Today, personal innovation is more important than ever. Organizations are desperate for creative people who see things differently, who can quickly size up problems and develop creative solutions to them. Or if you’re trying to start or grow the business you’ve always dreamed of, then you already know that ideas are critical to your survival and growth!

Creativity Hacks is a convenient collection of proven tools and strategies that you can use to generate profitable ideas and capitalize on the opportunities that now lie just beyond your reach.

A heavy focus on visual thinking

An entire section of Creativity Hacks focuses on visual thinking and mind mapping. And one of the bonus reports is a brand-new interview with Dave Gray, president of XPLANE and one of the world’s leading experts on infographics (explaining complex systems or processes using easy-to-understand visuals). In this interview, he explains why visual thinking is critical to the success of business executives, today and in the years ahead. Great stuff!

The bonus reports and resources also include:

• Video reviews of 10 of the world’s best brainstorming tools
• Mini-reviews of the 10 best books on creative problem solving ever written, and
• A mind map with links to over 40 of the best creative thinking and problem solving resources and sites on the web, where you can further hone your skills.

I decided to share the news of this product launch with you because the topics of creativity and mind mapping complement each other so well.

Why not check out Creativity Hacks today? Consider it an investment in your future!

Key improvements include a new map layout engine that makes more efficient use of screen real estate, shapes that give you new options for embellishing your map layout and a new plug-in architecture that will make NovaMind very extensible. For a sneak peek at NovaMind 5, please see my blog post about the preview of it that I got in September. I look forward to trying it out this week.

NovaMind founder Gideon King cautions that this technology preview isn’t quite at a beta test stage yet, so it doesn’t include all of the features and functionality that the final shipping version of NovaMind 5 will contain.

The Idea Mapping Kit comes in a 7-1/16 in. by 9-1/8 in. 3-ring binder with 3/4 in. rings and a Velcro closure. It also includes:

• 10-color, fine-tip Staedtler Triplus 0.3 mm markers, in a plastic storage box. These are high-quality markers, not some cheap ones!
• A pad of 3-hole punched 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ 67-pound quality paper (Jamie says you can also use 8-1/2 x 11 in. paper, 3 hole punched on the narrow side and folded in half).
• A business card slot
• A 4-color pen with a black cushioned grip and secured by a pen loop
• A  3-hole punched zipper case to store miscellaneous items
• A back cover pocket for extra storage

The Idea Mapping Kit is a quality piece of work. It looks very durable, like something you can carry around to meetings or on business trips without damaging or losing any of its components. If you read Jamie’s Idea Mapping book, this kit is a nice follow-up to put the principles you’ve learned into practice. If you haven’t read the book, you really ought to!

If you’re serious about producing hand-drawn mind maps, I highly recommend the Idea Mapping Kit. The cost is US$99; you can order it from the Idea Mapping website.

During the chat,  I jotted a note to myself that I really ought to produce a visual representation of these applications – a mind map of mind mapping software uses – similar to the map I recently produced that listed all of the mind mapping software programs.

So here it is! Please click on the image for a larger, more complete version.

If you have any suggestions for additions, please let me know and I’ll add them to this map. Eventually, I’ll upload the finalized map to the resources area of this blog for everyone to benefit from.

The discussion was fast and furious, with many threads of discussion going on simultaneously (there was an agenda, but participants had many questions about mind mapping). Imagine being in a room where 30 people were all talking at the same time, and trying to keep up with all of those conversations and answer as many questions as possible. Whew!

The 2 hours went very quickly, and there was a lot of excellent discussion. The people who participated in this Social Media Chat weren’t all current users of mind mapping – but everyone seemed to grasp its awesome potential as a business tool. A number of participants preferred hand-drawn maps to those produced using mind mapping software, and they brought a slightly different perspective to the group.

