Mind Mapping

This video covers Mind mapping. Mind maps is a visual and a creative thinking tool used to capture, represent, showcase and visualise ideas and their relationships.

Learning bytes from the video

✅ linear thinking vs radiant thinking
✅ visual representation of ideas
✅ origin and usage of mind maps
✅ how to draw mind maps

Presentation:

Summary:

Quiz:

Timeline

How do we think: 1:00
What is Mind Map: 21:00
Creating Mind Map: 28:45
Uses of Mind Map: 48:00
Review of Mind Maps participants created as an activity: 1:05:30

Summary

• We don’t think in a hierarchical or linear style and Mind Map complements our thinking style.
• Multiple colours and keywords along with free form hand drawing to be used for creating Mind Maps.
• Mind Maps can be used for many purposes such as putting together the shopping list, preparing notes or preparing a presentation and more.

Full Transcript

Abhishek
So like I saying a very, very warm welcome to all of you to this very, very interesting session on a tool that, if you don’t know about it already, is something that you will use, I’m pretty confident for the rest of your life, in a variety of situations. Right. So, the tool I want to talk to you about today is something called Mind Maps.

It is used for Visual Thinking, it is used for radiant thinking.

It is used for something called… so essentially here is the thing right? The thing is that How do we think? What is the process of thinking? Right?

So for a moment, I want all of you to close your eyes. Don’t do that if you are driving, or if you are in a place where it’s unsafe to do so, but if you can close your eyes and think about your first day at work, or think about your first day in college, right? So just close your eyes for a moment and think about that first day at work or in college or in school.

Okay, now, when you do that, how do you, what is the process of thinking actually,

How do you think about this particular memory or this particular thing that is that you are recalling?

Speaker 1
Yes, that was good.

Abhishek
Yeah, that was good. Okay, so how are you recalling it is there? You’re telling yourself it was good. Okay, what else?

Speaker 2
Cherishing moment.

Abhishek
Okay, we are cherishing it. But what is physically happening in your closed eyes and in your brain? What is physically happening? What is your actual experience? Cherishing is an adjective you’re using to describe that actual experience, right? But what is that actual experience? If you want to check, just close your eyes and see it again.

Speaker 3
I literally had to recall the memory as in like, I literally had to think about what exactly happened and then the emotion came after that.

Abhishek
And what happened and when you thought about what happened, what did you observe? What was your actual what was what actually happened in your brain.

Speaker 4
I was kind of nervous.

Abhishek
So nervous is a sensation, right? You feel nervous. Anything else? So it’s maybe nervousness in your body, maybe in your stomach or in chest, or in your hands. Right. What else?

Speaker 5
I did begin a new experience.

Abhishek
Sorry?

Speaker 6
Excited to begin a new journey or a new experience.

Abhishek
Yeah, again, excited. So you see what is happening is you are sharing with me. Your judgments or your conclusions, your interpretation. So for example, you’re telling me, this is what actually happened inside your mind. Right?

And you’re telling me that this is my interpretation or judgment about it. I was excited. I was nervous. But what actually happened, which made you feel that you’re excited or nervous? Right. What was your actual experience you close your eyes and then what happened?

Speaker 7
Let’s try to dig deeper into the Brain and recollect that day.

Abhishek
Dig deeper and recollect the day or again, again you’re telling me what you did in language. I want to know what happened. That’s very simple, right?

Speaker 8
Meeting new colleagues, meeting new friends.

Abhishek
So what are you seeing? Actually, you’re seeing the faces of those friends, right? Yeah, exactly right. Naresh also says the same thing. He says visuals, right? So you’re seeing a visual, you’re seeing an image in your mind. So when you close your eyes, what you see is an image inside your mind. And of course, there are other things also, for example, you see an image, you talk to yourself, you have a sensation in your body. That is, again something visual, auditory, kinesthetic.

If you have attended the session on learning styles, you’ll remember that these are these this is how we experience the world.

How we experience the world is there are five ways of experiencing the world. Visual, which is what you see auditory, what you hear kinesthetic, what you touch and feel or a sensation in the body, and olfactory, which is the sense of smell. And gustatory, which is the smell of taste, right? So five ways in which we experience the world.

Right? And our What do you think is one of the most dominant ways of thinking? What is one of the most dominant ways of thinking for human beings? It is visual, right?

Speaker 8
visual, visuals.

Abhishek
Visual is a dominant way. It’s not the only dominant way some other people might have. Somebody might have a sense of thinking which is not visual. It could be somebody for somebody could be auditory. Typically, people who have an auditory preference have a very deep voice. They really enunciate well, all these voice artists chances are, they’re very very good, they understand the world through sound. Some people understand the world through touch like for example, sculptures or play with clay etc. right. Artists on the other hand, they use visual of a visual way of expressing and understanding the world. So, you have different ways different modes of expression.

But today we are not talking about all of that we have had a discussion on that in learning styles. If you’re interested you can visit the resourcehub and view our session on learning styles, which was on visual kinesthetic auditory learning styles and what impact it has in how people learn. But today, we are really not talking about that. Today we are talking about how we understand, capture, use information, right? how our brain processes information, right? And how do we do it usually when we are in day to day life? How we understand things right. Now, if you see, let us say one of the most common ways in which we understand things is if you see behind me, there is a library, right? And that is an example of information processing, right. So you have so many books, you can pick out a book. And when you pick out a book and you open it, what do you see inside? Well, unless it’s a children’s book, chances are, you will see black text on a white page, isn’t it? That’s what you will see. You will see black text on a white page. And the whole book will be just that. If there are any diagrams in the book, there will also be chances are they’re black and white, and they’ll not be color themselves. Right. So the question is, why does this happen? Why do we have Why do we represent information In such a such a way.

So this way of representing information that you will find in a book, or in a bullet list, right, black text on a white page, there are two things that are happening here. First, it’s not using color. Right? If you are talking about visual representation of information, then obviously one of the most important things about being visual is the use of color. Right? Because color really makes things stand out. That’s how we see the world. When you look around the world. You see the beautiful green fields, the orange velvet sky, you have this amazing dark blue night sky. And that’s how we interpret and understand the world. But when it comes to reading a book, the book itself is just black text on white paper. And there is no no no romance in it, no color on it, no love in it, isn’t it and we and that’s that really kills half the way Half of the brain finds it difficult to process information simply because color is missing right? Now. So that’s one thing.

