In tidying up my own files – a good end of summer project – I came upon an article I wrote several years ago for Project Times That still had relevance. And since I have recently re designed my website as well, using Microsoft Expression Web makes it really easy to post articles.
While multicultural diversity is all the rage, mental diversity is often ignored. So you can find out more about it here and also have a look at the article at the bottom of the page.
Idea Connection has an interesting quote from a conversation with Sarah Miller Caldicott, author of “Innovate Like Edison: The Five-Step System for Breakthrough Business Success.”
Sarah Miller Caldicott may be the great grandniece of Thomas Edison, but she relied on more than simply family anecdotes to write her book, Innovate Like Edison. She delved into all things Edison with Dr. Paul Israel, the director of the Edison Papers at Rutgers University, who presides over an archive 5 million pages deep.
When asked what tools Edison used, here is her reply:
“What intrigued me when I started studying Edison was, what techniques is he using to come up all these robust ideas? He’s manufacturing stuff and marketing stuff, but he still keeps asking questions. How does he keep figuring out the questions to ask? How does he know what to look at next, to see into the future and see what’s possible?
The answer is, he used whole-brain thinking techniques. It wasn’t even a concept back then. But he did realize there were different parts of the thinking process – there was a data-oriented part and another part that was about the big picture, patterns, concepts and linkages. So he used tactics to bring those two ways of thinking together.
For example, he worked with analogies. He’d compare disparate things that were like each other, to make connections. He might think, “OK, I’m learning about electricity, and I don’t know much about that. But I know a lot about telegraphy. So how is electricity like telegraphy?”
Whole brain thinking, of course, IS a concept right now. You can learn more.
Licenced from Wordle.net
What you are seeing here is the result of an amazing program that produces Word Clouds, compilations of words from documents. It automatically searches for repeated words and assesses their importance, – and then creates a graphic image combining them. This one was created from some routine desciption of the HBDI and is uncannily accurate in bringing the main words to the fore. You can enlarge it and look closer by clicking on it.
I heard about the site from a colleague who sent me a forty page report I wrote on leadership models condensed into a few words. It will form a resource when we discuss it and his own Word Cloud next week. It will be interesting to see how it contributes to the discussion.
Here’s what one of our Australian colleagues said about the use of the HBDI
To survive the current financial environment businesses need to adopt Whole Brain ThinkingTM now more than ever.
According to Michael Morgan, CEO of Herrmann International Asia: “It’s about maintaining a Whole BrainTM approach to business management to ensure we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. The actions we take now will determine how fit we are for the future. For example, history has shown that companies who retain staff during tougher financial times will be a step ahead of other companies when the economy rebounds.”
The typical response to this type of economic crisis is greater government regulation and increased business conservatism. The danger in an over-regulated and conservative market is that it is too easy to miss the next wave of business opportunities.
Organisations need to maintain a balanced focus, and the Whole Brain Model provides a way of doing that both now and for the future.
In this day of doom and gloom and talk of recession and depression, it is imperative to maintain strict financial awareness and to adopt a more intraspective business focus, however, this must be balanced inside a longer-term business strategy for growth.
A recent survey of VisiMap users has provided us with a good deal of information. I’m going to share the findings in small doses over the next few days.
PASSION FOR VISIMAP
What Our Customers Taught Us
Companies want to know what their customers really think of their products and how they use them. More often than not, they survey them with a series of set questions in multiple choice format. CoCo Systems and its distribution partner, Dynamic Thinking, decided to go a simpler and more direct route to learn more about customer satisfaction with VisiMap software.
VisiMap falls into the classification of visual mapping software, also popularly known as mind mapping software. Mind mapping is the name given to the concept by popular writer and speaker, Tony Buzan. Buzan’s early books on mind mapping stressed its value as a memory tool – keeping ideas in the brain. A later book, co-written with his brother Barry, included insights on its use in getting ideas out of the brain and on to the page.
My own introduction to the concept occurred about 15 years ago, even though mind mapping had been around since the seventies. At the time of certification as a trainer in mind mapping in 1994, I encountered a cumbersome DOS software version and immediately knew that there had to be something better – and there was. I discovered VisiMap, the first visual mapping software written for the Windows platform.
Visual mapping software presents ideas in a tree structure radiating from a central core. Branches can be expanded indefinitely and can be enhanced by colours and images and linked to virtually anything in a file format. As software development has progressed, designers have added a multiplicity of functions without necessarily thinking about whether these are valued or even used. We were far more interested in benefits than features. So we asked our customers:
How has using VisiMap changed or improved your work or your life?
We weren’t really prepared for the flood of almost immediate responses. I was tempted to wonder, “Don’t these people have jobs?” But what was clear was huge enthusiasm and commitment. These were really nice people “Thanks for asking”, said Mike O’Sullivan of Adept, a UK based training and consultancy firm. as though we were doing him a personal favour.
We also weren’t prepared for how long the responses kept coming in. Some people took the time to write quite detailed thoughtful answers. Some, like Alan Williams, the director of Cerulean Visions Limited, a UK based consulting firm, even sent us comments in map format. There were entertaining stories and a highly credible response rate.
Users come from everywhere. South Africans mingle with Americans, New Zealanders, Danes, Australians and Canadians. Their job titles are eclectic. We were not surprised by a large number of consultants. We were more interested that users were also from fields like the military, human resources, litigation law, event management, the priesthood, university administration, film making, medicine, marine day charters and construction. One simply offered “mind-mapping junkie” as a job title. What united all of them was the need to create, refine and organize ideas and information.
And use VisiMap they did – for many things I had already thought of, but many that hadn’t ever crossed my mind. These are some of the many uses that our customers describe.
Getting ideas out of one’s head and on to the screen is still probably the most preferred use. Phrases like “dumping a jungle of issues and problems” “brainstorming”, “free flow of ideas” “personal problems and issues” suggested that users simply like to start with a central topic and let the ideas flow without judging them. “To be critical at the same time as I absorb new information creates bias before I can appreciate the value of new ideas”, observes South African consultant, Armand Kruger. The fact that one can simply start typing and get things down is liberating. “I can lay out ideas without worrying about layout or presentation’, one respondent said. “I can add new thoughts as fast as I can type”, said another.
