Meet the MasterMinds: An Exclusive Interview With Tony
Buzan
What's the Brain Got To Do With Business?
Tony Buzan is a man on a mission.
His mission: to unlock the power of our brains,
and show us how to tap and use our creative genius with
ease. The Times of London predicts Buzan "will
do for the brain what Stephen Hawking did for the universe."
Buzan, the author or co-author of more than
80 books published in 100 countries, invented a breakthrough
thinking tool called the Mind Map®.
Based on extensive research on the brain and
memory, Mind Mapping also reflects many of the note-taking
techniques used by Leonard da Vinci, Einstein, Picasso and
Beethoven, to name a few.
For more than 30 years, Buzan has been tireless
in his quest to bring this powerful tool to the world. His
techniques are taught and used in virtually every Fortune
500 company, and in countries throughout
the world. As Forbes magazine says, Buzan
"shows corporate executives how to hotwire their creative
energies."
Buzan sat down with MCNews to provide some insights on Mind
Mapping and how management consultants can take advantage
of this simple, yet amazingly effective tool.
* * * * *
MCNews: Thanks for joining
us today. Mind Mapping has been described as a "Swiss
Army Knife for the brain," a tool for everything from
managing change to note taking to brainstorming and problem
solving. What's the underlying concept of the Mind Map?
Buzan: It's a pleasure to talk
with you. If you look at all the research on human memory,
it shows that the primary way we remember
is by imagination and association.
For example, if you imagine your best friend, or a computer,
what happens in your mind? You don't see words, but an array
of images.
The words trigger the images,
but the way we think is in those images and their
associations. All the great ancient memory systems
were based on this imagistic view. The Greek system of mnemonics,
for one, had this concept at its core.
If you want to remember a page of notes, for
example, words will help to some extent, of course, but
more important for fixing them in your memory will be images,
pictures, symbols, codes, colors, associations and connections.
And the best way to connect images on a page
is by using arrows, spacing, size, dimension or whatever
symbols work for you. So, for your notes to be memorable,
they need to be an image-rich network, and
that's the essence of a Mind Map.
MCNews: If we remember most
effectively using images and associations, why do so many
people use standard outlining techniques?
Buzan: Most people are trained
to think in a linear way, thinking of one thing, then the
next thing, and then the next, in a series of singular associations
in one direction.
The way our minds really work
is in multiple thoughts and multiple directions at the same
time. The way the brain fundamentally thinks is radiant,
meaning that it thinks primarily from image centers, and
then radiates out.
MCNews: So, our brains work
by radiating out from image centers, but for many of us,
that isn't the way we've trained our brains.
Buzan: Yes. We've been trained
in two primary intelligences--verbal and numerical, which
are wonderful. We've not been trained as much in the creative
and innovative. To maximize function, the verbal, numerical,
creative, and innovative skills must go together. If they
don't, each one suffers.
The Mind Map allows you to use your verbal
and numerical, plus adding the explosive power of your creative
intelligence. People need to realize that, regardless of
how they've been taught to think, inside their
brains they've been training since birth to create Mind
Maps!
When I first started this work, it was a real
battle to get people to recognize their untapped power.
I remember speaking at one company in particular about the
brain and Mind Mapping.
I hadn't got to the subject of Mind Mapping
yet, but I had finished the bit on the brain and memory.
A very interested, serious man said, "Look, this
stuff on the brain is really interesting, but I don't quite
yet see what the brain has got to do with business."
His comment is quite humorous, but I gave
him a straight answer: by encouraging our Radiant Thinking
and expressing it through Mind Maps, we can make maximum
use of our creative abilities in a way that is both easy
and natural, and which has great benefits for business and
any other endeavor.
MCNews: So, are Radiant Thinking
and Mind Mapping at odds with the current educational system?
Buzan: No: They actually give
the greatest support possible to education, because the
educational system is trying, especially in terms of business,
to produce innovative and creative leaders.
If you have millions of young brains in your
charge, and you want them to be creative, the way to do
it is to have them use thinking tools which match the way
their brains work. If you don't, it's like putting heavy
boots on a young child and allowing it to walk only in one
direction.
Obviously, the educational system must teach
the vitally important subjects of reading, writing, arithmetic,
science, religion, and physical education. Radiant Thinking
and Mind Mapping are tools that can help children think
better in general, learn faster and remember more appropriately,
which is "good housekeeping" for the brain.
MCNews: So how is Radiant
Thinking actually reflected on a Mind Map?
Buzan: To mirror the way the
brain thinks internally, you place an image in the center
of a page and draw connectors extending out in all directions
from that image. You use both sides of your brain, tapping
the right side of the brain for images, dimension, size,
and color, and the left side for words, numbers, analysis,
and logic. Put all those on the page in an associated network,
and you've got a Mind Map.
MCNews: Are they complicated
to create?
Buzan: Mind Maps are, in fact,
very uncomplicated to create. They
are the natural expression of the way that everybody's brain
has worked since they were born. So it's really easy.
MCNews: How would somebody
get started with Mind Mapping?
Buzan: Obviously, I think reading
my books or attending our seminars would be a pretty good
way! An easy way to start is with a familiar subject, like
a hobby. Put an image of your hobby in the center of a blank
page.