The first thing is color is missing in the way we represent information in books.

Now think about how you take notes, even if maybe some of you are sitting right now and with a notebook and taking notes from this session, how are you, How do we take notes? If we are reading something, learning something, what do we do? Again, we take usually it’s one color, a blue pen or a black pen. And we use that that color only and represent it again on white paper. Right. So the way we capture information, the way we showcase information, the way we process written information is extremely extremely.. How should I say, monotonous? Obviously, it is monotonous. In fact, it’s literally true that it is monotonous because it’s monotone. It’s one tone the tone is black or blue on white paper. It is literally monotonous, isn’t it?

So the one part of how we represent information on paper, is this black on white, small text. And actually, that’s also how we write that information down if you have to capture information, but how does the brain think the brain thinks in color, the brain understands color, but we don’t use that when we capture or process information. And of course, the reason for that is, how printing was invented and how writing was invented and what resources were available at that point of time to capture and process and share and deal with information. Right. That is one part of the discolor. The other part of it is that if you see the thinking is and the other way we capture information is in whole sentences income in a linear fashion right? We organize things line by line by line.

So if you take what is what is the way we structure and organize information on a paper, we organize information by having words, words belong to a sentence. Sentences come together to form a paragraph. paragraphs come together to form a chapter, chapters come together to form a section. Sections come together to form maybe a book.

Right? So that’s how information is organized. If you open a Word document, what do you see there is a title there is a heading there is a subheading. There is a subheading two there is a subheading three. So what is this way of organizing information? It is obviously linear, right? So two things we are realizing actually, right.

One of them is that the way we, so I’ll just allow me a moment I’ll just share my screen. So, can all of you see my screen it should say mind maps on it, does it say that? Yeah.

Speaker 9
Yes.

Speaker 10
Yes, sir.

Abhishek
So we are talking about how we represent information and we do it without color, isn’t it and we do it in a linear fashion. And what is the linear fashion linear way of representing information? It is essentially hierarchical.

Abhishek
Like there’s a hierarchy is a Title Headings subheadings sub sub headings, etc, right. So there is a hierarchical structure to it. Right? It is organized. It is because it is hierarchical and it is I mean, it is organized hierarchically, actually. Right. And it is structured. Right. So this is how we are currently processing information, right?

Speaker 11
Uh… Hello.

Speaker 12
Yeah. Hi. I just want to ask which board you’re using to type this. It’s not a jam board. I know. I mean, what are the software which you’re using no?

Abhishek
I’m using something called mind node. Okay.

Speaker 13
Okay. Okay.

Abhishek
It’s called mind node. It’s only available for Mac books. Okay. So if you want to use it on a windows computer, you have a software called I mean, not a software, but a website called whimsical which has the best mind maps that I’ve seen, whimsical.com

Speaker 14
Okay, okay.

Abhishek
So I think, they have three mind maps free after that you have to pay maybe $10 a month. Okay, Okay, thanks. Yeah, sure. So we have how we represent information. We use it without color. We do it in a linear fashion. We do it in a hierarchical way. It’s organized and structured. And what are the disadvantages of using all of this? The disadvantage is that it is boring. It doesn’t trigger imagination. It doesn’t capture our hearts. It doesn’t tell us it doesn’t make us remember recall is poor, understanding is poor, we are not able to establish relationships between concepts, right; we are able to establish only hierarchical concepts only this belongs to that and that belongs to that and that belongs to that. That kind of relationship we are able to establish, but we are not able to establish relationships between ideas. We are also not able to establish an overview or a meta view of how ideas and information and concepts relate to each other, which means how does this whole thing look like right? metacognition? So for example, what does metacognition mean? so I’ll just just just explain that in a minute. So metacognition is essentially when you recognize something as a whole, right? You see something as a whole and you see something which doesn’t make sense in it

Speaker 15
Abhishek sorry to interrupt you. Your voice is breaking. I could not hear you properly. I guess I missed some of the words which you just told. Can you please repeat it?

Abhishek
I repeat, I repeat, but I just want to check is it only Priyam is not able to hear or it’s a problem with others also are not able to hear because otherwise.

Speaker 16
It is fine.

Abhishek
Okay, so some people are able to hear some people are not able to hear I’ll repeat myself. But is it clear now? Tejaswini and Priyam?

Speaker 17
Yes, yes, yes.

Abhishek
Yes. Great. So I think what I was saying was that.. So somebody will have to remind me

Speaker 18
metacognition

Speaker 19
metacognition

Abhishek
metacognition

Abhishek
So, what I was saying was that when we represent information in a linear and hierarchical manner. One of the things which we miss out is the relationship between ideas. And what we also miss out is the overview of how ideas and concepts relate to each other. Right? This leads us to not being able to have metacognition. Now

metacognition is the ability to recognize something as a whole, rather than as its parts.

So one simple example of this is, for example, when we recognize each other’s faces, right? So for example, right now you’re listening to me, chances are that if you meet me on the road, or if you meet me in another conference, In the meeting, then you will recognize me that okay, this is Abhishek, we met him in the mind maps program. So what will you recognize actually? How are you recognizing that this is me? It’s not that you are recognizing me by looking at the parts of my faces, isn’t it? It’s not that you look at me and say that Yeah, I recognize that nose, its Abhishek! but I recognize that I that is Abhishek or I recognize those ears, they are Abhishek’s. What you will recognize is the whole thing when you recognize faces, we look at the whole face and it’s familiar to us. Even if we don’t we don’t think about it, okay, that nose is similar, the eyes are similar, ears are similar. So it is that person.

So which means there is some information which is not really just the parts, but the whole when you look at the whole that awareness that cognition becomes possible.