If you would like to view the raw transcript of the “tweets” from this session, please click here. Also, here is a list of links to the wealth of websites and resources that were mentioned in the course of the chat (you’ll have to scroll down to the last post in the discussion thread to see this list). I also understand that one of the participants is in the process of summarizing the key points of the chat in – what else – a mind map! I’ll let you know when I have a URL for that.

Thanks to Social Media Chat organizer Chris Jones for inviting me to this chat. It was a great experience, and I look forward to doing it again. Also, because social media is another area of interest for me, I’m sure I’ll be participating in more of these weekly confabs!

The user interface: What you first notice when you open ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 is the extensive collection of toolbars – two rows at the top of the workspace to control map management, map views and formatting, plus one down the left-hand side that contain buttons for topic management and drawing commands. Dialog boxes for accomplishing common tasks are arrayed in nested tabs on the right side of the workspace.

Unlike its contemporaries, the developers at CS Odessa haven’t upgraded to the popular Ribbon UI toolbar design. The result is a bit overwhelming from a visual standpoint – with the 3 toolbars visible, I counted over 60 buttons! You can reduce the visual clutter by deselecting them in the “view” menu.

While ribbon toolbars also display a lot of toolbar buttons, at least they are gathered into logical groupings. Some people hate Ribbon toolbars, but with the typical high-end mind mapping program packing a ton of functionality, I think it makes sense from a usability standpoint. I believe that CS Odessa should seriously consider moving to a Ribbon UI to keep ConceptDraw MINDMAP’s feature-rich interface under control.

Full-screen mode: New in version 6 – if you click on the F5 key in Windows, the entire user interface disappears from view and your computer screen displays only the mind map. Sort of like an instant presentation view!

Improved PowerPoint export: One of the slickest aspects of ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 is the flexibility it gives you when exporting maps to PowerPoint. Version 6 adds an outline mode, which automatically parses out the text from your map into separate PowerPoint slides. You can select from a handful of existing templates provided by CS Odessa, or select your own. I tried this, and it worked flawlessly – no weird formatting or other glitches.

In addition, you can export your map as a slide show. This preserves the format of your mind map, but carves it up into a number of separate screen shots. I did this with a simple mind map and the program created one slide that showed the entire map. The second slide displayed only the first level topics, and successive slides then drilled down into the details of each branch – very logical and easy to follow, especially for people who may not be familiar with visual mapping.

The PowerPoint export dialog box gives you a number of additional settings that tells the program how to handle floating topics, notes and slide numbering. You can also tell the program whether to group sub-topics as bullets or numbered items, and whether or not to create separate slides for each sub-topic. Finally, you can select the level of depth of topics you want displayed within each slide. Very flexible!

Automatic generation of hyperlinks: In version 6 of ConceptDraw MINDMAP, you can drag and drop folders and web page URLs from your browser to a map topic. In the case of folder links, the program behaves exactly as you would expect; when you release the mouse button over a topic, a link icon appears at the top edge of the topic shape to show that it contains a link. Unfortunately, I discovered that web links don’t work quite as intuitively. Instead of creating an embedded link, the program automatically creates a sub-topic displaying the web address. That looks messy, especially if the URL is a long, “ugly” one. The other bit of weirdness I discovered when trying this is that you must have a topic selected first, before you drag and drop the URL. Otherwise it will attach itself to your map’s central topic. This functionality seems to be a bit rough around the edges, in my opinion.

One-click navigation: One of the problems when working with large, complex maps is that it’s hard to read topic names without zooming in and having to scroll up and down and side to side. ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 gets around this limitation with a clever bit of programming. To get a close-up view of part of your map, simply hold down the left mouse button to select a region of it. After a short pause, that selection zooms to fill the workspace. When you release the mouse button, the program returns to its previous view. This worked very well for me, but I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong at first. I’d select part of my map, but nothing would happen. It turned out that I wasn’t waiting long enough; the program takes 1-2 seconds to render and display the zoomed-in view.

