thato masire - idea map 1

thato masire - idea map 2

thato masire - idea map 3

thato masire - idea map 4

Dr. Tim Schweizer is a Professor of Management at Luther College in Decorah, IA. He is also a Certified Trainer: Six Thinking Hats™, Lateral Thinking™ (Edward de Bono tools), and Former Vice President, Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies. One of the courses he is currently teaching is Principles of Management.  It is required for the Management major and  minor, and is usually the first “management” course students take. It is open to students at the sophomore level and above. Luther College is a liberal arts school, so his class is open to non-majors as well as majors.

This is going to be a new series where I’m going to share with you the results and reflections of these college students as they are learning to implement Idea Mapping into their life and studies. Tim was a participant in my Idea Mapping Workshop in August of 2008 and has been teaching students frequently since then.  He has also contributed several very popular Idea Mapping Examples himself to this blog. Tim purchased 20 copies of the Idea Mapping Book for the college and his students read the first 5 chapters.

This first reflection is from Thato Masire, and I’ll let him tell you his thoughts in his own words:

“During the first half of the semester, my Management Professor, Tim Schweizer taught us a skill that I could have never imagined learning in college let alone in a Management class.  Over a number of class periods Tim had us do some readings on idea mapping and also some in-class exercises.

I can sincerely say that idea/mind mapping is a skill I use regularly across many disciplines and even in my private endeavors.  Idea mapping has truly proved to be an indispensable skill to me.

From the idea mapping formula there are some things that do not work for me for various reasons. I have just decided to discard the things that don’t work for me. In my maps I don’t use color, because I feel like changing pens slows down the process of gathering ideas or scribbling down notes.  My maps do not only have one word to represent ideas or concepts, but sometimes it is a two or three word phrase so as to remember what I was making note of.

There are a number of things that work for me with idea mapping that outweigh those that do not work.  That is why I regularly use idea mapping. What works for me is that idea mapping allows the gathering of ideas quickly, varied and numerous. The fact that they are personalized makes them more meaningful to me.  Nobody besides myself has to understand, and I have the liberty to do whatever works for me as an individual.  The branches help organize related ideas or information.”

I appreciate Thato for taking the time to share his thoughts, and respect that fact that he can discern when to adapt the idea mapping guidelines to fit his purpose instead of being locked into the rules as the mind mapping laws dictate. His first idea map is for a topic that he was tested on – ” Getting To Yes” – negotiation skills. The second example is an idea map for a movie idea that he would like to implement – Thato noted that the ideas flowed easily here. Examples three and four were idea maps for topics that he was going to be examined on. Thanks Thato!

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