Become a Mind Mapping Jedi!
Presented By: Dawn Ofner Legal Education Society of Alberta Alberta, Canada
Paul Unger Affinity Consulting Group Columbus, Ohio
Presented at: ACLEA 52nd Mid-Year Meeting January 30 - February 2, 2016 Savannah, Georgia
Dawn Ofner Legal Education Society of Alberta Alberta, Canada Dawn Ofner is the Director of Education at the Legal Education Society of Alberta. Prior to joining the Legal Education Society of Alberta Dawn was a trainer and consultant with an international consulting and professional services company specializing in electronic justice process re‐engineering and information management. With over 20 years of experience working with the courts Dawn has been heavily involved in educating lawyers and judiciary on the use of technology in litigation processes, and technology in the courts and law offices.
Paul Unger Affinity Consulting Group Columbus, Ohio Biography: Paul J. Unger is a national speaker, writer and thought‐leader in the legal technology industry. He is an attorney and founding principal of Affinity Consulting Group, a nationwide consulting company providing legal technology consulting, continuing legal education, and training. He served as Chair of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center (2012‐13, 2013‐14)( www.lawtechnology.org/), is former Chair of ABA TECHSHOW (2011)(www.techshow.com), and is a member of the American Bar Association, Columbus Bar Association, and Ohio State Bar Association. He specializes in document and case management, paperless office strategies, trial presentation and litigation technology, and legal‐specific software training for law firms and legal departments throughout the Midwest. Mr. Unger has provided trial presentation consultation for over 400 cases. In his spare time, he likes to run and restore historic homes.
Step Away From The Pen; Using Mind Mapping Software to Facilitate Planning Meetings
Prepared by: Dawn Ofner Legal Education Society of Alberta Edmonton AB Canada Presented at: ACLEA 51st Mid‐Year Meeting Jan 31 – Feb 3, 2016 Savannah GE
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Using Mind Mapping Software to Facilitate Planning Meetings ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ Tess Flanders
Abstract Brainstorming is a special kind of information gathering that does not follow the rules of a usual meeting. You can challenge conventional thinking to encourage people to share all their ideas. I believe that one of the ways you can challenge them is to incorporate mind mapping software during your brainstorming and ultimately generate the tangible outcomes to support the planning process.
Table of Contents
Conclusion ......................................................... 5
Abstract.............................................................. 2 Table of Contents ............................................... 2 Introduction ....................................................... 2 What is Mind Mapping? .................................... 3 Benefits .............................................................. 3 Organizing Your Map ......................................... 4 Outcomes ........................................................... 4 Software............................................................. 5
Introduction I am the type of person who makes notes when I am listening to people talk, I think it comes from my days as a court clerk. The notes help me remember what was being said. I have dozens of note books and though I often can’t recall what was said I can visualize what side of the notebook the notes are written on. I go back to my note books and flip through looking for the important piece of missing information (a process which would be much more efficient if I the notes were electronic so I could search them). The concept of mind mapping is creating a diagram/map of your notes – it is supposed to help you recall things and appeal to the visual side of your brain. Mind mapping software is the process of converting that map to an electronic format. Five (or more) years ago I sat through a session on mind mapping software and could not sort out how or why this piece of technology would help me perform my job more efficiently. It wasn’t until 3 years later when I sat through a second session on mind mapping software (at a family law program) where I finally realized how mind mapping software could help me in my position of program planner.
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After listening to a family law practitioner talk about how she uses mind mapping software to conduct four way meetings I realized this tool would be so helpful to conduct planning meetings. The focus of this paper will be how to incorporate mind mapping software into a program planning meeting.
What is Mind Mapping? According to Wikipedia (isn’t that where all research starts?) a mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. Usually created around a single concept drawn in the centre of a blank page, to which ideas or images are added. One of the benefits of using the mind mapping concepts is that it helps you visually identify connections you might have otherwise missed. Mind mapping software was developed to take this concept and perform it using technology. The benefits of using technology to perform mind mapping allows you to have a soft copy of the map that you can add to at any time, easily search and share with people. When I facilitate planning meetings, I use a variety of techniques including brainstorming and mind mapping. Using mind mapping software during a brainstorm session allows you to capture ideas as they develop, drag and drop ideas to organize them, add structure, and draw relationships. Before I go into a meeting I build the outline of a map, add important documents eg. budget, agenda, include any ideas that have been already submitted – not in any grouping The software allows you to build the map, organize the thoughts and save them.
