An interview with Wallace Tait.
Wallace Tait is a seasoned developer and user of visual mapping software tools and techniques. He is Co-Founder of www.visualmapper.org, a consultancy and source of information about visual mapping. He has an impressive depth of knowledge of the needs of business users of mind mapping software. In this Q&A interview, Wallace shares his perspectives on how mind mapping software can benefit busy executives,
how it helps users to reach clarity and communicate information in a clear, compelling format, and what essential features business people should look for when selecting mind mapping software.
Frey: In your consulting and training work, what are the most common challenges that business people are struggling with, which mind mapping software can help them to solve? How, specifically, can it help them in these areas?
Tait: The most common issue for business people is ―information/time management‖.
They simply don‘t have enough time throughout the work day to gather, digest, and transform their information into dynamic formats that suit everyone. This is where visual mapping comes into play; its tools and techniques enable the business user to use the T.A.P. process (read on for more details about this visual mapping process) and quickly arrive at an acceptable format that suits their needs.
Visual mapping helps business users in three ways. First, it enables them to create information and knowledge associated with their particular environment in a non-linear format. It‘s quick and enables clarity throughout this process. Secondly, it helps them to manage this information by manipulating, adding logic, identifying relationships and editing the content of knowledge and information. And finally, it enables them to
distribute information and knowledge in a format that suits their environment of use, such as a visual map, a Word document, a text outline, a PowerPoint presentation, and so forth.
The bottom line for business people is the time and financial constraints associated with learning to create, manage and distribute relevant knowledge and information. An organization becomes more process and systematic in their approach to sharing clear and unambiguous information while using the tools and techniques of visual mapping.
Frey: What makes mind mapping software so well-suited to helping executives to reach clarity faster and make better informed decisions?
Tait: Visual mapping benefits executives by allowing a scattered and free flowing
thought process to take place, when they are initially gathering and recording knowledge and information. By rearranging the elements in these non-linear maps in ways that make sense to them, they can quickly and easily add clarity and logic to them. Most executives who dare to try visual mapping software will find that they can exponentially enhance their abilities to manage information, especially in roles where clarity of communications is important.
Frey: What is it about visualizing information that is so powerful?
Tait: If you go to Buzan.com, you‘ll get all the best information about the benefits of traditional mind mapping. But visual mapping software has actually evolved beyond the constraints of the traditional world of hand-drawn maps and into the fluid world of mapping on computers. Mind mapping software enables users to drag and drop topics
and include external links to other maps, documents, web pages and other resources. It can also replace PowerPoint as a medium for presenting information and knowledge.
And software-generated visual maps can pack an incredible amount of information into a very compact format.
Frey: In what ways does mind mapping software help to improve collaboration on projects?
Tait: Sharing visual maps with colleagues or business partners is a powerful catalyst for effective communication. The best mind mapping programs make it easy for you to share maps with others, and for them to make changes, comments or mark-ups for you to review. It‘s also a powerful way to communicate with business partners and
co-workers in other locations, because you can share a map, take turns adding content to it and refining it via a web conference, and reach a shared understanding faster than using other means of collaboration. I‘ve done long-distance collaboration with mind maps many times, and I think it‘s one of the most powerful uses of mind mapping software.
Frey: How can mind mapping software enable systems thinking? Why is this important to businesses?
Tait: Every organization has a standardized way of doing things. They usually call this business standards or a Business Management System. Many of these standards or systems are formalized and accredited through a quality system registrar. Regardless of being registered or not, organizational efficacy is measured by the proficiency of
information management at all levels. Deming and others taught that organizations need to create an internal system of knowledge and information management based on systems thinking that supports continuous improvement.
Frey: So what’s the connection with mind mapping software?
Tait: Visual mapping provides executives with the tools they need to become excellent information managers. This enables them to take a process approach to their jobs that is based on systems thinking, and that, in turn positions them to become innovators within the organization.
When an individual is introduced to visual mapping software, they are often overwhelmed. They may see the program as some kind of esoteric format for
communication. When they start to create visual maps, they tend to use it for making linear lists. As they learn more about how to use it, they begin to realize that the non-linear format of visually mapping supports their needs for manipulating knowledge and information. Adding branches, processes and sub-processes, the user begins to see a framework appearing as a system of information that can be manipulated, edited and shared in formats that meet their own needs and those of their organization. It‘s been one of my goals to help executives make that progression from new user to next-generation information manager.
Frey: You have developed a visual mapping process that you call T-A-P. Can you briefly explain what that is, and how it benefits users of this type of software?
Tait: T-A-P is an easy-to-use, logical process that standardizes the flow of creating, managing and sharing information in visual maps. Here‘s how it works.
First, Tap into your thought processes by scattering your thoughts and ideas in a visual map, using a mind mapping software program. At this stage there are no restrictions, structure or logic. What you see on the screen may look like illogical nonsense at this stage, but disregard those feelings for now. The whole point of this part of the process is to do a mind dump of information into your visual map. I recommend that you work on an oversized screen or project your map onto a wall or other white space, because that gives you greater freedom to add all of your thoughts to your map.
Next, Arrange your map and add logic to it by dragging and dropping information from one part of your map to another, grouping related ideas together. This will help you to make sense of your map, for your own use and for any people you plan to share it with.
Also at this stage you are managing information by reviewing and editing, re-arranging, changing, correcting and checking for proper spelling and grammar. At this stage, you should also insert any images, documents, web page links, contact information such as e-mail addresses and profiles of clients, and links to other maps.
Finally, Present the information contained within your map by saving and exporting it into a suitable format. At this stage, you‘re bringing all of your information together as a complete, finished package. At this stage, you must decide if the final format you want to share it in should be a visual map, Word document, PowerPoint presentation, Visio diagram or other format. Many programs also give you the option of saving a map as an image file, which enables you to display it or present it to others. Converting your map into an image also enables you to share it with others who may not have your mapping program. Converting your map to a web page is another excellent format for sharing and publishing it. Finally, if you must share your maps with a group of colleagues, a digital video projector does a great job of that.
Frey: If an executive is thinking about purchasing a mind mapping software program, what features should they be looking for? Why?
Tait: First, when choosing a program, you should be confident that it is fully supported and continually developed. This is very important because, many developers come and go, and only the financially strong will be around for the long term.
Ease of use, or a short learning curve, is also important. Every company today is faced with constraints on time and financial constraints for training. The software chosen must be quickly understood by employees, and should require minimal training to integrate it into the work of the organization.
The ability to embed attachments into a map is also a must for business users. What I‘m
talking about here isn‘t just linking these resources to a visual map, but actually embedding them into the file, so maps can be shared with others, complete with all of their associated files and resources.
Finally, executives should look for programs that will enable them to share and distribute maps in formats that suits their needs. Visual maps, because they are non-linear, may overwhelm some people at first. So it‘s very important that the program should support exports to other popular file formats, such as Microsoft Word, image files, web pages and other formats.