I so admire hand drawn mind maps

I so admire hand drawn mind maps

The late great Mr.Tony Buzan:
Taken from us in unfortunate circumstances and the void that was left; well I hope it has been filled with capable people and leaders that preserve his legacy.

I do so admire hand drawn mind maps; as they shout out loud as to the individuality that’s pumped into them by the authors.

I’ve never actually been a Buzan mind mapper though. Yes I’ve hand drawn; I may even be honest and say my mind maps have never echoed any form of the Buzan rules for mapping. I. guess the closest I got to drawing Buzan type maps was the radiant format.

Yet I admire hand drawn mind maps (yeah I’ve said that three times now).
They have an artistic flair and are extremely pleasing to the eye and also have distinct synaptic form that’s hypnotizing.

I was showcasing a knowledge mapping product to a few folk some time ago and in the process of presenting the functions and capabilities of the product that was to be a door opener for a knowledge management opportunity; the damn product crashed and the cloud failed me; again!

Now; in any regular situation, the ordinary person among us (who is really ordinary eh) would just have some form of a tizzy, or as we really call it; breakdown.

Yes I panicked and felt really let down by my favourite knowledge mapping tool. Yet I pressed the metaphorical pause button and thought “hey I know how to hand draw mind maps”.
So I simply walked over the standard whiteboard and started to draw a mind map of the subject I was intending to speak of.

My ugly hand drawn min maps worked and engaged my audience fairly well. A few mentioned they were really impressed as to my composure ( what; I didn’t show may panic?)as my software crashed and could have made me look like and feel like a blithering idiot. That got me thinking.

In this part of the 21st century, we’re basically hypnotized by technology aren’t we? Hand held devices of all shapes and sizes, the cell phones that have become true computing devices and the cloud (when it’s stable) becomes our virtual office.

Yet when everything goes to hell in a hand basket; the hand drawn mind map comes to the rescue. After my experience, I decided to become a more effective hand drawing mind mapping communicator. No I didn’t draw stick men or add silly quotes, song lines or poetic gibberish; I simply revisited my particular form of hand drawn mind mapping and improved upon the graphical layout.

I did though take a second look at what Mr. Buzan insisted was a real mind map and not as he often said “a proto mind map”. Oh yes I was a proto min mapper no doubt about that.


In the process of investigating the Buzan method further, I re-engaged with hand drawn mind mapping to a degree to which I now advise many who are interested in becoming more effective knowledge managers to consider a course in hand drawn Buzan mind mapping first before they proceed to relying upon software and services.

It saved the day for me when I needed it, and I often, in my spare time create artistic mind maps that seem to take me to a place of relaxation and almost a meditative state.

It is IMO very a worthwhile endeavour to acquaint yourself with the Buzan methodology and mind set; you won’t regret it and you may even discover that it may save your presentation ass too at some point. So yes hand draw, and do it your own particular or peculiar way; but I would most certainly advise anyone to go straight to a Buzan mapper for instruction and leading.

Than you Mr. Buzan for your wonderful gift of hand drawn mind maps.