Some of the oldest tools are often the best.
While Mind-mapping has been around for some time, In the last few years, they are becoming more popular than ever – even among the millions of other tools that people use for business. The reason is that Mind Maps are the number one tool to energize and inspire team communication while drawing together all the steps to meet objectives. In other words, Mind Maps are easy to use, flexible and adaptable to just about anywhere in your business that you need to organize and communicate information – creatively.
Today, there are even online tools that you can use to communicate ideas and work on projects among teams. Whether you draw out your Mind Maps or you use a tool online, you might be surprised by the amount of your business that can be held within one map.
How Mind Maps support business:
- Organizes information in a way that is easier to understand
- The visual-focus of a Mind Map make it easier to comprehend the information
- They can always be amended or expanded
- They take complex information breaks it down so you can see connections with other processes or information
- They inspire creativity and innovation over textual reports
- The can explain complicated workflows to lay out a project or maintain it
7 Top Ways Mind Maps Help Business
There are millions of uses of Mind Maps so it would be impossible to list all the ways a human could use them, but here are the top ways my clients use their Mind Maps for business.
Business Concepts
When imagining a new business or even a new product or line of business, many ideas will come at once. From the marketing to sales to manufacturing, you can capture and organize all the information you need with a Mind Map. You’ll also be able to identify the areas that still need consideration before you move forward.
Business Plan
Now that you have a business concept organized, you’ll also need a business plan and strategy mapped out. A Mind Map is great at this too. All the vital information for running your business plan can be constructed on a Mind Map. This is more than a feel-good measure too. Should something happen to any major player in the plan, this Business Plan will easily convey all the information the rest of the team may need to move forward.
Marketing Plan
What are your key marketing objectives and what supporting actions will you take to make it happen? You can plan out the entire month, year, or more of your marketing plan with a Mind Map. It will make it easy for sales or leadership to see what is planned and prepare for it or make changes if necessary. They will also be able to see where all the marketing pieces are located so that when they need marketing assets, they will know exactly what is available and where it is located.
Target Market & Ideal Client
Ensure that everyone in your business understands who their focus target market or ideal client is by Mind Mapping it! Break the branches into different areas that is important to you: income bracket, needs, wants, what they do for a living, hobbies, etc. By having a visual understanding, your team can easily picture if who they are connecting with is the person they want to be connecting with.
Technology
In some businesses, one department has no idea what technology another department is using. Often this can be to the detriment of the business budget if multiple tools are being used rather than one tool that fits all needs. Many IT departments will Mind Map the tools and their capabilities in order for people to understand what tools they already have that they can use instead of a new investment and a new tool to learn. You can also use Mind Maps as a professional way to map out a database or a Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM). It helps gather all the data and the workflow needed in order to capture it in the tool.
Project Management
Have a complex project or change coming soon? Mind Maps were made for innovation, creativity and most of all – organization. Using an online Mind Map will help you collaborate with others and get all the requirements and data in one place. Regardless of the simplicity or the complexity of the project, a Mind Map will make it easy to see the big picture or zoom into the details.
Problem solve
Want that manufacturing line to go faster or want to improve your client’s experience? You can Mind Map that too in order to see all the angles and possible solutions. Pass it around to others and collaborate and get creative with some solutions. The reason Mind Mapping is good at solving problems is that is can give us a really good look at things in a different light. There is space to be creative and think outside the boundaries – allowing people to be as creative and innovative as possible.
While there are probably hundreds of things to Mind Map in business, the point is that it can make any business strategy, project, communication, or learning easier to comprehend and therefore, easier to collaborate on. When the entire team is on the same page and inspired, you’ll find more innovation and productivity too.
Want to learn Mind Mapping?
In this free guide, I’ve outlined everything you need to know including some online resources that I recommend for businesses to be able to collaborate, innovate and communicate with Mind Maps.
Download it now and share it with your team.