So that that is metacognition and that is again not possible through the hierarchical and linear representation of information, which is the norm in the world. Right for all of us. That is the norm we write in a linear fashion and a hierarchical fashion without color. And we read in a linear fashion in a hierarchical fashion without color, right. And the disadvantage is that we miss out on all of these things. Right. So, if if you allow me, I will, I will just but but but but you I hope you also recognize that that is not what thinking is, isn’t it?

Thinking is not what we are saying it’s not linear. It’s not hierarchical. And it is not done in sentences. It’s not done in complete sentences. You never think I mean, if you look at cartoons and how they show thinking, usually they show a thought bubble, and inside those bubble, you see complete sentences, right? As if that is how the person is thinking Similarly, if you see films or movies, or serials, that’s how they show thinking as well. They show thinking by the person, which they focus on the person’s face, right? And then they have this person, this sound coming in the background, so the mouth is closed, but you have the sound coming in the background, and you know that they are thinking those thoughts. But those thoughts are coming in complete full sentences, right language, made up of language. But that’s not how reality works. We don’t think like that. You just did a thinking experiment. And you noticed that you think, in pictures, in images, in sounds, in incomplete words, and in incomplete sounds and in incomplete phrases, so to speak, right? So that’s how we think and not in sentences and paragraphs. You know, if you’re thinking about something for one hour, it doesn’t mean you’re thinking in paragraphs and sentences, right? You’re thinking in images and Those images are going in. So another image is coming. And it’s fleeting. And it’s sort of all interconnected. So thinking is very relational. It’s very, it’s, it’s based upon connections. It’s relational. It’s based upon connections. It’s dynamic, it’s colorful, it’s visual. It’s, it’s not hierarchical, right? hierarchical is that structured way of organizing information? Thinking is more like a more like, it’s something like it spreads out, like a like how neurons are, you know, like a tree with its various branches, they all connecting to each other in different ways.

So thinking is built like a like a, like a web, or a network, not like a hierarchy, not like an organized structure.

So that’s you So you see the conflict right there because the conflict is that our brain understands information in one way and it represents and processes and thinks about information in one way, but we as individuals, process represent capture Think about information in a completely different way. And that creates inefficiency in how we think about and how we process information. Right. I hope this this this part is clear and this part makes sense. Do you have any any doubts, any thoughts on this? whatever we have discussed so far. Yeah.

Okay. So I’ll take that as a everybody’s okay with whatever we have done so far, right?

Speaker 19
Yes, yes. Yes.

Abhishek
Okay. So this is how we represent information, Yeah.

Speaker 20
I have one doubt, like you said, thinking is relational, dynamic and visual. So we can say that, what our brain thinks and what it represents what it grasps, are two different perspective make me think about something in a more colorful way. But what we grasp while reading or something, which is a, it’s a completely opposite thing. That’s what,

Abhishek
that’s exactly what I’m saying. That’s exactly what I’m saying. So how we represent information is without color, but how we think is with color, isn’t it? We think in color nobody’s thinking in black and white. We’re thinking in color, we are thinking in a in a connected manner, right? We are thinking in a,

Abhishek
an equation

Speaker 21
that that is, that is what creates a confusion that

Abhishek
That’s right. That’s exactly. Yeah. You think in relationships, right? And we think in images, isn’t it and how to represent information, we represent information without color. And we represent information with sparse use of images, and also how we represent information is in sentences, typically, but how we think is in. If we use image if we use language at all, we think in words or phrases, right? So that’s the conflict between how we actually think how our brain actually processes information in how we represent information to ourselves and to others. And that’s, and that’s why it seems so laborious and so difficult. Right? So there is so that what I’m building to, is that what if we represented information in a way that it naturally aligned with how the brain represents information, and how the brain understands thoughts and thought patterns and how it processes ideas and concepts? If what if that were to happen? What what would that be like? And This is something that has. So this is Visual Thinking essentially right? We are not doing the old boring hierarchical linear thinking rather we are doing relational, colorful image based phrase based thinking. Let me ask you a question. Now, for example, when you look at a book, write a book contains a lot of information usually. And that book also has this typical hierarchical structure that we are talking about. But do you realize that, maybe, okay, let’s not take a book, let’s just take an article, it’ll be easier to understand. So let us say there is an four page article. Now in that four page article, the, the crux of the ideas that are being talked about how much are they and how much are just the connecting words and the grammar and the structure which is there to keep Those ideas or represent those ideas, you know, in a in a in the form of an article, right. So the form takes precedence over substance, right? So you have to essentially communicate seven ideas. So to communicate those seven ideas, you have to have seven paragraphs, seven sub paragraphs, each of them have to have some bullet points. And that’s how you structure it in an article. But at the heart of it, what is there it is just ideas, seven ideas are there and you have to represent those ideas. 90% of those four for that four page article is essentially something like just words, connecting words the, and, on, to, or comma, full stop following the rules of grammar then, however, of, is like so all of that is takes so much of space in an article and all of it takes so much of time to read it really, and to understand it, isn’t it? So?

So the question really is what would happen If we just took the essence of that article of that four page article, and represented it only by phrases and images and colors, what would it boil down to? What would it look like?

Right? So that’s the question and answer and there is an answer to that. The answer is this tool called mind mapping, which I’m going to introduce to you now.

It is a beautiful tool it was created. It is a very old idea, essentially. But it was created as formerly used as a tool by a gentleman called Tony Buzan in 1980s. When he was taking notes in a lecture, he was a student in a university and he was taking notes in a lecture. And he thought that why do I need to take notes in this hierarchical linear fashion. And that was triggered by the fact that the professor was a very lucid, and a very intelligent man who was talking nonstop in a very, very in a stream of consciousness way he was talking. And as he would talk to ideas would come out of his mouth and then he would talk about something else. And then he would come back to what he was talking originally and then he would talk about something else. And then he would come back to what he was talking. And

Abhishek
Tony Buzan, who was the meticulous note taker found it very difficult, because now the guy is talking about this, and then he starts talking about something else. So he wrote that, but then he starts talking about the original thing, and now there is no space to capture that ideas because you already finished that paragraph and he has moved to the next one. So he started experimenting with that. And then he finally invented this tool called a mind map. Right? So the idea of a mind map is that it is a creative tool. It is not a it is not a not very structured tool, like something like, like maybe something like maybe maybe a flowchart or a fishbone diagram, or a network map, or a value stream analysis. It’s not a structured way of capturing or representing information. If you see the all of these what I spoke about, they’re very, very structured way of representing information. But so this is more creative, more freeform. More, more, it gives you more freedom to capture information in a particular way. Right. So let’s see what a mind map would typically look like. Right? So a mind map would essentially

Abhishek
look like look like this, isn’t it? It has a basic structure that looks like this. I’m just about to To show you the structure. So guys, Is this okay? Am I going too fast? Or is everybody okay with the speed?

