Stay Clear and Focused on Your 2012 Resolutions with Visualization

The New Year is shiny and bright. Now is the time when we can look back on past accomplishments and mistakes of the previous year and start anew. Whether you are building on your previous Thoughts and projects or starting a new Brain, visualization software and mind maps enable you to formulate clear and doable plans for the New Year in a way that captures your best thinking.

Getting Outside Your Head

We all need a place for ourselves, a place to work, sleep, eat… but most importantly to think. You can make that place for thinking and translating your goals into action in your Brain. And it’s easier than you think. But first a little on the why…

David Allen, bestselling author and creator of Getting Things Done® talks about how you can develop a positive shift in your energy just by identifying what you need to do… i.e. when you are stressed out think about the relief you feel just by creating a list. In GTD Times he referred to this as “The value of getting things out of your psyche and into a more objective format”. Creating a place for your 2012 resolutions in your Brain not only gives you a digital space to start working on them, collecting information etc., but more importantly takes them out of your mind so you can work on them in a productive fashion. Therefore, the first step in your 2012 Brain is to identify and create Thoughts for all your key goals and resolutions for this year.

Creating Thoughts for your goals also helps solidify the commitment. In fact, I’m not sure if you can even have a resolution if at the very least, you don’t write it down. Though jotting a key goal down on a piece of paper may mentally provide commitment and relief, your digital brain provides a network for you to elaborate on your idea, remind you when to take action, and turn it into reality! Once you have created a Thought for your goal, the next step is to add other Thoughts that support and elaborate on your goal. This is where perseverance and planning come into play.

Perseverance and Planning in Your Brain

The news media reports that yesterday (January 9th), nine days after people make their resolution, is the day when most people give it up. So clearly without the right backup system for your goals things can slip away. In order to stay the course you need to focus and create Thoughts in your digital Brain for concrete action items and tasks that will lead to your ultimate resolution. In my blog entry entitled “7 Steps to Making Your Creative Vision a Reality”, I identify several key steps that can help turn your goal into reality. But the main takeaway of this post is that success begins by breaking down your dream into manageable chunks and making each piece an actionable step. And luckily segmentation of ideas is what information visualization and mind mapping is all about. When you mind map the possibilities, this imagined future becomes more real because you have captured and elaborated on a vision outside of your mind. Think of it as digital self-awareness.

To begin planning in your Brain ask yourself: what are the key components of your goal… then begin to segment your larger goal into smaller actionable steps. Each one of these steps should be a Child Thought under your resolution.

Experimenting with TheBrain’s outline view enables you to see all necessary steps for your goal.

For instance, “Living to be 100” is a very nice goal but unless you define key steps and milestones to get there, it’s just a pipe dream. Under this Thought you might include key research on longevity and health, as well as key action-oriented Thoughts that will help you achieve your goal such as nutrition, exercise and stress management.

References and Inspirations

Even though you think you are committed to your resolution, research suggests otherwise, and over time your motivation may waiver. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to setup reminders and inspirations in your Brain. I suggest creating a Thought called “Why” under your resolution and use PersonalBrain’s Notes tab to capture your key reasons and motivations behind this goal. You can also link to some friendly “Propaganda Thoughts” to reinforce your plan… For instance if you are losing weight, add some research in your Brain on how important weight loss is to health. In this way your digital Brain trains and convinces your wet brain on the benefits of achieving this goal.

References and inspirations are an absolutely critical step in actualizing your creative vision. Of course, unlike conventional mind mapping software, there is no limit to the number of Thoughts or files that you can add to your Brain. This means that you can create an ever-expanding unlimited knowledgebase for your vision. Collecting and organizing key ideas and important examples will enable you to harness abundant information sources and put them to work for you. Once key source material is in your Brain, you can simply type in a name and get to the information you need instantly.

Your reference Thoughts will not only help you define your vision for the project, but also serve as important guidelines and benchmarks to ensure that your requirements are met. For instance, if you are designing a Web site, link and create Thoughts for Web sites that represent your ideal aesthetics and business goals. If you are working on a kitchen renovation, link to photos of all the key design elements.

Reminders and Monitoring Your Progress

Goal maintenance is key to success and your Brain can help you stay on top of things. Setup action oriented Thoughts that demand your attention periodically. For example, if your goal is losing weight, add additional Thoughts on number of steps walked or an exercise log that you update each week. You can use PersonalBrain’s Notes built-in time stamp to record your key metrics. You can also setup Thoughts and reminders in your Brain for periodic reviews so when you get busy with other stuff your goal is never forgotten. I suggest you setup weekly reminders with TheBrain’s built-in calendar. The reminder Thought ideally should lead to some action you need to take, even if it’s just a journal entry in PersonalBrain’s Notes. If your goal is more elusive, like taking your business global, your weekly action item can be more research oriented, like finding three new web articles on your goal. In this way your knowledgebase grows to serve your resolution and you in turn will use this newly acquired knowledge to meet your goals.

