I recently participated in Jamie Nast’s 2-day workshop on Idea Mapping and had a great experience. The theme of the workshop revolved around using idea mapping or mind mapping to tap into the power of visualization and associative thinking and how these skills can be applied to both our professional and personal lives. Here’s a hand drawn map of the workshop agenda:
Jamie preached the full brain approach where we could increase our brain power exponentially by tapping into both the left side of the brain (which we’re all most familiar with from our days of linear and logical thinking) as well as the right side of the brain which responds to colors, imagery, creativity and sensations. Even though this concept seemed very foreign to many of the participants in the class, it’s actually how our brain naturally works. In fact, exercising the right side of our brain can have a positive impact on the left side.
We spent much of the first day learning about how our brain works and the physiology and psychology behind visual association. Jaime walked us through abstract concepts and a number of fun and interactive exercises all designed to help us break free of the restrictive habits we’ve learned all our lives and awaken the creative genius in all of us! It was quite the cathartic experience…we even learned some neat memory enhancing techniques that I know would have come in handy when I was in school. J Here are a couple photos of our workshop to give you an idea of what we were up to the past couple of days:
Laurel, Jeff and Carola talking through one of the idea mapping exercises
Michael and Prabhjot learning to tap into both sides of their brain through a juggling exercise
Laurel and Prabhjot share their group’s Idea Mapping applications
The second day also involved exercises designed to help us tap into the right side of our brain – with interesting memory exercises that taught us how to improve our memory by associating familiar images with the material we were trying to memorize. For example, we all learned how to count from 1 to 100 in Chinese simply by associating each number with a familiar image. It was mind blowing to say the least!
The remainder of the day brought everything together in more context. We talked through practical uses cases – both personal and professional – and how mapping can greatly improve memory, critical thinking, teamwork and communications. Then Michael Deutch (Director of Product Marketing at Mindjet) walked through a brief demonstration of MindManager Version 9 for Windows and how technology can really take mapping and visual association to another level.
The workshop was a great success and taught us valuable lessons on how we can maximize our abilities and overcome any obstacle if we approach the challenge with the right mindset.
Here’s a brief video clips of testimonials from one of the participants:
If you’d like to learn more about Jamie Nast’s Idea Mapping Workshop, click on the link below for the course abstract:
http://www.ideamappingsuccess.com/abstract.cfm
Until next time,
Wayne Chan