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Mind Mapping for Creativity and Creative Problem Solving
Mind Maps are the ideal tool for effectively accessing natural
creativity and harnessing that creativity for effective problem solving.
The main branches of the mind map can be used in a variety of ways to
support thinking. The only limit to the ways in which Mind Maps can be
used, is the imagination. Some of the ways the main branches can be used
are as follows:
Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. (Note: click the image
- above right - to view Mind Map) This is a well known technique for
getting ‘out of the box’ of habitual thinking. It originated as a way of
helping groups to get away from the conflict that characterises many
meetings by adopting different thinking modes. See the Mind Map and
notes on the following pages.
Edward de Bono’s PNI approach. This is a simple way of
approaching problems by analysing problems by recording facets on the
basis of whether something is ‘Positive’, ‘Negative’ or ‘Interesting’
.
Questions. Making the main branches questions, can often act as
an impetus for effective problem solving. The usual questions are
Who, What, Where, Why, When and How.
Checklists. One way of using checklists would be to take an item
and use the checklist to stimulate thinking about alternative uses.
Typical branches may be; Magnify, Minify, Substitute, Rearrange, Reverse
and Combine.
Forced Relationships and Analogies. One of the main challenges
for anyone wishing to be creative, is in provoking their thinking away
from existing paradigms. There are a number of ways of doing this such
as thinking of similarities to or differences from some of the more or
less random words. The choice of words is arbitrary since the key here
is to provoking thinking. Typical words (branches) may be; Animals,
Transport, People, Textures, Shapes etc.
Attribute lists. Again, primarily used to provoke thinking by
looking at existing problems, objects or situations in new ways. The way
this technique works is simply to list different attributes and then use
the natural process of the Mind Map to think divergently.
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