Customer Reviews

Mind Maps at Work: How to Be the Best at Your Job and Still Have Time to Play

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Mind Maps at Work: How to Be the Best at Your Job and Still Have Time to Play
By Tony Buzan

Undoubtedly, Tony Buzan should be credited for starting the ball rolling for mind-mapping in the late seventies/early eighties. He certainly took a brave stance. Whether he originated the idea is still debatable, because I strongly believe that the clustering technique (as originally envisaged by Gabrielle Rico in her debut book, `Writing the Natural Way', in the early eighties) is the precursor to the mind-mapping technique.

I still owned the original releases of two books written by Tony Buzan, in which he introduced mind-mapping during those days:

- Make the Most of Your Mind;
- Use Both Sides of Your Brain;

Going back into these two books & comparing them with the current book under review, I am very surprised to note that there are not much differences from the the intellectual standpoint. Despite the fact that more than three decades had already transpired, there are no new enhancements for readers, except, may be readers now get to see mind-maps in colour.

Tony Buzan is still pursuing the dogmatic approach of putting every issue from a centralised position & viewing all the connected issues in a radially-outward perspective. Beyond this singular aspect, he doesn't have any new ideas to share with readers.

Sad to say, Tony Buzan is clearly running out of steam. All his new & subsequent books still follow doggedly the same old formula. In fact, most of his new books are often rehashed &/or mildly expanded from the foregoing two books. Some of his disciples who have written similar books even follow the master's footsteps.

I am not saying mind-mapping is obsolete. It still works, but it has severe limitations. In today's chaotic business world, not every issue can be centralised in perspective.

Even in the educational arena, mind-mapping has its fair share of problems in application. Let me share with readers a true case in Singapore, as reported in the Straits Times, a local newspaper, a few years ago. According to the then-principal of Raffles Girls' School, a top-ranked secondary school, the school invested heavily in getting students to learn & apply mind-mapping in their studies. Every teacher & student was very excited. Every student was proud of her colourful mind-maps. However, when the final exams came, all the girls just abandoned mind-mapping & went back to the old habit of note-making. To them, mind-mapping didn't work as expected.

My own analysis is this: you can only apply mind-mapping to some subjects in the academic curriculum, but not all. For example, fish-bone diagramming & time-lines (or transitive-order diagramming, an expanded variation) would be more effective for history lessons. A story grid would serve English Literature more effectively. Concept maps & V-diagramming would be more ideal for navigating science subjects.

Coming back to the current book under review, I wish to say this: mind-mapping alone is not going to help you solve all your problems. The mind-maps just look good on paper in most instances. You need a smorgasbord of visual tools!

Just imagine you only have a screw driver in your tool-box.

For readers who are keen to explore beyond traditional mind-mapping, they should take a look at the following resources:

- 'Thinking Visually: Business Applications of Fourteen Core Diagrams', by Malcolm Craig;

- 'Rapid Problem Solving with Post-It Notes', by David Straker;

- 'The Power of 2 x 2 Matrix: Using 2 x 2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems', by Alex Lowly & Phil Hood;

- 'Visible Thinking: Unlocking Causal Mapping for Practical Business Results' by John Bryson;

- 'Beyond Words', by Milli Sonneman;

- 'The Marketer's Visual Toolkit', by Terry Richey;

In the realm of strategic planning, I reckon 'Reinventing Communication: A Guide to Using Visual Language for Planning' by Larry Raymond would be an excellent resource.

Even Nancy Margulies' mind-scapes as envisaged in her 'Mapping InnerSpace' &/or 'Visual Thinking: Tools for Mapping Ideas' can help you deliberately move away from Tony Buzan's standard routines. In other words, you can start your idea from anywhere you like.

For readers who just want a quick & broad understanding of visual thinking perspectives, I would recommend Robert Horn's 'Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century.'

Like other books by Tony Buzan, "Mind Maps at Work" starts with the description of human brain, its boundless capabilities, and then reiterates Buzan's favourite techniques like Mind Maps, TEFCAS, Radiant Thinking, etc. If you've read other books by Tony Buzan, you may find parts of this book monotonous, uninteresting and not engaging your interest. But if you are looking how to apply Mind Maps to your work environment, or just thinking how to be more efficient at your job, change career or start your own business, deliver excellent presentations with confidence, stand up for yourself and your ideas, be a key player at work, lead your team to excellence, than you will find worthy thoughts throughout this book.

It shows how to use Mind Maps and TEFACS to organize your business plan, access the progress of your plans and identify areas for improvement, create and update your CV in a colorful and visually arresting way, and so on.

Although in some places I've found this book a little bit dull, it is definitely worth attention! This is a book that suggests purposely slowing down and smelling the roses could actually boost productivity in today's 24/7 world. I would also recommend "Slack" by Tom Demarco in addition to this book.

Finally, mister Buzan has written a book which is highly practical. I am a professional mind mapper in the Netherlands. The last few months more and more the idea arose to write a book about how to implement the mind map idea in a business environment. I can forget about the idea, as mister Buzan has done it for me (what a pitty). I think mind mapping is thé way of effective and efficient communicating. The book is packed with examples in all kind of situations. The book gives you also a very good idea about which companies use the technique for it's own good. And I can tell you when companies like Apple, Boeing or Burmah Oil use it to their advantage, why can't you?

then every problem looks like a nail.

For Mr. Buzan, the hammer in the Mind Map.

I was disappointed with the book. While I accept the concept, it could have been presented in 20 pages rather than 211. According to Mr. Buzan, the solution to every issue (at work, bullies, better personal relationships, effective presentations, etc.) lies in the use of the Mind Map. When dealing with fictitious examples to illustrate his points, he presents elaborate Mind Maps. When addressing real-world examples in his book, I can remember not one accompanied by a presentation of the mapping applied to the solution. That suggest to me that possibly in actual application, companies use the mind map process as a component of a much larger process. That is never even suggested in the text.

Life should be as easy, and with such simple solutions as presented by Mr. Buzan.

I accept, and use, the concept of Mind Mapping. However, Mr. Buzan over-simplifies too many broad concepts in stating they can be resolved with his process.

this book is interesting when you know the mindmap technique. the issues raised and questions given to assess different situations are valuable and practical indeed, whether you are a CEO,a jobhunter or teammember. Mindmapping stays a tool, it doesn't replace the essentail questions.

Well it didn't work for me, and according to published research, it probably does not work for you either. (research shows that it demotivates, confuses, and makes the learner feel like they have regressed).

The book itself comes up to the same high quality hype and new age glitz as previous books on the subject. However, there is a strange mismatch in the text. The writing is about business and being professional, but the maps are as professional looking as a multicoloured sneeze. I cannot see any pro working with these things. Concept maps, timelines, graphs, diagrams etc are a mainstay of good biz communication. And they are colourful. I cannot see why someone would want to exchange those for a scrappy looking mind map.

I know I'm going on, but the book itself is a worse offender. If you are really into mind maps, just get "teach yourself mind maps in a week" (from the library). It has all the same hype in it, but its far more concise.

Cheers
D.Rayt

This book is about promoting a single narrow technique to apply to the wide variety of tasks that you must cope with at work. It is just silly.

The method itself is far from presentable, even in its computerised form, and I believe it is not the sort of thing a professional is going to use to any significant level. I have given it a go, and it really does not come up to the standards promised.

Quite disappointing, although easy to laugh off considering the idea is pretty silly anyway.

Lots of hype, but expectations were very far from met.