meeting, a team of 4 people had to build a document approximately 85 pages in length. Each week they:

• Required that all data was updated with actuals: project work plans, financials, issues, risks, scope control, and metrics reports
• Cut the data out of each source and pasted the data (as a picture) into the document
• Printed the 85-page status document
  

Because of the time-consuming task of cutting and pasting, the document was out-of-date by the time it was printed. (The weekly cut and paste took 2 days to execute.) The 85-page document was difficult to review and required the 35+ people to set aside two hours each week to report statuses. The team spent more time shuffling back and forth through the 85 pages and debating why the data was out-of-date, than they spent understanding the status and reviewing and resolving issues.

A mandated reduction in their staff forced them to become more efficient. This led to the idea of creating a dashboard and eliminating the cut and paste process. MindManager was the perfect tool. It allowed them to quickly and easily create a dashboard that linked directly to all the data.

The New Process
Today there is only one requirement in this process. The meeting participants need to make sure their data is up-to-date before it's their turn to discuss any status. This Mindjet-driven dashboard links to over 50 files and 10 weblinks.

All the cutting, pasting, and printing have been eliminated -- which saves approximately 20 hours per week. They've also reduced status meetings from 2 hours to 1. But more importantly, the meetings have reach a higher level of maturity. All information is reviewed electronically (via a projector). The team members can sit in a meeting and update the data real time. For example, if an issue needs to be reworded, it's done right there and then. Today the focus of the meeting is on analyzing the data instead of making excuses and debating out-of-date information. With the click of the mouse, tons of data can be accessed quickly and easily. Instead of reviewing a hard copy picture, files are accessed in real time. This allows for the ability to drill down to the specific tasks, hours, predecessors, etc. They can now make informed decisions right on the spot, because they have access to all the correct data. MindManager has transformed the way this project manager runs this program.

Are you wondering how this group of 35 reacted the first time this process went from the static paper version to the electronic dashboard? I happened to be witness to this first debut. The transition was seamless, it was simple to follow, and there wasn't a person in the room that wasn't impressed. I'll bet there is a process in your organization that could use a MindManager dashboard! To see the clearer pdf version of this map, go to my website and click on the column titled map name. It will show titles alphabetically, and you can scroll down to "Program Dashboard".

To see other maps created by this project manager see: Dare to Dream, Then Do It, and DeBono's Six Thinking Hats. Today this map is featured in my monthly contribution to the Mindjet Newsletter. If you would like to subscribe to the Mindjet Monthly Newsletter click here.

Idea Map #70 - Client Training Needs

This Idea Map was created by Glenn Stennes during a brainstorming session to identify 2007 training needs of companies supported by an international donor funded assistance program. The initial map was created in real-time while projected on a screen for all participants to see. Imagery was added during pauses which helped stimulate the flow of ideas. Following the meeting, some additional formatting was done. The map was then exported to a pdf and sent to all participants. The information recorded on the map formed the basis for developing the project training plan. You can see a clearer pdf version of this map on my website. If you click on any column it will sort the maps alphabetically and you can then search by author or title, etc.

Glenn Stennes is a Business Consultant presently living and working in South East Europe and a MindManager user since 2004. Last April he attended the 2-day Idea Mapping workshop in the UK taught by Vanda North. Glenn shared that applying the fundamentals taught during the workshop while using MindManager has helped make a good tool a great tool!

Vanda's next workshop in the UK will be held February 20-21, 2008. See course info and abstract for more details.

Idea Map #69 - Identifying Gaps & Action Plans

Larisa Brigevich is the Director of the Global Research Library for Franklin Templeton. We met 3 years ago when I did an abbreviated workshop for their organization. We re-connected in December of 2007 when she attended the full 2-day Idea Mapping Workshop. A week after the class, she sent me this idea map. I'll let her describe it in her own words. Thanks Larisa!

"A few months ago, we established a standard process for assessing and capturing clients' information needs. This includes conducting interviews with individual clients to determine their information seeking behavior, sources they use, information gaps, how the library can help, etc. We capture this information in Client Profiles, the two standardized templates that we use for initial interviews and when developing a specific service (hence two templates). We store them in the database and update them when new information is available.

We have a project leader, a librarian in Mumbai, who oversees this process and makes sure that all parts of the process work smoothly and that librarians follow the guidelines. He is relatively new to the process. We also just hired a manager for the team in Mumbai. I believe that teaching is the best way to learn and internalize new knowledge; therefore, I asked the project leader to train the manager. I was an observer and a back-up person in case the project leader missed something. I wanted to evaluate a project leader's understanding of the process and identify and point out any gaps in his knowledge and in the process itself.

Idea Mapping allowed me to quickly identify gaps. We immediately talked about it and determined the action plan for improving the process as well as a training plan for future trainings."

For the pdf version of this map go to my website. If you click on any column it will sort alphabetically and you can then search by author or map title, etc.