We Are What We Think

As you work on your 2012 resolutions your expanded view of your thinking will enable you to go full circle with your digital Brain. That is, you start off using your digital Brain to capture your goal but by directing your own ideas and thinking in TheBrain towards your goal you are actually training your mind to focus and absorb what is most important to you. Thus your digital Brain moves you to a deeper level of commitment and strategic thinking on that “2012 Thought” you created. It is this symbiosis of deliberate and selective brainstorming that takes you to a higher consciousness of an idea. This mindset makes the difference between a resolution and an accomplished result. So to all of you who seek more in life and work, may you forge a better, more intelligent future this year with new directed Thoughts and ideas in your digital Brain. After all, we are what we think we can be. So be the most you can be… in your Brain.

Happy New Year and Happy Digital Thinking!

“Become more conscious of the creative power within your reach”

Brainstorming was popularized in 1939 by Alex Osborn. He was a partner in an ad agency looking to expand the boundaries of projects and create a better context for idea generation. Osborn developed several rules for a good brainstorming session: encourage large quantities of ideas, include the outlandish unusual ideas, minimize judgment, and build on each idea.

In 1939 brainstorming methodology was solid but technology was still disconnected. Alex Osborn could have his secretary type up the groups’ ideas (as most real managers in 1939 didn’t type) and hand them out on a piece of paper to everyone.

Indeed, we’ve come a long way in terms of knowledge dissemination since 1939 but we’ve also come a long way from our whiteboards and napkins too.

Though not explicitly referred in Osborn’s key rules for brainstorming, implicit even in 1939 was that highly visual capture of thinking can lend itself to even better ideas. Sight and knowledge have a tight relationship. When people brainstorm they put up a bunch of words on a whiteboard not only so they can capture ideas but because “seeing is believing”. It’s part of our reflection process.

Visualization software and mind maps can take your brainstorming session to the next level.  We covered some interesting examples of this in last week’s Webinar “From Brainstorming to Results. See the Possibilities”. Here’s how to take your ideas from the whiteboard to execution and augment your next brainstorming session.

Get It Out of Your Head 
Get your ideas out of your head and into a tangible form. This will enable you to see and reflect on these ideas.  Starting with a new Brain can help you focus on the problem or concept at hand. Your first Thought should be your goal or problem. Then create Thoughts below for all possibilities. In the spirit of Alex Osborn, the more Thoughts you have for this purpose, the better. You can also drag and drop links to key references and inspirations in your Brain to help trigger new ideas. Continue to build on Thoughts already created. There’s no limit to the number of Thoughts or where your ideas can go with PersonalBrain. 

For more information on this process see: “Visualizing Decisions and No Limits Brainstorming”.

Collective Brainstorming With Your Team

In addition to individual brainstorming and strategizing, creating a Brain in real-time as a group can lead to very powerful results. To brainstorm as a group you can use a single Brain projected, where one person is the moderator and captures the groups’ ideas. You can also synchronize your idea generation with TeamBrain services across individual PersonalBrains. 

Creating a TeamBrain can be a catalyst for new ideas, as well as reinvigorate staff suffering from burnout and performance plateaus. When you are brainstorming as a group, remember to follow our friend Alex Osborn’s rules.  Withhold judgment during your session so each team member feels free to let their creative contributions flow. Make sure everyone in the group understands the ground rules so that less gregarious members have a chance to contribute. You might even go as far as to draw out quieter or more junior team members. By leveling the playing field managers can gain valuable insights from employees that might otherwise feel inhibited to contribute.

Transition from Brainstorming to Action
Once you have mapped out a wide range of possibilities it’s time to reflect and commit. Osborn recommends setting up your brainstorming conference in two parts: the first for idea generation, the second session to decide on the best ideas.

“Optimum opportunity for creative thinking and for judicial thinking is to divide a conference into two sessions” (Osborn)

This is your assessment phase.  You need to determine which idea is feasible and then commit to it. In order to determine feasibility you might need to do further research. Under each Thought add child Thoughts on key next steps, supporting files and web research.

During this phase I like to use Thought Types and Tags to visually weigh and prioritize each Thought/idea. Thought Types should be used to assign a primary attribute to a Thought where tags can be used to add additional criteria or attributes to a Thought.

