The Magic of Mind Maps

From the creative department, to development, to account management, to leadership, Moncur is filled with many different personalities, each with their own unique approach to, as our motto says, “communicating beautifully.” For some, this process includes sketching, or doodling, while for others (myself in particular) rely on a simple exercise that can be quite literally defined as elementary. That’s right, we’re talking about mind maps.

I know, I know, mind maps are exciting, but before you run and bust out the Crayola magic marker box you’ve kept tucked away in your desk, it’s important to know there’s some real value to this exercise (besides reliving the glory years of grade school). Sure, on the surface, mind maps are simple enough, but when used as a strategic brainstorming tool, can really help you visually and mentally build the connections you need to bring an idea to fruition — whether that be the next great headline, campaign idea, or even just life goals for 2018.

For those that need a refresher, a mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that helps you structure information in a way that allows you to better analyze, comprehend, and generate new ideas. It starts with focusing on a singular question or goal, and then building branches of ideas off that. These branches can be a phrase, a word, or even a picture — whatever comes to mind that relates to that core.

What’s better is that there is no wrong way to create a mind map once you have the basics — it’s completely yours and there’s no judgment. The added, and somewhat nerdy, beauty of the mind map is that it works similar to how our brain actually makes connections, so we’re utilizing our brain’s most natural method of generating ideas but on paper (or digitally). And really, creativity is all about making connections.

At a recent Team Tuesday, I challenged the crew to take some time to explore the greatness of mind maps. We each gathered up our Crayolas and got to work creating a visual brainstorm on a topic of our choosing. I inspired the team with a list of both useful, and just plain entertaining ideas, including:

· How to drive traffic to a website

· Brand attributes for a client

· Topic ideas for blog posts

· Personal goals for 2018

· Dinner recipes for the week

· Issues and ideas to improve your time management

· Email marketing campaigns

· Ways to improve the Detroit Lions offense

· Your top 3 Kanye West albums

Take a look at some of our team’s favorites to inspire your own mind map magic.

Moncur is a digital + branding agency. Leveraging our specialized expertise in strategic messaging, branding, advanced technology website development + integrated digital marketing, we help large B2B companies brand, market + sell what they do online. Learn more at www.thinkmoncur.com, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay up to date on our latest happenings!