MindManager could be Really Great or Really Scary (2 of 2)
A tongue-in-cheek statement - it's a nice piece of software, the first interestingly new piece of productivity software I've picked up on in a few years, and a strikingly new way of thinking / organizing / capturing knowledge for me. This is the second of two posts; I've already experienced changes in how I think about creativity, organization, brainstorming, and breakthrough ideas!
(Post 1 of 2 covered What is this?, Installation, Features, Training, and Add-Ons)
Hands on: The Office-like interface made it easy to get started, but I needed to get my feet wet with something simple. I have historically maintained a modified ToDo-type list to keep track of ideas, features, tweaks, etc. for programming and implementation projects; I pulled up a current project and retyped all of the items into a new MindMap, just to get the hang of it. After you get beyond stuff like keyboard shortcuts and line types, the basic concepts start to take hold in your brain. (Over)simply put, MindManager is just a glorified outliner - except the visual style allows you to break out of the two-dimensional limits of a traditional outline and draw relationships between different areas of thought. I also appreciate the GUI approach - remember the first time you used Visio? Capturing structure & knowledge by drawing and gesturing - it's the same here, when you can pick up "branches" from the "tree" and rearrange / reassociate until a better picture takes shape.
The Aha! Moment: Feeling confident, with a glimmer of understanding in my brain, I created another MindMap for a new project idea. Ok, this was actually an older, somewhat amorphous intention to do something, without a clear center or purpose. I've used contact management software a lot, for many years, and I think I do a fairly good job at networking. I've had ideas over the years about doing something in this space, but never could come up with anything "interesting" (where "interesting" means "something that hasn't already been done 1M times"). However, after building a MindMap over the space of a few days, and capturing random thoughts as I use my current tools and do my current processes, a definite pattern took shape. I now have a clear (but not yet glib) description of a very interesting "thing" I will start work on soon. It was definitely an insight that was masterfully facilitated using Mind Mapping.
- A posting over on Anecdote talked about a older technique for producing ideas. Sounds great for smaller ideas, but this is one example where software can scale Young's "process" to handle much for complex problem spaces.
Mixed Success: I still understand Mind Mapping to be a personal tool / process, as opposed to a meeting facilitator / group effort. I feel the act of capturing ideas, adding them to the map, and rearranging them until it all makes sense, is a required activity that helps drive the total understanding of the problem domain. I have had no luck in walking someone else (or a small group) through a partially finished Mind Map - it's a bit confusing. However, when you are involved in the creation of the map, you can understand what went into it.
- I'm tempted to put this into the category of Knowledge Management, save for the fact that it's somewhat difficult to hand anything but the simplest map to another person. So, it might not make IdealWare's list of 15 Ways to Use Software to Improve Your Knowledge Management , but it is something groups should take a look at.
Some Insight: The GyroQ add-on (mentioned last time) is pretty nice. Yes, it is something that's been done before, but the nice thing is that it connects your captured ideas directly into their own MindMap, where they can be easily moved to another project / map. The enemy here: Context Switching, which has been written about recently by a few folks:
- Atwood writes about the Multi-Tasking Myth, and the impact that context switching has on technical workers' productivity
- Spolsky does a pretty nice job of explaining the problem
<aside> Now, I still don't get the title of these posts ... he should probably resolve that soon ... </aside>
So, what is the "verdict" on MindManager? As a new tool for the typical Systems Analyst, Consultant, Manager, or Executive, Mind Mapping is one or more of the following ...
- Really Great - This is a bit more than just a slightly different way of thinking; Mind Mapping is a method and a process for helping suss out the structure of a cloud of thoughts. There's a pony in there somewhere, and here's a better shovel.
- Slightly Scary - It allows your mind to wander, as you madly capture thoughts. I'm thinking of my Aha! moment, when I was doing the brain dump - one idea after the next, I finally have a place to capture them, and time is just flying by - but I'm not working on what I need to!! Very easy to get lost in the idea capture.
- Really Scary - Effectively capturing and organizing these ideas could blossom into yet another long list of projects I simply cannot get to. It's nice to be busy, but having a "big backlog" can be frustrating at times - could lead to baseless angst. However, I know I'll never be bored ...
posted by James P. MacLennan at 11:12 PM
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