Mindmapping

Mindmapping is a graphical technique to help you solve problems. Mindmapping intends to find the creative ideas you already have stored away in your brain, consciously and sub-consciously, and bring them out for you see. And for you to show everyone else, if you like.

Joyce Wycoff, in her book, Mindmapping: Your Personal Guide to Exploring Creativity and Problem-Solving wants to help you tap your creativity.

Your brain is a storehouse of information. Some believe it's capacity is greater than all the libraries in the world combined. It might not seem like it when you are trying to remember where you put your keys or the name of the new neighbor you met yesterday. But it's there, and you need to be able to get at it.

It's generally accepted the brain is made up of two halves. The left half handles language, logic, sequences, processes, details, and judgments. The right half handles images, rhythm, music, imagination, color, patterns and emotions. According to Wycoff, creativity comes from exceptional interaction of both halves of our brain. Mindmapping intends to facilitate that exceptional interaction.

She defines creativity as "seeing things that everyone around us sees while making connections that no one else has made."

Here is the basic idea behind mindmapping:

1. You need a piece of paper and something to write with.
2. In the center of the paper, draw a box and write the focus of your thinking. One or two words that describe the problem or situation you are thinking about.
3. Focus on thinking about the topic. As thoughts come to mind quickly write down the key words. Draw lines showing how the key words connect to the focus topic and to each other.
4. Let the ideas and thoughts flow from the central focus and from additional key words. Draw lines to show the connections as they appear in your mind.

According to the author, two things happen when you write your ideas down:
1. Your mind is free to go on and think about other ideas, and
2. Associations are made with the written ideas.

Mindmapping: Your Personal Guide to Exploring Creativity and Problem-Solving goes on to discuss the application of mindmapping to:


Creative Writing
Business Writing
Project Management
Managing Meetings
Presentations
Listening and Note Taking
Personal Development


Remember, there are no wrong mind maps!

Creative Problem Solving

Creative Problem Solving by Donald Noone is a handy (4" x 6", 120 page) guide to liberate your problem solving capabilities. As part of Barron's Business Success Guide Series it provides practical "how-to" ideas to enhance your current problem solving skills.

Based on the premise the problem solver is often the biggest obstacle to solving the problem, Noone begins by addressing the actions and the attitudes of the problem solver. He suggests the problem solver "Fall in love with problems" (p. 14). This can be accomplished by repeating these beliefs:

"I love problems."
"Problems spell opportunities."
"Problems are the prelude to progress."
"Problems allow the expression of my power."
"Problems tell me what I have to do."
"Problems precede improvement."
"Problems are fun."

The second attitude to cultivate is "different is just different, and not wrong." When we judge something as wrong, we immediately discount it.

What if the idea of using a forklift to stack cars on top of each other was immediately dismissed as ridiculous? There might not be parking garages today.

Once the correct attitudes have been adopted, it's time to apply the problem solving skills.

Creative Problem Solving suggests the first and most important skill is to correctly define the problem. If incorrectly identify the problem, or identify the wrong problem, you will solve the wrong problem. And what's the point in that?

Other skills identified and discussed in the book include:

Asking Questions -- because statements result in limitations.
Mind Mapping -- because a picture is worth a 1000 words.
Association and Fishhooking -- because inspiration is everywhere.
Using Analogies -- because comparison leads to discovery.
Amplifying Everything -- because the unfamiliar forces creativity.

Noone ends his book with 18 reminders, or rules, for creative problem solving. Some highlights from this list include:

1. Accept stark reality -- bad things happen.
2. Welcome problems as opportunities.
4. Don't be a "but-head."
10. Asking empowering questions -- often and many.
17. When something does not work, try something else; persist until you achieve intended results.

The Effective Executive

Peter Drucker is considered by many to be the father of modern business management. He went into General Motors to study the management workings of this mega corporation way before it was fashionable.

He has written numerous books and journal articles over the course of his distinguished academic career. Most of them are enjoyable and thought-provoking reading even for the non-academic. If you are interested in managing your business or your life better, Drucker has some helpful solutions.

Written in the 1966, The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done was written to help the individual make a more valuable contribution to his or her organization. While organizational settings have changed in the half century since this book was written, the principles are still very applicable.

Drucker's first principle is that effectiveness can and must be learned. He defines effectiveness as "getting the right things done." As opposed doing things in the right way (efficiency). Or doing things quickly (expediency). You can do the wrong thing and still do it efficiently and expediently. This book focuses on doing the right things.