Tighter integration with MINDMAP Project: ConceptDraw MINDMAP and its new companion Project application now use a common file format, so data can be moved from your mind maps to CS Odessa’s project tool without any loss in formatting.

Snow Leopard support: Some mind mapping software vendors have been scrambling to accommodate the latest release of the Mac operating system, code named Snow Leopard. ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 already supports it.

Multi-lingual support: ConceptDraw MINDMAP now supports English, German and French language settings – from within the program. I tried this, just to see how it worked. I changed the program’s language from English to German; a message informed me that I would need to re-start the program for this change to take affect. Sure enough, it worked great. If you work in a multi-lingual office, this may be an advantage. Most mind mapping software developers sell localized versions of their programs. If you want a program with a French interface, you buy the French version – you can’t change to a different language on the fly.

New file format permits greater integration: Effective with version 6, ConceptDraw MINDMAP utilizes a new .cdmz file format, which contains a zip archive of your map in an XML-formatted document, which is available for further processing. CS Odessa made this change in response to requests from a number of value-added resellers and large corporate users, so they could integrate the data from their mind maps with other applications. The new file format also made it easier for CS Odessa to more closely integrate all of its ConceptDraw Office visual mapping and diagramming family (which includes ConceptDraw, ConceptDraw MINDMAP and ConceptDraw PROJECT.

Improved keyboard shortcuts: Most mind mapping programs enable you to add topics, hyperlinks and other basic elements to your maps using keyboard shortcuts, but how many enable you to move topics in this manner? ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 includes expanded support for keyboard shortcuts, which now make it possible to take notes in a meeting without ever having to touch a mouse. To demote a topic one level in your map, for example, you simply select it and use the Ctrl + right arrow key. To promote it one level higher, use the Ctrl + left arrow key. Very slick! What I found lacking, however, was any mention of keyboard shortcut support in the program’s help menu. I couldn’t find it there, anyway.

Conclusion

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 has historically been one of the best mind mapping programs available, with many features designed to appeal to business users. Unfortunately, I found this new version to be a little rough around the edges, and a little dated in terms of the user interface.

For more details on the improvements in ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6, please see the product update page on the developer’s website.

The web-based mind mapping application MindMeister makes it possible to not only create a sophisticated mind map using only your web browser, but to also invite others to co-edit it. In effect, it becomes a visual wiki!

This map already contains an extensive amount of detail. If you’re interested in adding content to it or editing any of its existing content, you can access it here.

Kudos to Andrew for getting this started, and to everyone who has contributed to it so far. Got something to add? Please participate in this unique “crowdsourcing” effort!

• Map your customers and identify the most promising ones for targeted sales campaigns
• Develop new products to sell
• Create a map to clearly and more completely understand the evolving or unmet needs of your customers.
• Analyze and improve your company’s business model
• Identify opportunities to reduce waste in your business – the savings go straight to the bottom line.
• Map your current market segments, and identify adjacent ones with similar needs into which you can expand your marketing and sales.
• Brainstorm the content of a white paper or information product (e-book) that will help you to dramatize your product’s or service’s unique selling proposition to potential customers.

In what other ways are you using mind mapping software to grow your business?

NovaMind Platinum with the optional Suggesterator add-in

NovaMind excels at creating engaging, colorful mind maps. By default, each branch in a NovaMind map has a different color. Although it doesn’t have a specific brainstorming mode, you can enter ideas quickly and easily into a NovaMind map. You simply type your topic name, and then hit the Enter key twice – this adds your new topic to the map and opens another one at the same level. The program also provides excellent support for adding images to increase the visual appeal of your maps.

What makes NovaMind Platinum especially well-suited for brainstorming, however, is an optional Suggesterator module (only available for NovaMind Platinum), which can be used to provide you with keyword stimuli during the ideation process. It does this by displaying a list of words that are closely related be selected topic in your map – something like an electronic thesaurus. You can utilize this tool to identify other categories or subjects for inclusion in your mind map, and to provide valuable momentum for your brainstorming session. The Suggesterator opens in a separate panel within the NovaMind interface; to add suggested keywords to your map, you simply select them and click on the “add child branches” button.

