Mind mapping tools have been around for many years. However, I'm starting to see a much wider adoption of mind mapping throughout my company and with the wider business audience.
Part 1 of this series, Using Mind Maps, examined mind mapping and why you might want to use its "radiant thinking" process. Here, in Part 2, we will look at some specific business uses for mind maps.
Below are four examples where mind mapping has proved useful to me recently.
Meeting Agendas: A mind map provides a great graphic overview of everything relating to the meeting, from attendee lists, meeting notes, web links, documents, to-do items, and parking lot issues.
Using the map during the meeting helps the team move above the details to keep the bigger picture in mind.
Employee Reviews: A mind map is helpful during the complete review life cycle.
First, it's a great place to keep notes on how someone's doing and areas for improvement.
Second, it's a great template to prompt the reviewer to look at the whole picture in a fair and balanced way.
Third, the map is easy to share and revise.
In addition, while you may take the notes based on business categories like performance, potential, flexibility, and attitude - you might deliver the review based on a "Green", "Yellow", and "Red" metaphor that makes it easy for the employee to understand and act upon. Here is an example of that type of map.
Business Planning and Project Management: This was one of the first areas where mind maps proved useful. It's a great tool to see the forest and the trees.
You will find that a mind map is a great tool to use interactively during meetings. It gives the team a common focus, yet allows the facilitator to adjust that focus efficiently and effectively.
In addition, Project View makes it easy to see the plan as a GANTT timeline or task table. This is a terrific added capability.
Communication and Presentation Tool: Mind maps allow great flexibility an structure during presentations. This facilitates a logical and organized presentation, as well as ad hoc interactive discussions.
More experienced mind mappers tend to use fewer words, opting to use images and the heuristic structure itself as a catalyst and reminder for deeper meaning.
An added bonus of using mind mapping software to present your ideas is that the map can be updated and re-ordered while you are using it. The map becomes the common-focus for an interactive discussion.
Cool special effects, like 3-D Views, turn your map into a 3 dimensional object, allowing you to glide around it from different angles, zoom in on different areas and transform presenting mind maps into a whole new experience. Here is an example.
Obviously, there are many other things you can do with mind maps.
Typically there are a few major inflection points in the year where assets either switch gears and reverse their prior trends or undergo an acceleration of their current trend.
One of the key predictors of these inflection points, over the last few years, has been a reversal of the general trend of the U.S. Dollar.
Consequently, determining whether the Dollar is at a major inflection point may have considerable implications for asset allocation (bonds, stocks, commodities, currencies) and sector allocation (cyclicals, non-cyclicals) strategies.
Here Is Why the Dollar Can Tell You What to Invest In.
Many traders believe that when the Dollar is weak, the following general relationships are seen:
“RISK ON” Trade
Stocks outperform bonds
Investment grade and high yield bonds outperform US Treasuries
When the dollar is strong, you typically see the reverse of the above relationships.
You can see these themes in the data below.
Notice that US stocks (S&P 500), commodities (CRB Index), and emerging market equities (relative to the S&P 500) tend to have an inverse correlation with the Dollar. In the chart above, the USD Index is shown in green (and inverted for directional similarity).
In general, when the USD is rising (falling in chart) commodities and the S&P 500 are weak, and emerging market equities underperform the S&P 500 (2008, early 2010). As stated, the converse is also true (e.g., 2009, late 2010-early 2011).
So, the question is whether you think the Dollar is bottoming?
Typically there are a few major inflection points in the year where assets either switch gears and reverse their prior trends or undergo an acceleration of their current trend.
One of the key predictors of these inflection points, over the last few years, has been a reversal of the general trend of the U.S. Dollar.
Consequently, determining whether the Dollar is at a major inflection point may have considerable implications for asset allocation (bonds, stocks, commodities, currencies) and sector allocation (cyclicals, non-cyclicals) strategies.
Here Is Why the Dollar Can Tell You What to Invest In.
Many traders believe that when the Dollar is weak, the following general relationships are seen:
“RISK ON” Trade
Stocks outperform bonds
Investment grade and high yield bonds outperform US Treasuries
When the dollar is strong, you typically see the reverse of the above relationships.
You can see these themes in the data below.
Notice that US stocks (S&P 500), commodities (CRB Index), and emerging market equities (relative to the S&P 500) tend to have an inverse correlation with the Dollar. In the chart above, the USD Index is shown in green (and inverted for directional similarity).
In general, when the USD is rising (falling in chart) commodities and the S&P 500 are weak, and emerging market equities underperform the S&P 500 (2008, early 2010). As stated, the converse is also true (e.g., 2009, late 2010-early 2011).
So, the question is whether you think the Dollar is bottoming?
It was over 100 degrees, here in Texas, as my son graduated high school.
Our out of town guests weren't buying the "But it's 'dry' heat" line. So, much of the weekend was spent eating and searching for air-conditioning.
Sometimes it is just too hot to trot.
Exercise Frequency Goes Down as the Heat Goes Up.
The Economist recently printed a chart showing that people who live in colder states exercise more than those who live in warm ones.
A recent report by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention declares that only 64% of Americans surveyed can be described as physically active (defined as over 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or half as much vigorous activity). Almost a quarter get no exercise at all outside the workplace.
The report offers a breakdown of exercisers by state. In general, it seems that people who live in cold states like Alaska are more likely to get their weekly work-out than those in sunny Florida.
The biggest outliers from this correlation are Hawaii, where 70% are energetic, and Tennessee, which has the lowest percentage of active people despite a lower average temperature than several other states.
