200852 Innovation, Creativity and Foresight

Quarter 1, 2020 – WSU SCC

Individual Essay

“Developing Business and Social Innovation through Creativity and Foresight Methods”

<<Mindmapping>>

First name Surname (student id.), WSU email address

Abstract

Businesses cannot stay competitive without being innovative. When finding innovative solutions for business and social problems, creating new ideas, or brainstorming to solve problems, numerous creativity and foresight techniques can be instrumental. These methods provide tools for operationalizing creativity while serving as imperative inputs to business and social innovation. This report focuses on the use of one of these methods, namely, mindmapping in the context of developing business innovation. Mindmapping is an effective method as it allows people to think towards a particular flow to attain creativity and find innovative solutions for problems by organising their ideation visually and in brain-friendly ways (Elmansy 2015; Luenendonk 2015).

Background

In comprehending the significance of mindmapping in developing business and social innovation, it is crucial to delve into its history, typical application contexts, and justifications for its use in the current context.

History and Background Information

The use of mindmapping dates back to the third century when Porphyry of Tyros employed mind maps to abstract ideas presented by Aristotle, Picasso, and Leonardo da Vinci (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020). Later, diagrams that map information graphically using radial maps came into existence, advancing the mindmapping concept. In the 1950s, a British psychologist named Tony Buzan created schematic networks for hypothesising how human learning occurs, hence presenting it as a thinking method (Elmansy 2015; Luenendonk 2015). In the 1960s and 70s, Tony further propagated and schematised mind maps by providing authoritative accounts of using this technique (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020). Today, mindmapping has evolved to become an effective technique for producing ideas by association where tedious information is richly organised into memorable diagrammatic representations.

Typical Application Contexts

The mindmapping technique has numerous applications in business, scholastic, personal, and familial contexts. In education, mindmapping is essential in brainstorming, note-taking, summarising, collaborating in innovation sessions, and resolving complex ideas. In business, mindmapping is applied in retrieving information needed in enhancing and customising other applications such as social tagging systems, search engines, and expert search networks (Beel, Gipp, and Stiller 2009). In familial settings, mindmapping is useful in studying genealogies (See Appendix A), storytelling, conducting colour pen creativity sessions for children, and simplifying correlations, among others. In personal contexts, mindmapping helps in structuring, analysing, synthesising, and comprehending information and thinking critically to generate new ideas essential in innovation and creativity as Vygotsky (2017) suggests (See Appendix B).

Justification for Application in the Current Context

The use of mindmapping in developing business innovation can be justified based on the analysis of its advantages, drawbacks, preparations, additional activities and tasks, and associated costs.

Advantages

The use of mindmapping in business innovation brings about some research-supported merits one of which is efficiency where outcomes are produced faster. Also, mindmapping augments memory, retention, and meaningful learning (Greene 2019). Another advantage is that mindmapping leads to greater engagement, flexibility, speed, adaptability, focus, information conciseness, and transparency, leading to higher productivity (Mento, Martinelli, and Jones 1999). Mindmapping also simplifies the comprehension of complex problems, ignites resourcefulness, and enhancing planning (Greene 2019).

Limitations

The drawbacks of mindmapping are that it requires radical brains, following some tough rules, and can be time-consuming. Also, if not constructed and structured correctly, mind maps can breed confusion. Too large mind maps can also hinder one’s analytical proficiencies (Davis 2010).

Preparations

Four steps are involved in preparing for mindmapping or creating mind maps. The first is to determine the central concept. The second involves creating the fundamental idea-organisation structure that includes the main branches (Basic Organising Ideas (BOIs)). These BOIs are exemplified by branches diverging from the main concept outwards (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020). The third step entails generating the keywords related to the BOIs that will sit on smaller branches stemming from the main branch. The last step is to review the mind map, organise items systematically, and number the branches.

Additional Tasks and Activities

Some additional activities and tasks in preparing mind maps include using associations and hierarchy, engaging radiant thinking, using easy-to-recall keywords, colour, symbols, and images, and adopting a personal style (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020).

Costs

The costs involved in creating mind maps include the time used in generating the concept, branches, and drawing the map. Some financial costs could include the expenses for acquiring an online tool to create a mind map.

Using Mindmapping for Innovation

The business innovation concept I develop using mindmapping is the establishment of a digital business model for a consultancy firm. So, the main concept of my mind map is the digital business model (See Appendix C). The associated outputs towards realising an effective digital business model include the design, consumer relationships, disruptive innovation, model blocks, recommender systems, online research, social media, 5G networks, sharing economy, filter bubble, long tails, and privacy (See Appendix C). Each of these major outputs connects to minor output categories that relate to specific items and factors to consider when developing the company’s digital business model. By considering these factors, an innovative digital business model is developed to assist the company in improving its consultation services and attaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace innovatively, Mento, Martinelli, and Jones (1999) advocate. I used an online tool called Mindmup to generate this mind map and automatically saved it in PDF format.

Conclusions

The use of mindmapping in developing business innovation is imperative because it assists in unlocking the brain’s potential when discovering and developing new ideas about a particular concept. In this case, I used mindmapping to develop an innovative digital business model in which I gained the following key insights:

Key Insight #1: Enriched Visualisation

The mindmapping exercise helps one to tap into the power of visualising concepts, patterns, and insights relating to an innovative idea, communicate the key component of the idea and display them with clarity and simplicity.

Key Insight #2: Software Applications

While mind maps can be drawn using the hand, the adoption of online software tools and applications in generating them is imperative in that it broadens the scope of one’s mindmapping by permitting the inclusion of more thoughts and ideas.

REFERENCES

Beel, J, Gipp, B, and Stiller, J. O 2009, November, “Information retrieval on mind maps-what could it be good for?”, In 2009 5th International Conference on Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications and Worksharing (pp. 1-4). IEEE.

Davis, M 2010, “Concept mapping, mind mapping, and argument mapping: What are the differences and do they matter?”, Parkville: University of Melbourne, Australia.

Elder, D 2016 May, “Look at your family in a whole new way: with a mind map”, Familylocket.com, viewed February 06, 2020, https://familylocket.com/look-at-your-family-in-a-whole-new-way-with-a-mind-map/.

Elmansy, R 2015, “How to use mind mapping for better thinking”, Designorate, viewed February 06, 2020, https://www.designorate.com/how-to-use-mind-mapping/.

Emerald Publishing Limited, 2020, “Mind maps”, Emerald Group Publishing, viewed February 06, 2020, https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/learning/study_skills/skills/mind_maps.htm.

Greene, J 2019, “7 Research-backed benefits of mind mapping”, Focus: The Creativity & Productivity Blog. Vaterstetten, Germany, viewed February 06, 2020, https://www.mindmeister.com/blog/mind-mapping-benefits-who-needs-mind-maps/.

Luenendonk, M 2015, “Techniques for Idea Generation: Mind Maps”, Cleverism.com, viewed February 06, 2020, https://www.cleverism.com/techniques-idea-generation-mind-maps/.

Mento, A. J, Martinelli, P, and Jones, R. M 1999, “Mind mapping in executive education: applications and outcomes, Journal of Management Development, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 1-25.

Vygotsky, L 2017, “Innovation and creativity”, Cambridge International University.

APPENDICES

<<Appendix A: Mind Map to Conceptualise a Family setup>>

Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 1: Family conceptualisation mind map

Source: Adapted from Elder (2016)

<<Appendix B: Visual Overview of Creativity and Innovation>>

Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 2: Visual Overview of Creativity and Innovation

Source: Adapted from Vygotsky (2017)

<<Appendix C Sample Landscape Set-up of My Mind map>>