In the above screenshot once all ideas for the company’s “Market Expansion” were captured, Thought Types are used to signify a primary attribute of an idea. In this case, something that is a “Greenlighted project” or a “Hot topic” has generated much debate is identified with a Thought Type.

Often the ideas generated aren’t necessarily a clear “yeah or nay” so you can create tags that will highlight the feasibility of each idea. In the example above there are Thought Tags for “Cost” and “Timeframe” because these are key factors for executing these ideas.

By categorizing and further classifying ideas, unconscious reasons why something is a good or bad idea become more concrete, and an objective criterion for making decisions can be readily identified and implemented.

For more information on “Getting Things Done” and prioritization see my previous blog post.

Provide Access to Your Thinking
After your brainstorming session or once you have chosen your direction, share your Brain with your Team. You will need to decide if you prefer to control the content and publish in read-only mode or enable people to contribute to grow and build on the Brain’s existing structure. You can publish your Brain on your company web site or provide collaborative access through WebBrain.

A Knowledgebase That Goes from Seeing to Doing
Now that you have chosen a course of action, your thinking process is captured and you can always go back and reflect on it as a group or individual. Moreover, your Brain now becomes an ongoing repository and knowledgebase for your project. You can: drag and drop all relevant documents, visualize project phases, setup up reminders, link people to their responsibilities, continue to share and grow more ideas.

This process provides seamless management from initial idea creation to project completion. By starting with your brainstorming Thoughts then using and growing that same Brain for execution, you gain an ongoing conceptual framework from start to finish. This continuity of process makes transitioning from thinking to doing easy. By visualizing key objectives and milestones your team has a clear path of action and can always see the big picture. So instead of leaving your best ideas in your head or on the conference room whiteboard, capture your next brainstorming session in TheBrain. Then you’ll be able to watch things evolve from a few interesting ideas to an execution-oriented knowledgebase that leads to your project’s success.

Additional Resources

1. Download Goal Directed Thinking BrainZip Template
2. Watch Webinar: “From Brainstorming to Results. See the Possibilities”

Related Posts

1. Visualizing Decisions and No Limits Brainstorming
2. Seven Steps to Making Your Creative Vision a Reality

         

Creating the right context for ideas and collaboration has led to unsurpassed breakthroughs. Whether we’re exchanging ideas in a coffee shop or online at our office, the heart of an idea’s growth and formation is environmental connections.

The History of Innovation Is Based on Connections
James Burke through his ground breaking books and miniseries “Connections” popularized the idea that events and ideas across the world influence and produce more innovation than we are ever really conscious of. In his extensive body of work and even his PersonalBrain, he shows us how many seemingly unrelated events, people and ideas fit together and intersect to impact social and technological change.

He explores how scientific progress, technological evolution and human thought are interrelated. The entire history of civilization is based on this interlacing – a “Knowledge Web” of interactions and relationships.

More recently, Steven Johnson in “Where Good Ideas Come From” theorizes that innovation accelerates under open environments and “Liquid Networks” .

When these environments are fluid enough to let ideas permeate and intermingle on a regular basis you get a hyper growth curve of advancement like such that occurs with the diversity and specialization of life in a coral reef, in a city or on the Web.

Innovate by Focusing Your Network
So if we agree that connections lead to innovation then we need to understand what connections are best for us. Today we have more channels of communication and information sharing than ever: We can see what colleagues are tweeting, schedule meetings, check RSS feeds, digest streaming media, go to the corporate intranet, email… 

But the critical question is: How do you stay connected without over whelming yourself with all these “connections”?  It would be a mistake to think of “plugged in” as the single attribute of a creative network, as so many of us do. That premise leads us to the kind of day where we end up tripping over water fountains because we MUST text while we are walking.  

We need to push our Brain and projects towards more creative, organic exchanges without overloading our circuitry.  So what I want to talk about here is not a hive of information buzzing around us or even a “GlobalBrain” (as cool as this might be) but rather a TeamBrain: – a focused and connected information environment with a specific purpose, an environment that enhances our natural ability to make associations while leveraging the ideas and thinking of our select peers. With focused collaboration you can start a small to medium sized network of creative idea exchange and gain exponential results.

Set Up a Focused TeamBrain
If you are reading this post most of you will probably already have a PersonalBrain, maybe even BrainEKP in your organization. So the first step in setting up your TeamBrain is to setup your WebBrain account. Then contact TheBrain to enable TeamBrain services for your team. It’s a free beta service for the next 30 days.

A key aspect of collaboration (especially in this day and age of Facebook status updates and tweeting our dinners) is the level of distinction one should create between their personal and public information. For this reason I suggest creating a new Brain dedicated to collaboration with your team and key projects instead of sharing your 10,000 Thought Brain on everything in your life. (Though that could be a great TeamBrain for you and your spouse). For example, you might want to copy your marketing research into a new Brain and start with that.

