How CSR Can Benefit From Mind Mapping

A boardroom could be a venue for two scenarios: a meeting of top level managers, with the CEO stating rules and regulations for his subordinates to follow an d bring down to their people – at times, no questions asked, or a meeting where people contribute to the meeting’s agenda, serve inputs from their people, and seek consensus for a desired outcome.

But pouring of ideas does not always end up cohesively as one idea could lead to another thus, raising another issue that veers away from the subject at hand. That’s why mind mapping is helpful for these occasions.

Not only mind mapping is essential to help ideas, words, tasks, or similar items linked to and arranged to a central theme or focus. These tools are also vital in implementing or reviewing a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR).

MIND MAPPING IN BUSINESS

Back to Porphyry of Tyros (a noted 3rd century thinker), who visualized Aristotle’s concepts, to Ramon Llull (a philosopher), mind mapping or similar concepts have already been used in brainstorming, problem-solving, or visual thinking. The late 1950s to early 1960s saw the mind maps development (from semantic network) by Allan M. Collins (regarded as the “Father of Modern Mind Map”) and M. Ross Quillian. Tony Buzan (a British psychology author) says he invented the modern mind mapping, inspired by the general semantics of Alfred Korzybski, and popularized by Robert A. Heinlein and A.E. Van Gogt in science fiction novels.

“Webs,” “Mind Webs,” or “Webbing” – the mind map could be used for problem solving; outlining/framework designing; anonymous collaboration; union of words and visuals; an expression of creativity; condensing material into a concise and easy-to-remember format; team-building or synergy-creating activity – even enhancing work morale.

Mind map is now an essential tool used by businesses and corporations to challenge their employees: to think creatively yet still within an order or organization. Out-of-the-box solutions are generated through brainstorming sessions using mind mapping. The visual element of mind mapping also fosters better retention. One must differentiate though between a mind map and a concept map. Mind map is based on radial hierarchies and tree structures pertaining to relationships and originating from a central governing concept. Concept map, meanwhile, is linking connections between concepts in more varied patterns.

In the corporate boardroom, mind mapping serves as an ideal tool for fully comprehending an idea and seeing it as a whole. High-level executives are also including mind mapping in their presentations, with a visually-enticing and fully-detailed mind map presentation to keep the audience focused. Having a mind map ready for a meeting is practical to look at every possible angle of an idea and increase understanding of the issue at hand.

What makes mind map helpful is that you can intuitively arrange the elements based on their importance, and classify them further into groupings, branches, or areas to represent semantics or connections between bits and pieces of information. It is further suggested that mind mapping technique increases the learning/study efficiency versus traditional note-taking by 15%.

Planning and organizing tasks are done concretely by brainstorming through mind mapping. The visual cues (presented in a radial, graphical, and non-linear manner) through mind map’s branches disrupt the prioritizing of concepts often associated with hierarchies. This is geared toward encouraging users to connect concepts, without the temptation to start within a specific conceptual framework. One could simply take down notes using mind map for keywords or as a mnemonic technique to sort out a complicated idea. This could also be used to collaborate in color pen creativity sessions.

	A MIND MAP focusing ( 2 of 3 ) on people and the planet — two of the triple bottom line (third being profit) as CSR’s pillars of commitment
Source:www.mindmap.com

Businesses are also increasingly using mind mapping software, which has been proven helpful in organizing massive information (through the combination of spatial organization, dynamic hierarchical structuring, and node folding). Mind mapping software packages allow individuals to map more than thoughts and ideas — from their computers, spreadsheets, documents, Internet sites, and images.

MindMeister is regarded as a simple mind mapping tool. Here, you can create a functional mind map using directional arrows and the Insert key to add new nodes to your map. Exporting is also the asset of this software, as you can export your files in various forms. When you upgrade, you will have access to additional features like map searching, offline editing, and exporting your maps to other software like FreeMind and MindManager.

MindManager is polished and the primary menus are somewhat similar with Microsoft Office Ribbon. This software is said to be oriented for the corporate environment, including extension integration with the Office suite. It also links your mind maps directly into common database formats like MySQL and Access, and finding information is convenient through topic sorting, filtering, and text search tools. This comes in 30-day trial.

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Other popular mind mapping software include XMind (comes in free [with paid version] where you can also create fishbone, organizational tree, and logic charts); FreeMind (a Java-based implementation that makes the features consistent whether used in Ubuntu or Windows); iMindMap (cited to have the biggest download [at 135MB] and the only application developed by Buzan).

Malaysia’s Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman–Center for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility (in Business) Chairman and Assistant Professor Jeff rey FK Phang says mind mapping soft ware should be used to benefit a company. “An IT chief should teach the Human Resource (HR) head about using mind mapping soft ware, and the HR head should take the lead [of teaching it to the company’s people],” Phang illustrates.

He adds that using mind mapping would help CSR managers think better (than using Excel for conceptualizing). “Mind mapping is more stimulating. [While it may be] intimidating for some (to use mind mapping soft ware), mind mapping would lead them toward more group productivity. The HR head should communicate this to the company’s people, as this helps to consolidate ideas and opinions,” Phang says.

MIND MAPPING IN CSR

Most businesses have CSR or an equivalent initiative. While such, there is still a need to focus on what CSR eff orts best serve the company, where CSR managers and their team could accordingly group their planned and existing eff orts, and for which the corporation could provide help as well, down to the communities they operate. Mind mapping could be their ally for this.

In the CSR training workshop for industries (as part of the European Commission supported SME business development project on Empowering Asian Business Intermediaries through Knowledge-based Networking Focused on Sustainability Management [EMPASIA], identifying the reasons and impact of CSR could be recognized through mind mapping. Some of these reasons include: