THE POWER OF
BY PHIL CHAMBERS
Leadership
Do you have to design and deliver presentations or seminars? Traditionally the design process can be time consuming and hard work with numerous re-drafts and amendments. Delivery can also be a challenge – Do you read a script, use cue cards or try to learn the content off by heart with the risk of emulating Labour Leader, Ed Milliband and forgetting a big chunk of content?
In this article I want to share with you how you can apply Mind Mapping to each step, thereby streamlining the process and creating a much more polished and engaging end result.
Mind Mapping is defined as a graphical thought organisation technique developed by British psychologist, Tony Buzan in the early 1970s.
The design of a presentation is all about organising your thoughts. What should you include? What do you leave out? How to do you present a logical flow of ideas that is easy to follow? Do you need to research some of the topics that you want to cover?
To create a Mind Map, draw an image in the middle of the page that represents the subject of your presentation. On tapering, curved lines radiating out from the centre, add main headings, one for each key point. You can of course change these later. Then free associate. As an idea comes to you add a sub-branch with a key-word where it best fits. Dart around the Map not dwelling too long any one branch. Do this for 5-10 minutes.
At the end of the process you will have a structured network of ideas. This is far better than a list as you will have generated more ideas and automatically put them into categories. As they are all on a single page you can immediately see patterns and connections. If there are obvious gaps in your knowledge, research and add more information.
The next step is to edit your thoughts. Create a new Mind Map that puts the points into a sequence. (Starting with the first branch at the 2 o’clock position and working clockwise). You will probably have more information than will fit in your allotted time so you can ignore parts that you feel are less relevant. [see image opposite]
This single page can act as your notes to present from. What is more, if you add colour and images you will be able to remember the majority of your points. You can place the Mind Map on the lectern, presenting from memory and briefly glancing at it if you lose your thread. As you are being prompted by key words rather then slavishly following a script you can talk more freely, naturally having a conversation with your audience. Working from a single page leaves your hands free to make gestures to reinforce your message. As you are mostly working form memory you can move around the stage, make eye contact with your audience and answer questions from the floor. You also have huge flexibility in terms of timing. If you are told just before you go on stage that you have half as long as you had planned, you can skip branches and still speak coherently. Equally, if you have longer you can expand upon certain points without fear of getting lost.
In London’s Albemarle Street you will find The Royal Institution. This is where Humphrey Davy, Michael Faraday, William Henry Bragg and many other great scientists worked. One of the traditions of this august society is the Friday Evening Discourse. A speaker addresses an assembled audience on a scientific topic for exactly one hour. Once the clock chimes, the speaker had to wrap up and stop speaking. Chess Grandmaster Raymond Keene gave one such lecture, presenting form a Mind Map. The last syllable of the last word of his presentation was uttered at the exact second that the clock struck ten! Such is the power of this tool.
24 | TRAINING MAGAZINE EUROPE APRIL 2015
MINDMAPS