Why place it in the center? If you start,
instead, at the top left-hand side, you've already massively
restricted your ability to radiate ideas out in all directions.
Start in the center because that gives you freedom to expand
your ideas in any direction, which is a perfect example
of Radiant Thinking in action.
Now, imagine you've been asked to write a
book on your hobby. Think of the main chapters in your book,
and from your central image, radiate out organically, like
the branches of a tree or the tentacles of an octopus, the
number of branches or chapters. On each branch, print, in
fairly large letters, the key words of the chapters.
From each of those branches, draw sub-branches,
just like the branches of a tree, and on those sub-branches,
put the second-level ideas, which might be the subheadings
for the chapters. Always use the branches to underline the
words to emphasize their importance, and connect the branches
to each other like a tree.
MCNews: The concept is much
easier to understand through illustration than explanation,
which I guess makes your point!
Buzan: That's true. If you show
someone a Mind Map, they get it instantly, especially if
you include images, because a picture really is worth a
thousand words.
MCNews: For readers who want
to see it, we've included an illustration
of a sample Mind Map.
Buzan: At first glance to the
untrained eye, a Mind Map does not look logical. However,
it is pure logic, because logic is not
sequence and order, logic is correct connection.
When you have all the images, or nodes, and
you make the links between them, what you're creating is
like a reflection of your own internal web site. And, the
web site inside your brain makes the World Wide Web look
like a pea compared to a planet.
MCNews: Let's say you create
the Mind Map of the book about your hobby, and then you
put it away for 6 months. When you pull it out again, will
it be hard to understand?
Buzan: It'll be ten times easier
than if you'd done it in linear notes, because a Mind Map
is like a picture of your thoughts. Think of going through
an album of photographs you've not seen for 15 years. The
photos take you back in time instantly, and you say, oh,
I remember when we were walking down that street, or that
fantastic sunset we saw.
You have that experience because of the memory
principles we discussed earlier. A Mind Map works the same
way, like a time traveler.
MCNews: So, for example,
if you're conducting multiple sets of interviews, Mind Maps
could help you internalize and recall what you learned from
each person.
Buzan: Interviews are a wonderful
arena for Mind Maps, because they help you remember who
said the important things, rather than the person with the
flashy tie you liked or didn't like, or the first or last
person you interviewed. It's as if you've got all the interviews
in front of you at the same time for instantaneous reference.
MCNews: When creating a Mind
Map, with all its colors, symbols and connectors, do people
give you sidelong glances and raised eyebrows?
Buzan: Yes! People trained in
the normal way think that you are doodling or coloring,
that you are a childish and messy thinker, or might be going
senile. But, what you are doing has actually attracted their
attention, because the person's brain naturally recognizes
something good.
So, it's a great opportunity to explain that
the Mind Map is a new tool, which is really helpful for
thinking, analyzing and remembering complex subjects, and
to show them how it works.
For business people and consultants, I point out that it's
a note-taking technique being used by most of the Fortune
500 companies, including IBM, Microsoft, General Motors,
General Electric, Oracle and HSBC. In virtually every
Fortune 500 company, there are a number of people who are
either doing Mind Mapping or helping others do it.
I add that Mind Mapping is based on
note-taking techniques used by Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein,
Goethe, Beethoven, and Picasso, and that I find
it rather useful myself! By the latest estimate, about
250 million people around the world are now using Mind Maps,
so it's just a matter of time before Mind Mapping becomes
a universally used technique.
Singapore and Scotland, for example, have
committed significant resources to teaching everybody how
to think, learn and Mind Map. Also, next January in London,
we're having a giant party for thousands of children and
their Mind Maps. Your readers and their children are invited
to join us!
MCNews: One last question--what
books are you currently reading?
Buzan: I have a publishing contract
for 12 books, so I am on a massive writing, editing and
proof reading schedule. Head First, which
has just been released, is subtitled 10 Ways to Tap
into Your Natural Genius. I'm just finishing a basic
pocket guide called How to Mind Map, which
is coming out in America in January 2003. I'm also writing
a Mind Map book for children.
I find re-reading Shakespeare a constant source
of inspiration. For rest and relaxation and to catch up
on what the world's kids are reading, I'm reading Lord
of the Rings and Harry Potter, which
are full of wit and lovely images.
MCNews: To wrap up, I'd like
to add that, since reading your book about seven years ago,
Mind Maps have become an indispensable creative thinking
tool for me. Mind Mapping is a natural, fast and reliable
method for generating the insightful and influential ideas
that consulting clients demand.
So, when someone gives me one of those are-you-nuts
looks on catching sight of one of my Mind Maps, I just say,
"You should try this--it will change forever the way
you think and work. Plus, you get to use all these great
colored markers."
Thanks for your time and thought-provoking
comments.
* * * * *
Tony Buzan's classic, The Mind Map Book,
and his most recent book, Head First: 10 Ways to Tap
Into Your Natural Genius, can be found on www.BuzanCentres.com.
For more information on Tony Buzan, his research, books
and other interesting tidbits, also visit thorsons.com.
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