Nontrivial Exercises

Mind Mapping - Information in Context Part 2

I wrote about how using a map can capture both the information and its context in a very succinct, dense yet clearly readable format. I referred to this as Information in Context. Today I want to continue this thought but demonstrate not how maps can simply capture the context of information, but how they can actually convey it back to the reader / viewer in an efficient and effective manner.

What if, in stead of taking down notes of a meeting, conversation, or list for your use later, you in stead wanted to convey a complex idea or concept using both words and visual cues? I’ve shown how maps can efficiently record and display some types of information that is related – e.g. actions, items in lists – but you can use the visual and spatial features of maps to convey something more conceptual in a much more effective way than by words alone.

For example, some friends and I have been reading and discussing a book about faith (When Faith is All You Have). The book reviews the people listed in Hebrews chapter 11 in the Bible, and how each of them displayed faith in their lives. One of the first elements of our initial discussion was to understand just what faith is. Is faith the same thing as belief? Is faith the same thing as action? Is there such thing as blind faith? Does everyone have faith in something? We had a terrific discussion about these points and used both our own reasoning and some cues from the Bible to help come to a working definition.

After the meeting, as I thought about our discussion further, I thought that a way to express the ideas we were wrestling with might be better with a picture rather than just a collection of words. I wanted to capture the idea that faith is what bridges the gap between belief and action, whether the action is actually a physical action or whether it is more of a decision. Faith obviously has implications in the context of religion and one’s belief about God, but I wanted to express the idea in a more basic, somewhat generic manner.

I came up with the following representation in the form of a small, yet I believe powerful, map:

To me, this simple map communicates exactly what I wanted to say about faith: that it doesn’t exist apart from action or from belief, but is the mechanism that turns belief into action. You can believe something, but unless you act on it you don’t really have faith in that thing. Similarly, you can take any sort of random action, but unless it is based on a belief or knowledge, then it is not an expression of faith.

A map can not only help you make note of information or ideas in a quick yet contextually-meaningful way for your use later, it can also help you convey complex ideas and relationships in a very succinct way.

In my next post on this subject, I will discuss maps as a means to capture “information in context” for a meeting, and compare the use of maps to two other popular forms of meeting communications: a text file (MS Word) and bulleted charts (PowerPoint). Please come back and check it out!