Keep in mind that focused does not need to be boring. In fact, for the purpose of getting started I suggest you share either a new Brain or create a section in your existing TeamBrain that enables people to experiment and brainstorm. If your TeamBrain is on company sales, it might turn out that it’s your product design and development area that your group adds the most Thoughts. Sometime it’s these types of surprises and free flowing exchanges that lead to innovation, so make your idea exchange fun and don’t narrow the scope of your TeamBrain too tightly. A single project Brain, depending on the complexity of the project, may be too restricted. It’s the serendipity of the linkages that makes the gestalt network greater than the sum of its parts. And remember, unlike conventional mind maps or linear folder structures, there’s no limit to the number of Thoughts or connections that can be made in your TeamBrain.

Click the refresh arrows to see all the latest changes. Name of user and time will appear next to the modified Thought.

It’s a live organic knowledgebase, always there, assessable from anywhere. TeamBrain lets you work offline on your desktop. All you have to do is hit the sync button to synchronize your changes with the group. The network grows more powerful as everyone continues to use it. Changes by users are tracked in the reports area. So you can see who has contributed to what.

Laying a TeamBrain Foundation
Like any good city or urban dwelling, infrastructure is key.  Create a basic structure for your Brain where your Thoughts lay a solid foundation upon which new connections can grow. Start by mind mapping all your key projects, departments and people networks. This foundation and visual structure will distinguish your TeamBrain from the noise of all the other applications and feeds that overwhelm people and contribute to information deluge. Connecting people to department or expertise is important. This is especially helpful when you are collaborating with a geographically dispersed team.  For more information on mapping out people networks see “Everyone Is Connected. It’s Time to See the Links”.

The structure of your Brain will provide an overarching context for your information. When your sales team clicks on a brochure they not only get that document but they can see related whitepapers, connected products and vertical markets. The structure can also be changed. Linking new Thoughts and unlinking old ideas can happen instantly.

Now here’s where the exponential growth comes in. It’s like an idea soup. Your sales guy updates your TeamBrain with his customer feedback report which triggers an idea you have for improving the user experience on your Web site. Meanwhile your Web developer in Milwaukee has been playing with some new style sheets and code.  He now sees your new idea in TeamBrain and connects his project to yours. Net result: your half-baked idea is now augmented and completed by somebody else’s work.  And thus an otherwise sidelined idea becomes a real project that actually comes to fruition because your ideas have connected.

With TeamBrain execution is augmented and streamlined. Moving forward everyone continues to work together sharing thinking, making connections, and referencing past ideas. Furthermore, as a byproduct of your projects you are also capturing and creating your collective memory.  References and past project context are also key for your team to build upon previous thinking as you can draw upon your working memory for new projects and ideas.

As history points out, innovation and progress happen when ideas collide and connections are made. By building the right context for collaboration you’re fertilizing and cultivating your own idea network – a place where ideas germinate and breakthroughs happen naturally.

TeamBrain Video Tip
Learn how to grow your ideas and streamline projects with your peers. Watch Now

To join the TeamBrain Beta program:
email tbarr@thebrain.com  or call 310-751-5000

How to Ensure your Best Thinking is Leading the Way.

Today we are all under pressure to do more with less, and to do it quickly. This is why getting the big picture on projects and not losing sight of new ideas is challenging. Visualizing key decision points, company objectives and business processes can ensure that higher level goals are reached and that you are taking the best approaches now and for the future.

Visual Brainstorming
Critical business decisions and key drivers can be intelligently identified through free flowing brainstorming and visualization of key decision points. By seeing and exploring all possible outcomes, PersonalBrain can help you resolve issues faster and plan your success without overlooking anything.

Brainstorming can be done as a group with PersonalBrain projected on your conference room wall or individually on your desktop. To begin an idea generation Brain, create the key goal or objective of your session as your starting Thought. Under this Thought create child Thoughts below for all ideas that may lead to achieving this goal or support this objective. At this point anything goes so don’t be too analytic or discriminating. The idea here is to free your mind and capture all ideas. Then you can see where they lead.

Under these Thoughts, you can even create another level of child Thoughts that your initial ideas might lend themselves to. (To learn how to create Thoughts quickly watch our previous tip of the month) 

Once you have a set of possibilities, it’s time to start reviewing them and fleshing them out further. Typically there will be some new ideas that may not have been considered in the past. Your next step is to decide which ideas make sense to expand on.

Visualizing Decisions
You can create “Pro” and “Con” Thoughts to help your analysis on important or far reaching decisions.