Benefits When I facilitate planning meetings I like them to be very interactive, I find it helps keep people engaged. I bring stacks of post it notes, multiple flip charts and a rainbow of coloured markers to a room with plenty of white boards. In the end I have a variety of flip charts with marginal writing/printing, pictures of diagrams on a whiteboard with random words that have not been fully fleshed out, a pile of post it notes that fell off the flip charts, and permanent marker on the whiteboard! Here are what I see to be some of the benefits of using this mind mapping software to plan programs: 1. Fast and fulsome ‐ I can type faster than I can write. I can much more quickly get the ideas onto the screen. Often times writing is illegible or contains abbreviations. Whoever is writing on the flip charts comes up with descriptions of topics that are meaningful to them and sometimes that does not translate. Using a computer to record the ideas allows you to be able to type the full idea so that you don’t lose any context. There is also a spell checker – which is an added bonus if you spell like I do…. 2. Minutes of the Meeting ‐ You don’t need to transcribe the flip charts after the fact. I recall the days of sitting in my office with pieces of flip chart taped to every wall attempting to transcribe the writing from the days before. The longer it takes you to transcribe the paper the less momentum you have in the planning process. You can use your mind map to immediately create the minutes, an agenda, a project map and tasks.
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3. Visual Cue ‐ You don’t need to take pictures of the white boards/flip charts and circulated them to help jog people’s memory. You can send out the minutes of your meeting as soon as the meeting concludes. The visual cue is the actual mind map. 4. Efficiency of efforts ‐ You don’t need to duplicate efforts. In traditional brainstorming you record all ideas (no idea is a bad idea). You then take the ideas that were generated and categorize them. This requires you to either re‐write them on a new piece of paper or move the post it note to a new spot. During the process sometimes the context is lost even further. Post it notes that were strategically placed in a specific category fall off. 5. Accurate recording ‐ When people generate topics they typically give you background as to why that topic is important and how it fits into the theme of the overall program. Condensing that to a headline or title often times loses the meaning behind why a topic was recommended. 6. Organization – you don’t need to worry about what coloured marker you are using for each topic. Your visual reference is captured immediate by which topic you link your idea too. You can also change your mind frequently and often by simply moving the idea to another branch. 7. Participation – I really like involving the planning committee in the process by making it interactive. If you have the option to use smart board you can invite the committee to stand up and categorize the ideas into themes. 8. Context – the older I am the faster I forget things. I find the longer it takes me to get to something the more likely I am to forget what was said. Worse yet if I have my assistant transcribe the flip charts she has no context for the content. 9. Reference – you can embed all types of relevant documents into the mind map so that it acts as a single repository for the planning committee eg. budget, timelines, expense guidelines, formatting guides, agenda 10. Preparation ‐ prior to a meeting I create a map including the ‘standard’ stuff eg. number of conference days, faculty, ideas, timelines etc
Organizing Your Map I have a bit of a template that I use to start the visual process. I have the seminar title as the central idea. I have blank categories which relate to the structure of my program. For example for our large institute I know we will have 6 half day programs so I have six half day categories set out. I use floating topics for uncategorized ideas. Those floating ideas can then be moved to the appropriate category by the planning team during the meeting. The beauty behind using this technology is it allows you to easily move topics around until you find the right fit. I attach documents that I will review with the planning committee such as budgets, expense reimbursement, timelines and agendas. Using this technology allows you to add as much information about a topic as you want to ensure the context is there. The notes are available at a simple click but otherwise remain minimized on the map.
Outcomes Immediately following the meeting you can use the software to: o
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Add, assign and prioritize the tasks for the planning committee.
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Generate minutes. Use the mind map as the minutes by creating a clickable mindmap in PDF format. The document will contain all of the valuable resources you attached and have all the detail anyone needs.
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Distribute documents. Link your budget excel file, speaker reimbursement forms etc.
Software Mindjet Mindmanager is the software that I tried – because that is what I saw demoed. There are a variety of options out there and some appear to be more creative (with clouds and colours and light bulbs) and others are more businesslike in appearance. MindJet has a 30 day free trial so you can test it out. Mindjet is advertised to be more than just mind mapping software, offering a suite of applications and tools designed to help you stay on top of projects and collaborate on tasks. Microsoft calls it a complete project management and collaboration suite. I use MindJet on my surface so that it is portable allowing me to facilitate meetings anywhere. I love that I can touch the screen and move topics around. That is the beauty of using this software with a smart board in a meeting setting.
Conclusion Step away from the pen. Embrace technology. Using mind mapping software in your planning meeting opens up many opportunities which did not exist previously. In my experience it enhances the planning experience and streamlines the process.
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