It’s fine, right?

Can you guys hear me?

Speaker 22
Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. Yes, yes.

Abhishek
Okay.

Abhishek
So, this is the basic structure of a mind map, right. So what are we trying to do? We are trying to find a way of representing information in a way that is aligned to how our brain understands and uses information. And we are trying to find a tool to help us do that. And the tool we have identified is something called a mind map. And what a mind map does is actually it uses this format. So the central idea goes in the middle. Right? So there is always a central theme or a central idea that’s captured in the center of the page. Usually, we do it on a blank page paper, you can also do it on a computer, like you saw what I was doing earlier. But you essentially, capture the theme in the center. And then from there, you have several branches, which represent different different branches or different ideas that are related to that idea. Usually in mind maps, we don’t use arrows, because arrows imply causation, that this causes that or this happens before that this happens. And then that happens, that could. That is what what an arrow means. And that’s not something we want to represent. We just want to say that there is a relationship between this idea and that idea. And these two ideas are related. And remember,

if you see in the truest sense, there is really no central idea, because all ideas are connected to each other in this big network of ideas, right?

So, but we are sort of focusing on one particular idea because we’re thinking about that. So you capture that idea in the middle. And then from there, you draw branches, which shoot out of it, and connect to something else or somewhere else. Right? So now we have so for example, we write happiness here in the middle, and then we write associated things for all of all of that, right? So typically, from the central idea, we draw the relationship through branches. Each branch now can act as a new central idea, and it can have its own daughters not not tears, but daughters. Right, sorry for that spelling mistake. It’s free flowing. You can use images, you can use colors, you can be creative, and you can have fun. So that’s what a mind map is like. So for example, this is a simple mind map that is drawn on a Computer, which uses which is used to explain what a mind map is.

Now imagine reading this looking at this image to understand what is a mind map rather than reading a five page article about it because those are the each of Imagine if you wrote this in an article form, each of these ideas would be of at least like a paragraph, right? But here, if you look at this, it’s so simple to understand that you have you can, how do you draw a mind map? You can use images, colors, you can use some words and you can use print, print the words like for example, what is printed here you can use single keywords, right? keywords, not general words, you want to use words, which mean something of which remind you of that idea, a general word will not really tell you what that idea is, right? So that’s why we need to use a keyword or you do it on a paper, a blank paper usually landscape which means you turn it around like that and you start in the center. What is the structure structure is it’s radiant, which means it’s colorful. You draw associations, which means relationships. And the order should be clear. What is the style, you use it for fun, for emphasis, for personal, you can have your own personal style. And beauty is an important consideration in a mind map. And you can use lines, you can use thick lines, thin lines, you can use, it’s usually an organic map, which means it’s free flowing. It’s not following a very set structure. And this is just one of the ways in which a mind map could look like you could also have a mind map that looks like this. Yeah, I mean, those are some simple things to keep in mind. Use only one. So essentially, now the risk is that we learn about mind maps, but now in the mind map branches instead of writing these words, we start writing paragraphs, so that will also be a not good way to use this.

Speaker 23
Can you please share the screen?

Abhishek
Sorry?

Abhishek
I am sharing my screen you’re not able to see my screen is it?

Speaker 24
Hi, I am saying can you please share this screen previous to this one?

Abhishek
Can you please share the screen? I am sharing the screen ma’am

Speaker 25
I’m saying the previous slide.

Abhishek
Oh, you mean this one?

Speaker 25
See this one before the mindmap.

Abhishek
This one?

Speaker 25
No, no, which we which you began with, which started to draw associations from.

Abhishek
Okay ma’am don’t worry. Here’s the video will be available, you’ll be able to find the images that you’re looking for. Is there a question that I can answer for you?

Speaker 25
No, no, I just had a little bit of confusion in some lines and that’s why I wanted to

Abhishek
Okay, tell me what is the confusion?

Speaker 25
Actually it vanished

Abhishek
Okay. Oh, essentially We use key words Rather than using long sentences in the mind map, we connect lines to other lines and major branches should be connected to the central image. The central lines can be thicker and organic, the images should be as clear as possible. And your paper should ideally be placed horizontally. Which means typically, a white paper like this, if you just put it in front of you use it draw drawing landscape, not in portrait landscape because you have more space to draw. You can even have huge charts on which you can draw mind maps. I have seen mind maps being used in all different kinds of situations by big companies. In fact, I have a presentation somewhere maybe I’ll share it with you, which shows the mind maps being used to design the airport in Singapore, the mind map that is used by one of the rulers of UAE to imagine a new city for their country, it was used by Boeing to design a plane. It was used by so it’s widely used in because it’s a good way of thinking about things a good way of representing relationships. Right?

Speaker 26
Abhishek sorry to interfere. You definitely might have told in the beginning that why we are studying this mind map. I just skipped that. But if you could explaine in a brief to make my connect in this class, you know, I just want to know that where we as an HR could go with this, or how’s it important in that time to be

Abhishek
Sure, sure. So mind map is essentially a tool for creative thinking. Right? It’s a it’s a tool that is used to represent ideas for brainstorming, for discussing with your team. So you can even have a mind map right in a team can work on a mind map together. So the reason it is useful for us is for example, if you want To prepare a presentation, even if you want to prepare a policy, for example, let’s say you’re making a COVID-19 policy in the middle of this book, for example, here it says the novel of course, but imagine that if you’re drawing a mind map in the middle, you write your COVID-19 policy. And then all the associated branches represent one idea that you are thinking about. So now usually, if you have to create a policy or if you have to create a presentation, we usually just start open the PowerPoint and we start creating the presentation, or we open the open the word document and we start typing and then from there we build it on. But if you draw a mind map first, then you really create a structure of all the various things you have to worry about and think about. And you’ll also be able to see if you missed out something when you start when you finish drawing the mind map. So it’s a way of putting your thoughts down on paper about a topic that you are concerned with. If for example, you’re coming up with a training plan or an employee relations plan. So that is as far as the use of it is concerned at for you as an HR professional, right? If you talk about it as something that you can teach, then of course, that is also your employees also need this information, because they also need to use their brain to its fullest potential,

right.