In the above example a clothing company is evaluating a new material for their winter line. An actual “Pro” and “Con” Thought is used to distinguish each side of the debate. When making these decisions you can use PersonalBrain’s expanded or outline view to see additional generations of Thoughts.

If you prefer more of a free flowing brainstorming session you can simply Brain dump all your thinking about an issue as child Thoughts below and then come back and move your Thoughts under “Pro” or “Con” areas.

An alternative method is specifying “Pros” and “Cons” with Thought Types as shown below.

In the above screenshot Thoughts are further defined using Thought Types. Green for Pro and Red for Con.

You can also use Thought types with colors and icons to highlight your best ideas. For more information on how to create Thought types watch our recorded Webinar. 

Thought Tags can also add a level of priority, feasibility or timeframe for execution. This works especially well if you are not necessarily using a Pro/Con format.

 
Tagging Thoughts as a follow up to your brainstorming session helps clarify the practicalities of your ideas.

In the above screenshot once all ideas for the company’s “Market Expansion” were captured, Thought Types are used to signify a primary attribute of an idea. In this case, something that is a “Greenlighted project” or a “Hot topic” has generated much debate is identified with a Thought Type.

Often the ideas generated aren’t necessarily a clear “yeah or nay” so you can create tags that will highlight the feasibility of each idea. In the example above there are Thought Tags for “Cost” and “Timeframe” because these are key factors on executing these ideas.

By categorizing and further classifying ideas, unconscious reasons why something is a good or bad idea becomes more concrete, and an objective criterion for making decisions can be readily identified and implemented.

Creating Decision Trees with Thoughts and Links
Even if you know the right steps to solve an issue, crystallizing the process will ensure that key contingencies are accounted for and your desired outcome is achieved by all team members. PersonalBrain’s visual interface can act as a decision tree. Clicking on a Thought triggers other dependent issues or next steps as Thoughts so you know what to do.

Creating Link Types that depict preconditions can help you readily identify the best course of action.

You can use PersonalBrain’s “Link Types” to specify key contingencies that you don’t want to create other Thoughts for. In the above example, whether or not a drug is FDA approved is an important factor in prescription. However, if the client resides outside of the United States, and also has “Condition C”, “Medication Z” may be a better choice.
 
Visualizing all options and the applicability of products and services in PersonalBrain can help customer service and sales reps make better recommendations to clients, boosting company sales and customer satisfaction.

A special offer is connected as a Jump Thought to the company’s most commonly sold health product. The Link type “Valid if under 30” specifies eligibility, so the agent can make the best recommendation to customers depending on their age demographic.

Your SWOT Analysis Brain
Understanding and visualizing market strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats can be a very effective method to reach key decisions and spur new ideas for growth. You can create a SWOT Brain for your company or project to ensure that all aspects of your plan are iron clad and that you are moving in the right direction.

Furthermore because all Thoughts can be connected associatively you won’t have any problems of running out of space like you might with conventional 2D mind maps. Something that fits under one idea can be under as many other concepts as you need. For instance, in SWOT analysis you should try and look to see how you can turn threats or weaknesses into opportunities. To visualize this you need an associative interface like PersonalBrain.

For example an auto manufacturer might have “slowing economy” listed as a weakness. This could be linked to a corresponding opportunity: “new low cost models”. Something that if developed is an opportunity, but is related to and driven by the fact that people are more cost conscious because of a slowing economy. With PersonalBrain this idea can be connected under both Thoughts easily.

PersonalBrain’s flexible, associative interface enables ideas to be linked under many categories without limits.

One of the advantages of PersonalBrain is that there are no limits to the number of Thoughts or connections you can make.  This means that your brainstorming results are not simply a throw away sheet of paper or static poster on your wall. You can now add documents, web pages and all necessary research to make your plan a success. Your Brain becomes your information portal for all the right data.

So when you go and access the files you need, you will not loose sight of the big picture and strategy, because your information now is stored and accessed in an intelligent and meaningful context.

Smarter Context = Better, Stress Free Results
Whether you are deciding on the best treatment for a patient or hammering out a new market strategy, thoroughly examining and capturing all possibilities will not only lead to smarter decisions and those “eureka” moments, but it will also enable you to execute on them in a stress free, productive manner. Capturing everything in your digital Brain helps eliminate anxiety so you can use that energy to focus on completing the task at hand.

With PersonalBrain you can execute in an intelligent manner because when you click on any idea it will trigger all the right information and you get a complete visual briefing on your strategy. Everything you need is right there. Your strategic Brain keeps you on course by showing you where to go next and why you are going there in the first place.