Tony Buzan developed mind maps to help people learn in a more creative way. Now businesses are using them to promote innovative and clear thinking

NOW IN HIS late 60s, Tony Buzan shows no signs of letting up. The man behind mind maps, which he launched in the early 1970s, embarks on a tour of the US this summer, bringing his latest ideas to a new generation across the Atlantic.

The English-born author has written or co-authored over 100 books on the brain. These have been translated into 33 languages, published in more than 150 countries and the author has been decorated all over the globe.

Buzan is big business. A reputed 250 million people worldwide use his learning techniques and he has built up an organisation of disciples who consult and train in his system – one he hopes to expand in Ireland when he comes here in the autumn. Revenues from his activities, book sales and Buzan Centres worldwide, where mind mapping and other learning techniques are taught, are estimated to be more than €111 million.

His client list includes General Motors, Walt Disney, BBC, Microsoft, Intel, Boeing, HSBC, Friends of the Earth, Procter and Gamble, and British Airways. His latest book, Mind Maps for Business: Revolutionise your Business Thinking and Practice, demonstrates how the central ideas behind mind maps can be used in a corporate setting – for presentations, negotiations, project management and strategic thinking. The ideas have also spawned a software package called iMind Map that Buzan believes takes the idea to a new level.

Buzan, however, is concerned about the bigger picture. There is a worldwide crisis in creativity, he says, and our education system has a lot to answer for. We have been teaching people in the wrong way for a long time: learning a curriculum instead of learning how to learn and be creative.

The creativity level of kindergarten children, for example, measured by university studies to be at levels of 90-95 per cent, falls to a mere 20-25 per cent by the time they graduate, he says. The average adult brain, meanwhile, is probably operating at less than 10 per cent of its capacity.

“Brains do not work in a straight-line, monochromatic, verbal way but that is usually how students are taught,” he says.

Information overload doesn’t help. “We have moved beyond the Information Age into the Age of Intelligence and in order to work more efficiently we need to be able to process information into something meaningful. For us to do this we need to know how to use our brain more effectively and to use our memory to think creatively,” he says. “If we can teach people how to learn they will learn faster and understand deeper.”

Buzan developed his central ideas as an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia in Canada, which his parents emigrated to in the 1950s. Struggling while approaching exams, Buzan’s eureka moment came when he developed a new note-taking system, based around underlying keywords.

From there, Buzan developed a paper-and-pen representation of each subject: each key point branched out from a central idea, and was sub-divided and colour-coded to show logical associations. These were illustrated with images to “fix” them in the memory. In this way, pages of notes can be distilled on to a single sheet – and all of the most relevant information is retained.

He refined the ideas with his brother, Barry, studying the thought processes of the brain, and the note-taking techniques of philosophers and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, William Blake, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein.

Mind maps work, says Buzan, because they are expressed in the language of the brain, as a sort of “explosion” of thoughts, ideas and emotions. He has been dining out well on this central idea ever since and spends eight months of the year travelling and spreading his message to universities, businesses and governments.

Mind maps are especially useful for businesses concerned with innovation and creativity, he says. This is because the visually graphic approach triggers the imagination and boosts creativity and memory, helping people explore ideas and solutions to problems.

Among the more interesting projects that have been mind mapped is a project by aircraft company Boeing. “Boeing had been struggling with a 3,000-page aircraft design and engineering manual that nobody could get their heads around; it was so obscure,” Buzan says.

“So their project leader in Seattle, Dr Mike Stanley, took over a room and created a 25ft long Mind Map for the whole manual. It saved nine months’ work and generated around €8.92 million in cost savings.”

The use of colour in mind maps has also proved a significant benefit to another of his clients Xerox, he says. “Colour is a vital part of mind mapping. It stimulates the brain cells. It helps highlight and structure information and aids memory. Colour also allows you to express emotions.”

Colour also makes presentations more attractive, he says. “Written language is very different from the spoken word and it will almost certainly induce boredom in the audience. A mind map gives the presenter the perfect balance between the spontaneity of natural speech and the structure of worked-out ideas”.

Buzan adds that people respond better to visual presentations than verbal ones and will remember almost two-thirds more of the points discussed, up to three days later.

Buzan developed the iMind Map software package with entrepreneur Chris Griffiths (they also collaborated on his latest book). Developing the software was difficult, he says, because computers work in a linear, rigid way, but with a team of software experts, he has developed a package that integrates with popular business applications such as Microsoft Office. It provides for sharing and collaboration and Buzan says that it has brought mind mapping to a new level in terms of corporate planning.

Being creative can be difficult when you are obliged to work within codes of conduct, rules and regulations that seem to deaden all levels of thinking, he says.

“If you have lost sight of your goals or the bigger picture has become blurred, draw a mind map and the overview that emerges will bring clarity and potential to the forefront. Dedication and energy are then needed to embed this new way of thinking into the culture of your business.”