Speaker 26
So basically to draw down, basically to draw down the gist what we think of a particular topic given to us or whatever work is being assigned to us. Just to draw a gist of what we want to

Abhishek
anything. It could be anything. It could be your organizational restructuring, it could be leave policy, it could be it could even be note taking. So I think we will, we’ll talk about the users in a little bit later. But let’s just understand the mind map itself first. Right. Okay. But But I’m glad you asked that question. It’s a very, very pertinent question. Any any any other questions, guys? Anybody wants to ask something?

Abhishek
Okay, okay, great. So now here is a mind map about a novel, which really in one, so, just look at the beauty of this because this is really amazing right? Because in one sheet, you have captured the essence or imagine if you were reading this how many pages would it take to compress this information that we have available here so easily. So you have divisions, biographical, political, adventure, business, mystery, the plot, the characters, the setting, the symbolism, the themes, the philosophy, the language, the purpose, the imagery, all of that is captured in one single sheet, which you which is I think, as big as this, and which you can just view and you can look at all of these points and the relationships between them in a few seconds, this is just not possible. If you represent this information in a hierarchical order are in a linear fashion, right. You can also have now of course, there is There is a larger argument, which I will present to you a little later. But

one of the things that I want you to do is I want you to look at a few more mind maps actually. So let’s just do that.

Just to get an idea and I hope by looking at the mind maps You can also make out that all of these are different in nature. So there is no one way of drawing a mind map. They use color, they use images, they use keywords, not complete sentences, not full expression of ideas, just enough to remind you of what this idea is.

So we are doing away with all the words that stuff gets stuffed into an article or a book can make reading difficult and make it take time right.

So for example we have future is somebody thinking about their future and they have captured physical, their physical health service family, friends, education, spiritual, theater, and all Have these have been further broken down into other things right. So, for example, if you look at friends they say trips, foreign trips, planned trips, adventure trips time for making time for the trips, cooking dinner for friends and stuff like that. So, all of that becomes relevant here right. Similarly, you can look at family and then they have also established relationship between these ideas. So, they have just taken a line and they have drawn a line from if you can see YMCA to developmental research from caring to values and etc, right. So, that just shows that if you are able to capture these relationships in an interesting manner, right. Now, here is another Mind Map, again just shows a seminar plan. How would you plan a seminar it shows you an image of that. So, this is a seminar on Thursday. What is the program? Here is another Mind Map Again about mind maps.

So this is a mind map about mind maps so that we’re already going slightly meta, as you can see, this is a mind map which is drawn on a computer, just like the one we are drawing now, but this is drawn using a different certification, right. So, this these are different ways in which information can be represented. Now, one of the things that people say is, I mean, the advocates of Mind Map say is that it also represents information in a very, very, in a way that is very, very aligned, not just to how we think, but also align aligned to what nature is like. So for example, here, what you see is the electronic photograph of a neuron, right under a microscope, a neuron. Now what do you notice about the neuron, if you see this is in the in the middle of the neuron, you have this central structure, and then you have all of These branches that are coming out of the neuron.

So this also somewhat I mean, I think they’re the connections are called synapses and the extension extension dead branches are called dendrites if I remember correctly. So, this then also represents the same idea of a mind map that there is a central structure and then there are issues there there are branches are shooting off, which connect to other things, as the sun is like that you have a Central Sun and then you have sort of associated branches, an atom also looks like that there is a nucleus and then there has associated branches where things are circulated. So, this is just to say that we have we are in the presence of something we are using an order or we are using a structure that is quite inherent in nature, right. This is a picture of a snowflake, where again you can see that there is a central core and then there are associated branches and then further sub branches, etc. So, this is something that, that, that that that often is used as an argument of favor of mind maps. Right. So I think those are some key aspects of a mind map. What we can also look at are, are, some uses of mind maps, I think that’s the question that earlier somebody was asking what is it used for? And like I said it is so it is used essentially for the for dealing with information. Now, when I say dealing with information, what do I mean by it is used for dealing with information, right. So, what I’m talking about is capturing information, right? organizing information, so, we’re capturing information for example. So right now, if you are right taking notes, From this session on any any information you are capturing, you are reading a book, for example. So maybe let’s go back to our mind map that we were drawing. Right. So if we go back to our mind map, right, so

yeah just one second.

Oh, I think I’m sharing something else wait one second.

Yeah, that’s the one. Okay.

Just one second, guys.

So can all of you see my mind mapping mind map now? Yeah.

Speaker 26
Yes, yes.

Abhishek
Okay great. So now, so we spoke about how to draw right. And now we are also talking about essentially uses.

Right. Now, how to draw I think we spoke about you can use paper or you can use software but I would always recommend you start with paper. And I would always recommend that you have color paper with the color paper color pencils or sketch pens with you to help you do this because it really has a very, very deep impact on our mind when we start representing things in a very vivid color, right? So just Just give me a minute I’m having some. Yeah. So we can do it in paper or we can do it in software. And so let’s just talk about paper.

So we use a blank paper, right? We use it in Landscape format, we use we draw a central idea. You draw colors, images, and use symbols, right? We use relationships, we show relationships by using other lines. And we have essentially branches and sub branches. We make it free form and make it free form and organic and not very structured like a flowchart. Right. And we use keywords.