The second principle is that effective executives have to know how to manage their time. He suggests this is a three-step process:
(1) recording what you are currently doing with your time;
(2) managing what you will do with your time in the future; and
(3) consolidating time to make large chunks available for important tasks.

The third principle suggested by Drucker in The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done relates to contribution. Figuring out what your contribution is to the organization by asking such questions as:

"What can I and no on else do which, if done really well, would make a real difference to this company?"

Then buried deep in the book, on page 100, is the secret. Drucker states, "If there is any one "secret" of effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time." The first rule of concentration is to get rid of the things in your life that have ceased to be productive.

Regarding decision making, Drucker points out in The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, that effective executives do not make a great many decisions, they concentrate on the important ones.


So if your job is to be effective, and it probably is, then the news is good: Effectiveness can and must be learned. And this book can help!

The Art of War

The Art Of War is a classic military primer written around 500 BC by Sun Tzu. Written in China, it has influenced Chinese military leaders all the way up to, and including Mao Tse-Tung.

Mao's own works give evidence to the impact of Sun Tzu on his life. See:


Sun Tzu said that war was important to survival and should be considered using 5 fundamental factors:

1. moral influence


2. weather


3. terrain


4. command


5. doctrine

This book is full of short lists. The five sorts of secret agents:

1. native


2. inside


3. doubled


4. expendable


5. living

The five methods of attacking with fire:

1. burn personnel


2. burn stores


3. burn equipment


4. burn arsenals


5. incendiary missiles

Five qualities which are dangerous in the character of a general:

1. recklessness -- he can be killed


2. cowardly -- he can be captured


3. quick-tempered -- you can make a fool of him


4. too delicate a sense of honor -- you can make up lies and falsehoods about him


5. compassionate -- you can harass him

The Art Of War has several short memorable statements and suggestions. Here are some of my favorites.

"All warefare is based on deception."

"Victory is the main object in war."

"To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

"Generally, management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization."

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Dale Cranegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People was first published in 1936. And it's as applicable today as it was then.

This book is a classic on how to get along with anyone. The principles he presents are simple and deceptively easy to apply. I have tried most of them. I am amazed every time they work exactly like he said they would!



How to Win Friends & Influence People



How to Win Friends & Influence People

Chasing Daylight and Perfect Moments

Title: Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life
Author: Eugene O'Kelly with Andrew Postman and Corinne O'Kelly
Publisher: McGraw-Hill: New York
ISBN: 978-0-07-149993-4

Gene O'Kelly was elected chairman and CEO of KPMG(US) in 2002. A leadership role he was performing in May 2005 when he was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer and given three months to live.

Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life is the story of how he adjusted his life so that he could die well. An account of how he maximized the last 100 days of his life, despite debilitating brain cancer. Or maybe better put, because of it.

An accountant by training, he rose through the ranks to become chairman and CEO. Then quit abruptly upon diagnosis of brain cancer. He describes the diagnosis as a gift. It gave him the opportunity to radically alter his life. And while 100 days is a short time frame, at least it's a time frame. Some people get none

Suggestions I took away from reading this book:

(p.14) 1. Consider taking the time to plan my final weeks and months on earth. And to do it now.

(p.52) 2. Live fearlessly. Clarity of mission, commitment, and execution.

(p. 62) 3. Focus on quality and depth when you don't have a lot of time left (quantity).

(p.73) 4. Live completely in the moment -- don't think about the future or reflect on the past -- live in the moment, completely absorbed.

(p. 99) 5. Define what a good good-bye looks like for me.

(p. 110) 6. Attempt to turn lifes ocassions into Perfect Moments.

(p. 111) 7. Be open to Perfect Moments when they occur without my efforts.

(p. 132) 8. Realize that enough Perfect Moments strung together make a Perfect Day.

Overall, a profoundly emotional book for me.

Principle-Centered Leadership

Steven R. Covey wrote the New York Times #1 Bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Later he wrote Principle Centered Leadership. This book builds on the principles outlined in his 7 Habits book. He starts out right away in Chapter 1 outlining the characteristics of principle-centered leaders. They:

1. are continually learning
2. are service-oriented
3. radiate positive energy
4. believe in other people
5. lead balanced lives
6. see life as an adventure
7. are synergistic
8. exercise for self-renewal.

This book is really two books in one. The first half is created to help us at the personal and interpersonal level. The second half is created to help us at the organizational level.

I learned a great deal that has helped me with both my personal and my professional life.

This book is still right on the money, even after 17 years. Principle Centered Leadership
by Steven Covey.