As an Industrial Mathematician from the prestigious University of Benin, Nigeria. I spent several years in school learning about mappings, iterations, and numerical systems. Concepts that all share the same goal of precisely addressing problems. To this end, whenever I come up against a challenge, I instinctively reach for methods such as Mind Mapping to frame and assess the problem. Then followed by iterations for improvement and optimization of solutions.
The level of precision that mathematics provides makes it so beautiful. Coming up with a firm solution after outlining the problem and trying various options gives a sense of closure. This is shown when one feels satisfied after fully resolving a problem or understanding a circumstance.
Mind mapping is among the most useful tools I’ve encountered on my self-development journey; it has become a part of me, serving as a method of overcoming obstacles, making sense of things, and even developing my mental resilience. It has guided me in making better decisions, served as my form of therapy and also, giving me a sense of direction and mental clarity for what it’s worth when I needed it most.
In this article, I am going to describe what mind mapping is and how it aids in problem understanding and resolution. Additionally, I will demonstrate the power of this technique by sharing one of my personal experiences.
Mind Mapping is a method of organizing ideas, thoughts, and information into a diagrammed representation of a structure. This structure allows for a clear avenue through which ideas can be explored and problems understood, ultimately leading to a conclusive solution.
The Concept Of Mind Mapping
Your first step, then, is to draw what we call the seed of the mind map. This is your key idea, the core concept that you’re working around. Think of it sitting in the middle of the page, waiting to be surrounded by tentacles of ideas.
The next step is to take the central concept and then to expand out from that idea. Create lines out to topics or ideas that can be clustered or grouped in some way with your central topic. These branches are like tentacles of your central concept, illustrating how certain aspects of the ideas are interconnected to other aspects, visualizing how different pieces of information attach themselves or work together with the main idea.
And for sub-branches. Each of those related ideas can have its own smaller sub-branches. This is where you break down your complex idea into smaller pieces. This is the structure that will lead to a coherent structure of your whole topic. This process will help you understand all the small pieces.
Pay attention to the relations between your ideas. The lines you draw to link them illustrate the relation between them. Visualize your ideas as scenes of thinking, the connections between thoughts and ideas as paths you draw between them. This helps you perceive connections and patterns more easily by making them visual. Drawing paths from idea to idea grows more obvious when you create a visual map of your thinking.
In the end, use visual organization; it allows you to see your ideas and thoughts at a glance and to keep them in front of you visually. This helps you to gain a much better, deeper and clearer insight into the problem or task at hand and to find solutions to it in a much more effective way.
Put simply, mind mapping is a way of visually capturing the momentum of your thinking and ideas. When you draw out your information, you turn a potentially messy collection of thoughts into something visual whole, and by extension, an invitation to further clarify your thoughts and sharpen your problem-solving.
Introduction to the Concept of Iteration:
Part of the string of our life is made of challenges to solve, and very often, those challenges can’t be solved at the first attempt. Take any of your goals, whatever they may be: learning a new skill; improving a relationship; writing a book; directing a movie, these things can’t be achieved all in one attempt. Every single attempt is an ‘inquiry’, as Merelo Perez and O’Brien would say. What should I do? How should I do it? What is working? What is not working? ‘Every one of these inquiries positions us to have better quality decisions and better quality outcomes.’
Iteration is a basic rule of problem-solving and decision-making that says that, at least sometimes, you can’t get it right the first time. In mathematical terms or just ordinary, everyday life, iteration involves taking something tentative and iterative – an idea, say, or a possible solution, or a guess at how to solve a problem – and refining and improving it, again and again, until it works.
Real-Life Application/Case Study of Mind Mapping and Iteration in Action
Objective: Take Franklyns HQ, a brand in the barbering industry, to a new level by creating an engaging online space to attract barbers and clientele via detailed and valuable content.
Here we intend to show how I organized all the ideas (barbering techniques, client orientation, education material, etc) into a logical system that will help grow the platform and serve my audience.
Resolution: Using mind mapping and an iterative content creation system to take the platform from an online presence to an engagement powerhouse. From the number of potential ideas across all areas, from clipper cuts to the psychology of client relationships, each iteration takes the most engaging and salient ones and shares them with the platform’s loyal audience, garnering real-time feedback and analysis to promote growth.
Step 1: Mind Mapping for Idea Generation
Central idea: Firstly, I made a mind map of the main idea. So my central idea will be: Franklyn’s HQ Educational Content.
Building Out from Central Concept: From this central idea, I drew some branches for key content categories: Barbering Techniques | Product Reviews | Client Education | Business Strategies.
Sub-branches: Each category was then further divided into sub-branches. I had sub-branches for For ‘Barbering Techniques,’ ‘Fade Techniques,’ ‘Shape-Ups,’ and ‘Beard Grooming’.
It helped me to see how each topic related to the goal, which was to offer quality edutainment content.
Step 2: Identifying Connections
I also began to see connections between all the content categories. For example, I could create a sub-branch about a topic called ‘Client Communication’, which could link back to both ‘Business Strategies’ and ‘Client Education’. seeing these connections, I could plan my content in a way that enriched the others and built upon the overall value.
Step 3: Iteration Through Feedback
Creating Content Prototypes: After brainstorming some possible video topics, I shot a couple of different videos and then posted them for my early followers to see which seemed to stick.
Feedback Loop: I took feedback from my viewers in the comments, and I looked for what resonated with them along the way, what further interests them, and what’s not working.
I used my viewer’s feedback to iterate my content strategy. I went back to my mind map, adding in topics, altering others, and tweaking my approach, focused on what my followers actually liked and suggested.
Step 4: Continuous Improvement
This process of iteration continued throughout my content creation journey:
Check-Ins: I ran through each of the exiting videos weekly. Looking for stats on their performance and updating my mind map with any new topics or updates to existing ones.
Testing New Ideas: I experimented more with different styles of vlogging and ways of creating content for my viewers. Building off each new piece of video content as feedback to apply to the next one.
Conclusion
Combining iteration with mind mapping helped me build an effective content strategy for Franklyns HQ that we could execute on. Real-world experiences constantly transformed the mind map with every iteration. This process is not just about being more efficient in producing content. It was about innovating and improving delivery every time, and by doing so, getting closer to the audience.
This study shows how mind mapping can help you to organize thoughts and ideas which helps you identify connections. While iteration can help you to improve and refine things over time. These two tools can be game changers – whether you’re in business, education, personal life, or working individually to change for the better.