So those are those are the basic ideas of how you can draw a mind map. Right now you see our own mind map is getting prepared as I’m conducting this session. We are also sort of co co working on a mind map to show what a mind map would be like if we were to use it right now what can we use it for? So we can use it for capturing information So what do we mean by capturing information? So for example, one way of when when I say capturing information, I mean, taking notes, right? But I don’t mean just taking notes. It could also be, for example, when reading a book, right? Or so let us say you’re reading a book and it has 10 chapters, and you read each chapter. And as you finish reading the chapter, you prepare a mind map for that particular chapter. Then you read the next chapter and you prepare the mind map for the next chapter. And and so on. So, essentially, by the end of the book, if the book has 10 chapters, you have 10 sheets like this. And each chapter each each sheet captures all the ideas in the chapter.

And then if you have to sort of revise or review that particular chapter or that book, it will just take few seconds to revise because all the ideas are already captured without the associated text

which was just there to put the grammar and the linear structure in place, right? So it’s very, very useful when when we talk about capturing information in that sentence, right. And of course, making any kind of a list and showing relationships between that list. So for example, if you are making a planning a training program, and you’re or you’re planning an event, and you want to have various things and think about it, so essentially, it’s a thinking tool right. So, the main goal of the tool is to help you to think so, you capture some information and then you have associated branches and then you then you essentially,

add you are able to add later on what you are able to see right, we are also able to use it for so yeah, so one use is capturing information right and another use is, planning, right which means that You’re able to essentially conceptualize different elements of the plan,

You’re able to capture them in one place, right? So you’re able to conceptualize different elements of the plan and put them in one place, you are also able to have an overview and metacognition of this particular idea.

Right? So you’re able to have an overview or metacognition ideas into cognition, you are able to basically see relationships between the ideas, right, you’re able to see how different ideas and which sub idea belongs where and what can it be and all of those things also become possible. Right. So yeah, so essentially, that is, what a mind map is and that is how it can be be useful. Now, how has How can it be used for HR professionals? So I like like I think as responding to a question earlier, it can be used for any planning that you have to do.

So for example, and I will always recommend that you start here, if you have to make a presentation, make a policymaker document, make a structure, I would always suggest you start at mind maps. Because, wait, what do we do actually? So for example, if I tell you, you have to give a presentation on Sunday, where will you start, most people will start they’ll open the PowerPoint or Keynote on their laptop, and then they will start working on it, isn’t it? But when you do that you’re essentially making and the result of that is usually a badly structured presentation because things because you are not seeing the bigger picture before you start deciding what presentation to make. And that means that you are not you forget to include something or you forget to include something else that was related to This so the thinking that you have to do initially has to be done on a paper or software where you’re working with ideas rather than slides directly or other than documents directly.

So, I would always suggest that any kind of planning any kind of presentation, any kind of preparation, should you should use mind maps before doing that, right? What can it be used for?

So it can be used for everything from a shopping list to a strategic workshop. We have conducted workshops, where we were doing visioning and missioning for organizations where they were creating their vision statements, mission statements, values, we have used mind maps, project management initiation workshops, we have used mind maps training needs analysis, when you do the focus group, we have used mind maps for for capturing the information that is being shared in an in depth interview.

When you are doing the research for a training needs analysis. Mind maps have been used, how much what kind of information does HR have to take With what kind of information does HR have to plan or prepare or represent all of that?

We can use mind maps for those things, right? Other than that, of course, it is also useful for your employees.

Because leaders need to think creatively. Your engineers need to innovate, they need to be able to come up with your engineers are the people who work in your company, the core function, they all need to be able to come up with new ideas, think in a new way. And overall have an organized way of thinking about things.

So that’s, that’s essentially the core, core core, some of the core things when it comes to mind maps.

So I think that that sort of is the conclusion for this particular session. I would love to hear if you have any questions. And in the end, I would like to give you an exercise. Yes, go ahead.

Speaker 27
Abhishek, I just want to know, so far we have discussed the positive sides of Mind Map. Do we have some negative side also? Or it is?

Abhishek
Yeah. So if you have, for example, if you want to, so essentially it is it is, it is a good tool to get an overview, and a broad relationship between ideas.

It’s not a good tool if you want to go really deep into something.

So for example, if you’re talking about some statistical analysis, or data or some huge graphs that have to be looked into, then maybe it’s not going to capture all of that, but to capture but even then, I would suggest that even if we have a lot of in depth tables and data and graphs that have to be included, the relationship between them can be beautifully represented through mind maps, isn’t it? So for example, if you are if you have done a analysis and you have 20, tables and eight graphs That you have maybe some kind of analytics project you’ve done or some analysis you’ve done. And at the end of it, you have all of this information, how will you represent or show that information? It’s, of course, you have to print out the graph because the graphs have to be looked at in detail that you cannot do a mind map with that. But what those graphs are, what they represent their conclusions, all of that can be captured using a mind map. Right, but yeah, not not so good with really, really detailed stuff.

The other the other disadvantage is that it’s not widely accepted, at least by people who are traditionalists in the sense that how we process information,

but I must also tell you that mind maps have gained a ton of popularity. I know. I personally know. People who swear by it like I have. One of our clients is the CHRO of an organization and whenever I go into his room, used to go into his room, they would they always Have a big whiteboard, which would be scribbled and everything would be captured in the form of a mind map. Right. So essentially all thinking he does is through a mind map. It is a very, very popular and very expensive program to attend if you want to learn how to do mind mapping.

It is Tony Buzan has his own, of course, he has his own books and he has his own certified courses, etc. But, but but it but it is a very, very powerful tool. Very, very, very, very popular and powerful tool. Yeah, but it’s not that widely accepted in the sense that people still we believe in attachments, we believe in documents, we believe in books, and maybe for some good reason. But this is definitely very useful thinking to whenever you say, I got to think about this. I’m going to like think this through, use a mind map to think it through. I think that will really be a great use of the mind map.

Speaker 28
Thank you. Thank you so much.

