expressive body in an immobile prison, thus losing more than 50% of your communication ability at the start.
Mind Maps to the rescue!
In the same way as you Mind Mapped ‘Fruit’, simply place the topic of the speech in the centre of the page, and radiate out the main key images and words you wish to address.
When you have completed the Mind Map, number the central branches in the order in which they are to be presented, and highlight any major points or any major connections between the branches.
You will be delighted to know that for making speeches, the standard rule is one key word or image for one-minute’s worth of speech on a topic you know well. Thus for a half-an-hour speech you need only a small Mind Map to complete your task more than successfully.
The advantage of using a Mind Map for presentations, which millions of people in the business world now do, is that it keeps your mind constantly aware of the ‘whole picture,’ allows you to add and subtract information as the time for your presentation approaches, and guarantees that you will cover all the major points you wish to address. Your eyes will be able to make much more contact with your audience, your body will be a lot more free, and so will your mind.
Presentation Mind Maps give you that ultimate freedom – the freedom to be yourself. And audiences appreciate nothing more than someone who is doing just that.
For an example of a completed Mind Map on this subject, turn to Plate 3.
Planning Family Events Mind Map
A dear friend of mine uses Mind Maps to plan all her family’s daily, weekly, annual, and special events. Her Mind Maps appear in a place, commonly known as the community hub of the family and where they are increasingly to be found: on her fridge door!
She, in her own words, will tell you how she uses them, what for, and what the advantages are.
‘Before I had heard about Tony and his Mind Maps, I was in chaos! I consider myself a pretty typical twenty-first century woman – I want it all! I am a wife, a mother, I have a career, I like to keep fit and I love my social life. Everything has equal importance and I enjoy all the demands and successes. And I certainly don’t want to miss out on anything, least of all any of my son’s important activities – be they studying for exams, attending a concert, helping him with his art project, or making sure his hair is cut in time for the school photo!
However, I realized that wanting it all meant that I had to be super efficient in my organization at home. While packing my briefcase for the following day’s meetings, had I remembered to pick up the dry-cleaned suit for my husband’s important meeting the next day, or that the dog’s appointment with the vet was at 3.00 p.m. at precisely the same time as I had a meeting, so who was going to take him? And which day of the week was it in my son’s school schedule? If tomorrow was Wednesday, he needed his football boots and his piano music and would need to be picked up later than usual as he was in the school musical rehearsal and then when he came home he had homework to do before supper, bath and bed! Oh, and my mother was arriving for two days – must make sure the guest bed had clean sheets on and get in more food, and send off the deposit for our vacation or we would lose the reservation! And remember to call Susie to tell her that I can’t join her at the yoga class after all because of all of the above.
Most of the time, we somehow muddled through (with frantic phone calls from the school about some vital piece of equipment that had been forgotten and equally frantic calls from my husband reminding me of that important business dinner that yes, I had forgotten about). Then I heard about Mind Maps. I couldn’t think what on earth these could possibly be, but was sold on the idea that on one piece of paper I could map out our daily or weekly diary so that all of us knew just exactly what the other was doing and what was needed. This has quite simply transformed my life! I now have a Mind Map on our fridge door and can visually see what the week ahead holds. It goes up at the weekend and we all do it together and add to it as the week progresses. I don’t think my life has ever run so efficiently.’
What my friend has demonstrated is that a Mind Map is a wonderful way to note down, in an attractive and organized way, everything you have to do. You can either have one overall Mind Map or a series of mini-Mind Maps that cover the areas of your future activities. These Mind Maps will give you a good degree of control over your future, and will help you plan far more easily and effectively.
For an example of one of her Mind Maps see Plate 4.
Persuading People and Negotiating with Mind Maps
Persuading other people to see things from our point of view is necessary for survival.
In every walk of life and on a daily basis, we are all involved in persuading people. Whether it be deciding on where to go on vacation, bargaining for a better deal, attempting to sell something, or even applying for a job, the result depends on our ability to persuade.
In these communications you need to be prepared, and a Mind Map is an excellent preparation tool.
Before entering the ‘persuasion zone’, Mind Map out the entire situation, including as your main branches the big goals you have in the situation. Consider the arguments you want to put forward, and note them down in key words and images. You could, for example, use a Mind Map to argue for a raise. You could use the Mind Map to map out all the reasons you deserve more money, taking into account not just your strengths but your weaknesses, in order to pre-empt any objections. You could also use the Mind Map to highlight any particular successes you have had in your present role.
It is also a good idea to include other people’s points of views in your Mind Map. When you do this, it gives you a much better overall picture, and allows you to make your points in a spirit of mutual co-operation rather than one of mutual combat!
Mind Maps are especially useful when it comes to negotiating contracts. Getting that all-important ‘whole picture’ and proper perspective is far easier if you use a Mind Map. A Mind Map also helps you add as much detail as necessary without getting lost, because words, colours, symbols, and other Mind Mapping techniques concentrate the information while at the same time organizing it effectively for you.
Colour codes
Colour codes are especially useful. They can highlight areas that are negotiable, non-negotiable, or neutral while the contract is being negotiated. This allows you to concentrate on what is important and not waste time and energy on the irrelevant.
The more contract negotiations get bogged down, the more the Mind Map comes to the rescue. It enables you to see the ‘whole picture’ all the time and that you see relationships that might otherwise be invisible.
One lawyer, who was negotiating a long and complex case, used Mind Maps to keep track of everything over a period of six months. His memory of and grasp of the case was so immense, complex, and complete that his offices were raided by the opposition looking for the secret electronic equipment they thought he must be smuggling into court to give him such perfect control of the case!
Romantic Weekend Mind Map
Planning a romantic weekend can cause a lot of anxiety and stress, because it is so important that such events are wonderfully successful. As with any other form of planning, if any vital ingredient is missing or forgotten, the whole event could be a catastrophe. This is where Mind Maps can come to the rescue again!