You can view a video that shows how the Suggesterator works here.

MindManager 8 plus theRealizer 2 add-in

By itself, the MindManager 8 is a fairly good application for capturing and organizing ideas. It contains a brainstorming mode that is ideal for group ideation. You can quickly add ideas in a form field at the top of the brainstorming workspace, using only a keyboard. This view also contains a countdown timer, so you can set a time limit on your brainstorming sessions. MindManager inserts them into your map as floating topics. When you’re done recording ideas, it’s time to group them. MindManager’s brainstorming panel also enables you to easily create groups – “buckets” into which you want to logically group your ideas. You then drag and you’re your floating ideas to attach them to group topics.

Another way to brainstorm within the MindManager environment is by installing an add-in program called theRealizer 2. It installs as a separate panel on the right side of the MindManager workspace, and walks you through a simple step-by-step process to define your challenge, generate ideas and prioritize them. The program installs with a set of predefined challenges, to which you can easily add your own. Brainstorming is done via a series of randomly displayed “idea cards, “which help to stimulate your thinking in some fresh new directions. You can also add, edit or delete the program’s collection of idea cards to customize it to your specific needs.

I think theRealizer is an excellent creative catalyst, and I like the fact that you can customize it with your own challenge statements and idea cards. To help you better understand how this program works with MindManager, I recommend that you view this video.

Visual Mind plus theRealizer 2

This marvelous brainstorming program is also available as an add-in for Visual Mind. You can learn more about it here.

iMindMap 4.1

iMindMap, which was developed by the Buzan organization, provides a very organic visual mapping experience, which lends itself well to brainstorming. Like NovaMind, each branch you create in iMindMap is randomly assigned a color, adding visual appeal to your idea maps. There’s also something engaging about dragging new branches out from existing ones, much like the process of hand drawing a mind map. In addition, when you create a new map in iMindMap, the program asks you to select an image for the central topic – which helps to provide greater visual stimulation than a plain text central topic.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6

ConceptDraw MINDMAP 6 is a business-focused mind mapping program that offers a terrific brainstorming mode. It inserts each of your ideas as free-floating topics, which gives you a lot of freedom in grouping and arranging them. The program’s brainstorming view (shown above – click image for larger version) also contains a countdown timer, which enables you to set a time limit on your ideation sessions.

What’s especially nice is that you can continue to add sub-topics to the main topic of your map while in brainstorming mode. This enables you to set up topics and then drag your ideas to attach them to the appropriate ones. Ideas can be added using only the keyboard, which makes ConceptDraw MINDMAP an ideal program for group brainstorming sessions, where the meeting facilitator must be able to add a number of ideas quickly, without the program getting in the way.

Which mind mapping program do you prefer for brainstorming?

• Widgets for the Windows Vista Sidebar, Mac OS X Dashboard and Yahoo Widgets
• Web browser extensions for Internet Explorer and Firefox
• The ability to capture ideas and add them to your map via e-mail and SMS

So it’s not surprising that Mindmeister has extended its reach to the iPhone and iPod Touch platform. About a month ago, the developers of MindMeister announced an iPhone version of its web-based mind mapping application, which includes the ability to send ideas via Geistesblitz.

The latest development, however, is the release this week of a separate Geistesblitz app – without MindMeister included. If you don’t relish the idea of creating mind maps on the diminutive iPhone screen but still want to capture your ideas and inspirations and have them automatically sent to your MindMeister account, then this new tool is for you.

The new Geistesblitz app is a free download from the Apple AppStore, and it enables non-users of MindMeister to set up a free account on the fly, from within the app. Best of all, having Geistesblitz at your side ensures that no idea should ever be scribbled down on a scrap piece of paper – and subsequently lost – ever again.