Abhishek
So petronila says, What tool do we use for mind map? So if you have an Apple Mac computer, I would recommend using something called mind node on a mac book or an a It’s there in a Mac Book and an iPhone and an iPad. Sorry, not mind mode mind node. If you are on a web, I like whimsical though it is paid. So that is a problem. But actually there are enough there used to be something called 3d mind drop. But this is something I can answer in our WhatsApp and telegram groups as well. So I can find out some nice software and I can let you know. But there are many tools, there are many tools. If you just go to your Play Store and type mindmaps you will find hundreds of things but I would strongly recommend that you don’t start using a tool right away. Please use paper and I want everybody here to like commit That they will order a sketch pen if they don’t have sketch pens at home already, please order sketch pens. By the way, this is a wonderful tool, which which you should teach your children will really help them to study and learn and about whatever they are doing right. It’s a very, very widely used tool in education for children to help them retain information and remember and connect ideas etc.

Speaker 29
Thank you.

Abhishek
Any other questions, guys? Any comments, any thoughts? Any questions?

Yes.

Okay. So, let me quickly now that you are here we are for once we are not stretching beyond 8:30. Right. We are done with the basic session. So, I request everybody here to just take five minutes and Draw a mind map, find a piece of paper find if you have many different colors, pick them up. If you don’t, doesn’t matter, just use a pencil or a pen. But if you have colors, if you have children at home, and if you have sketch pens, please bring them along. Let’s just take 5-10 minutes and draw a mind map on any topic. So you can just take that sheet of paper. And you can essentially, essentially, draw something in the center and draw with it associated ideas. don’t draw very fixed or structured things. So for example, some people have this habit where they do this, and then they do this and then they do this and then they do this and it’s like very, very small, tiny things, straight lines. Don’t do that. Let your hand flow you know, let it be organic. And then you know from here, you build something else and write down something here and you can put anything in the In the in between, you can write CHRMP. You can write happiness, you can write a home plan, you can write what you plan to do once the pandemic is over, you can talk about how to buy a house, how to buy a car, whatever, anything that’s going on. And a mind map can truly be used for anything that is going on in your life, right?

Anything that you want to think about, you can use a mind map. So I request all of you to take five, it’s an individual exercise, it cannot be a group exercise. So I request everybody to find a find some paper, find a pen, and take five minutes. If you don’t draw it now, the risk is that it will just become an idea. It will be something you’re conceptually aware of, but something you never actually do. Right. So let’s use this time of the workshop to do it. And draw a mind map. So request I’ll give you five minutes. Is that okay? Everyone? Can Can you help me without help me with this? Does that make sense? Yes,

Speaker 30
yes, yes. Yes.

Abhishek
So please get paper pen. Come back. And, and I’ll be here I’m waiting for you come back, settle down and then I’ll give you a timer and we’ll start drawing the mind map. So I’ll give you two minutes. It’s eight five in India, give you two minutes eight, seven to find your paper and pens, colors hopefully settle down. And then we will draw a mind map. Right. Two minutes to find paper pen pens. So seven minutes, please draw a mind map on any topic that you want. Just in case some people came a little late. Please draw start drawing you have seven minutes

I’ll ask you to show us the mind map that you’ve drawn.

Abhishek
30 seconds more

Abhishek
All right everyone welcome back

Abhishek
so I hope you were able to draw some of these images and the mind map. It would be great if I could take a look, if it was if you were in a room and we were doing this, I would have just walked around and looked at what you were doing and maybe given you some inputs, but since I couldn’t do that, it would be nice. So I think the best way to share it is to switch on your camera and hold the paper up. If you’ve done it on the laptop, maybe you can share your screen, but if not, you can just hold it up. Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. That’s great.

Okay, so I just I’m just gonna bend yet okay.

Yeah, that looks nice.

I think maybe draw a few more branches, sub branches under maybe under traveling

capture some of that.

Sure.

Yamini That looks very nice, very colorful. I hope you can see what she’s done. Okay. So I request others also to just quickly take her away She looks like she has done something very yellow and colorful. Personal Development, self awareness, confidence. Beautiful. That’s really beautiful. Alicia, very nice. So that’s exactly what it is like. So petronila if I can see your what you’ve done. Yeah. psychological safety are very nice. So you did it for a previous webinar. Very nice. Yeah. Great. looks wonderful. looks wonderful. petronila. Very nice. So that’s exactly how it is done. Great. I think Anshu I see you used some color. Yep. So that looks very nice Anshu. Beautiful. Maybe if you turn it around, you will have more space. I think you ran out of space on both sides. So you had to draw small. If you turn it around, you will have more space, right?

Speaker 31
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Actually, I was not searching. You know, I didn’t found colors. And so I just write in a very small

Abhishek
Akriti

Speaker 32
I should have gone for a landscape.

Abhishek
Very nice Akriti. Looks. Looks great. Looks looks very good. Amruta Yeah. Looks so far less of less of hard lines. Yeah. So you’ve drawn all rectangles and straight lines. So that’s like a flowchart little bit, isn’t it? So think of it like something like Think of it like you’re drawing a painting you like you’re a child and you’re making some scribbles with colors, you know, so make it more organic make it flow more a little bit. Is that okay Amruta? Yeah. Okay, anything anybody’s I have not seen shantelle I can just quickly take a look. shopping. Okay, so interesting topic. Yeah. But again have more sub branches, less sentences. I think you’ve written complete sentences. You just represent the idea. So for example, sit at a park at a place. So you can just say sit at a park, maybe that will be good enough. Right? And Ekta Jaiswal perfect manager. Yeah, again, some commitment has some branches but others don’t have. So maybe you can add some sub branches there as well. Right. Okay, guys. So I think what I want to do is really, I want to take a photo with everybody holding up their mind maps. So if you will indulge me. Can we do that please? Yeah. So if you can please switch on your camera and hold on your Hold out your mind map to the camera and I will take a photo I just want to take a photo because this is very very interesting it would be nice so we’ll just give 30 seconds to everybody guys please switch on your camera hold on your mind map to the camera screen right maybe you can peep out from behind the mind map will capture you also shouldn’t just look like so you and your mind map right? Okay Anjali, Nikita, Tejaswini, Priam, surbhi if you can quickly come and switch on your camera and show us your mindmap. Suman, Sultan, Smita Vidya Priyanka Yeah, okay. Okay, so we’re about to take a picture. So all those of you who can my,

Speaker 33
Hi, actually my video is not working, I am trying.

Speaker 33
Otherwise I’ll just click

Speaker 33
and if I am After this, okay, I’m trying.

