We've moved!

This will be the last entry at this location. You can find everything that is already here at the new one - but that's the place to visit from now on. Thanks to Blogger for the initiation and a fairly easy learning curve. And thanks for visiting and hope that you will coninue to visit here.

Mind Map Art

When I studied Mind Mapping with the Buzan Organization several years ago, computer mind mapping was still pretty new - and the program that they recommended was a .dos one - now it seems like ancient history. So one of the objectives in class was to make maps as beautiful as possible using color, dimension and visual images. There is lots of merit in thinking visually. In fact this was the impetus for learning more about drawing and painting on a serious basis and I took myself to the Avenue Road Art School in Toronto, where I have studied on an annual basis ever since under their excellent instructors.

My maps gravitated to VisiMap software which I have used ever since to generate maps. I would be the first to say that VisiMap is not the most graceful of the many mind mapping products out there - but its purpose is different. It's to get ideas down quickly and have better ease in expanding and re-ordering. The basis is the same as hand drawn maps, - to make use of the brain's ability to make quick connections.

I came upon a site yesterday which specializes in mind map art as a commercial venture. I'm not a total stranger to the concept and some of the maps on the site are quite beautiful. I would. however, present a caveat. Hand drawn maps are usually highly personal. The meaning is vested in the hand of the creator. Maps that are used by groups need to watch the density of the information on a single screen. The point is to clarify thinking - not to make it overly complex.

The Creativity Gap

I'm busy redesigning my website. The basics required new software to program it as the original one, MS Front Page was no longer supported. For a micro business it always made sense to do it myself so I was looking for a replacement - my good colleague at CoCo Systems made a suggestion and even found me a good price at an upgrade rate. So I spent two weeks painfully learning Expression Web 2 - and of course got a message this morning from Amazon's intuitive marketing arm that it is now replaced by Expression Web 3.

The guys at Microsoft and Apple are always moving on, but what about the rest of us? In the process of researching key words - the ones that allow customers to find out what they are interested in - using the Webmaster Tools provided by several services, here are some scores for phrases that one might think might matter. They refer to the number of recent searches (during a month or more) for the terms that link them to websites which offer information or services.

Business Creativity
Word Tracker - 82
Google - 6600 (this looks good until you compare it with online training at 673,000)
MSN - 0

Creativity in business
Word Tracker - 10
Google - 4400
MSN - 19

It reminded me of the trouble Ned Herrmann had many years ago when he tried to use the word, creativity, in a business environment and had to switch to Problem Solving which is not the same thing, - or even worse, that Goebbels was purported to say "When I hear the word, creativity, I reach for my revolver".

Yes, it's dangerous. Yes, it will shake things up - but yes, it's essential.

How quadrants conflict

Here is an HBDI four quadrant model to play with in your mind. And here are some words to add

In the blue quadrant, imagine "Count"
In the green quadrant, imagine "Do"
In the red quadrant, imagine "Feel"
In the yellow quadrant, imagine "Dream"

Is one of these a favourite? If you really like one more than the others, have a look at the one that is diagonally opposite. There is a good chance that this is the one you like least.

Often the real trick is balancing the diagonals. If you like to dream, at some point you have to do. If you like to count, you also have to take feelings into consideration. While balancing all four quadrants well is best of all, to balance the opposing two in any situation will bring immediate benefits.

Whole Brain Teams

In tidying up my own files - a good end of summer project - I came upon an article I wrote several years ago for Project Times That still had relevance. And since I have recently re designed my website as well, using Microsoft Expression Web makes it really easy to post articles.

While multicultural diversity is all the rage, mental diversity is often ignored. So you can find out more about it here and also have a look at the article at the bottom of the page.

Presentation Zen and the HBDI

I have been rereading Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds' wise take on the design of presentations, since I am about to make three in the next two months. He reminds us of several important elements in the use of PowerPoint or its Mac counterpart. I have been guilty of giving audiences copies of slides - for which he coins the term, slideuments - and reminds us that they could be meaningless as a summary of a presentation, - that is unless it was a document in the first place that was simply pasted into a slide format.

The six elements illustrated above are Reynolds' prescription for an effective presentation.
I was struck by how whole brained they are:

Design involves the upper level quadrants - A and D
Story involves C primarily
Symphony - involves them all - ABCD
Empathy involves C too
Play involves D
Meaning - certainly involves them all.

So many presentations are simply reiterating what the speaker is saying. I sat through one like this that lasted for one and a half hours and it was pretty deadly. So another way of looking at any presentation is to walk it around the quadrants.

If you would like to know more about the HBDI model and its features you can find more here

Confessional moments

Here is a great video on creativity in the later years - courtesy of PBS.

There is lots of thinking about the strengths at various stages in life - and how they might work together for a better world.