Abhishek
Okay, no problem. Okay, so we are taking a photo now. Right? Just one second.

Okay, one two and that’s the third one. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you. Thank you for that. Yeah. So, before we leave, I quickly want to ask you your experience of drawing the mind map. And what did you feel? And if you have any thoughts, any comments, any questions, I’ll be happy because now you have actually done write down the first Mind Map. If you didn’t know about it, at least you’ve drawn your first Mind Map. If you knew then maybe you’ve done it before. But congratulations on drawing your first Mind Map. What was your experience? What did you think while you’re drawing it? Did you think it was a different way of organizing information? What was your experience

Speaker 34
It was really nice because I could actually because we think so many things, but we do not know how to actually implement it. So it was a way I could get on my thoughts on a piece of paper and that to me in a very effective manner, kind of a point which got highlighted highlight so many things, which got a

Abhishek
great great. I’m very happy to hear that. Any any other experiences? Any other thoughts? If somebody had some trouble, we can mention that as well.

Speaker 35
It was very nice Sunita here, I’m actually putting down all the points and then splitting up into sub sub points. It was very nice. Actually. Something was actually flowing out from the brain, it seems. Oh, yeah.

Abhishek
So that’s right. Because what happens is when we start thinking about something, think about it. If you are not using a mind map, you can make a list list will also serve a purpose. But essentially here, the combination of color and the freedom to draw and the freedom to connect things together. And you’re also developing the overall picture of that particular idea and concept as you complete it. So it really gives you a very, very unique view, you know, sometimes I call it the helicopter view, it’s like you’re helping a flying in a helicopter above the brain, and seeing how this particular idea or concept or topic relates to other topics, and what are the various branches and sub branches that exist, isn’t it? So this view, you can only get it through a mind map, you cannot get it through a table of contents or through a list because you are able to see the whole thing at once, you know, very, very, very interesting. And it’s a great way to think about something for example, if you’re sitting you’re getting confused, what do I do? You have to make a presentation, make a document, make a report, even a training needs analysis report, if you have to make you have all the findings, how do you organize it? So sit down with the paper, draw the mind map and it will tell you all the various sections and then you can actually things later sub branches, the whole map gets created in front of you, and then you can flesh it out in a document form. Right. Very nice. Any anybody else would like to share their experience?

Speaker 36
I am usually used to, I mean mentioning things in a bullet point. So that used to be not easy as long as it wasn’t quite comfortable. I never realized it before. But when you gave me the exercise, when I was actually working on I just did something really basic. I just wanted to do something very random. But it floats as in like, when I was able to think about it, it was easy to jot down rather than just putting up the headings and then just adding points under that it This was really easy. And moreover, my mind was very free. It was flowing very easily to work through, I mean through it. I’ve never realized this before, but I think that a lot of times, it’ll helped me a lot during my meetings and because I am a I was into analytics. And I have to talk about a lot of aspects, when I think this is gonna be like a huge help for me, I never really come across something like this, but this is actually going to help me a lot going forward. Thanks a lot. I’m

Abhishek
very, very glad to hear that. And I should also tell you that this is a very, very popular technique. if you for example, if you Google it, you will find literally hundreds and thousands of articles, videos, and in fact, you will also find at least hundred software s I can guarantee it, right in all the different ways in which it works. So I’m very glad to hear that you found it useful, please do. Please do continue to use it. And it is personally it is something that I learned when I was in college. So I think maybe 18… 20 years ago, and I have in fact I learned it in school because there was this gentleman. I don’t know if you’re in India there is there used to be this thing called competition success review magazine. I mean, I know nobody knows about this anymore. But They used to be a one page ad of a gentleman called Raj Bapna, who would sell the mind map for the chapters of the standard 12th examination. So the board exam, the books, he would sell the chapters of each book mind map for each of those chapters. So that is how I came to know about it first. And then of course, as I explored it more I was really amazed by how much it is used in corporate world and in od especially in od in leadership in capturing ideas and, and it’s, it’s really amazing. Great. I’m very happy to hear your experience. Yes. Anybody else would like to share quickly.

Yes.

Anybody else would like to share?

Okay, so I just received a mind map. An image so I thought I’ll just quickly share it. See this is they’ve drawn I think I just mention the name. Just once second.

Speaker 37
It’s Anjali

Abhishek
Oh, this is the one she’s drawn on happiness. You can see it’s it’s so so pretty. And guys, I really really want you to promise me that you will buy crayons and sketch pens or color pencils to do this and just have a even children’s drawing book or A4 sheets will do but if you have a drawing book, it just like think of it as your thinking tools. You know, these are my tools when I need to think about something I use this white drawing book and stationery which is basically crayons and some color pencils or sketch pens, so you can see so beautiful traveling, dance, health, family and all of them further break down into other categories. And this is really a tool of thinking so he or she is used For her topic called happiness, but you can use it for anything. Anything really from studying a book, to capturing a book to capturing ideas to taking notes in a meeting, to planning to brainstorming can be used in many different ways. Right? So thank you for sharing this. It’s really beautiful. Actually, you can imagine how how much nicer it would be. Right?

Abhishek
Yeah. Thank you.

Abhishek
Great.

Okay, that’s it from my side. If there is any questions, I’ll take them.

And remember, one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. So now that you’ve learned about mind maps, go around and teach it to others. teach it to others in your company. teach it to your children, to your brothers and sisters at home. Do your husband, to your wife, to your parents, to your in laws, whoever. teach it to them and make sure that you

Speaker 38
Hi, Divya here. I just let my daughter be in this session and she really loved it. She has already started doing something. I’m really liking it. Thank you so much.

Abhishek
Wonderful, wonderful, best wishes to your daughter.

Speaker 38
She has a biology exam tomorrow. So I told her try this. See how it works out and let you know in the chat.

Speaker 39
Wonderful, please.

I would I would love to know. Thank you.

Okay, great. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a nice evening. I’m switching of the recording now. I will continue to be available. If you have any questions about the academy about your membership about your certification. I’ll stay back and answer those questions. Otherwise, the session is over. You can leave. Right. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. Bye bye.