Collaborative mind-mapping

Collaborative mind mapping is a visual and tree-like note-taking method, projected in real-time during meetings or training sessions. This approach fosters collective intelligence by legitimizing contributions and creating an immediately shareable record.

What is mind mapping?

Mind mapping (known as “cartes heuristiques” in French) is a technique formalized under this name by the English psychologist Tony Buzan in the 1970s. Initially, it involves using a simple sheet of paper to write the main subject in the center, then the secondary subjects that stem from it, and the sub-secondary subjects, in a tree-like structure, adding concise notes and creating diagrams or drawings associated with each note. This allows for the structuring of the thought process in a tree-like manner. Thanks to the combination of text and visuals, one can easily memorize what has been written down and the connections made. The subjects are related in an “organic” way.

Initially, it is a memorization tool, helping to learn school lessons, for example. Instead of making a list, for Henri IV, for instance, one would write Henri IV in the center, then the era, politics, arts, family, etc., around it. And within each sub-theme, one can develop step by step. Our thinking works in a tree-like manner, not linearly. Biologically, even the connections between neurons are forms of tree-like structures.

Mind mapping software was developed starting in the late 1990s and allows for very easy note-taking or brainstorming. Ideas can be noted in a tree-like sequence. They can be easily moved, and branches can be opened or closed. It is a very useful tool when brainstorming, creating plans, or exploring all angles of a subject, for example.

Mind mapping for collective intelligence

Here, I share a method I have been using for over 20 years in group settings, which I have named collaborative mind mapping. It has proven effective in collective creation processes, professional training, project management, conferences, and all types of collective intelligence spaces. It is a tool I use almost every time in public presentations or workshops I conduct.

The basic method involves taking mind map notes of everything being said while people discuss a topic. This note-taking is shared publicly via a projector, which should display the largest possible image so that the group is almost immersed in the written content. Thus, participants see their thoughts being noted on the screen in real-time, hierarchically organized, with different themes following and connecting with each other. Everyone can contribute, with the entire thought process visible to them. This practice has several benefits:

• It legitimizes thoughts, meaning that what someone says is written down, so it holds importance, anchoring and establishing the value of what is being shared in the moment. This gives it importance for later but also in the present moment. Thus, participants are more invested in the significance of what is happening and are encouraged to contribute more deeply.
• We can immediately share this synthesis with everyone right after the exchange. There is no need to wait two weeks for someone to compile the summary. Today, summaries can be done much faster with artificial intelligence, but for now, it is still not very refined. Mind mapping creates a synthesis, an immediately shareable record, which holds great value: indeed, we have worked on a topic for a certain amount of time, and later, we will move on to other topics. Therefore, being able to quickly share an institutional and qualifying note-taking allows for better transformation, exploitation, and integration of what was said during the exchange.
• As people see their thoughts and those of others being written down in real-time, they can make corrections on the spot. They can intervene and say, “Ah, no, there’s a mistake here,” or “That’s not exactly what I meant.” Thus, the collective validation of the future synthesis of what has been developed in the group happens in the moment, and it is very democratic and constructive in terms of collective intelligence, as it makes the participants responsible for the record that will remain of their exchange. This record is formed in front of them, and they can ask the scribe to modify things. The collective dimension of intelligence is clearly identified.
• It can make it easier to reconnect with a topic if someone joins midway or misses a part or the end. It is also a written link in the moment, even for potential disconnections that may occur for some. And I’m not just talking about inattention, but it helps with that too. I have received feedback from people, especially those who did not speak French very well, who, thanks to this real-time note-taking, were able to better follow what was being said. It served as a support for their listening.

Usage in professional training

There are many methods in the field of professional training, but a commonly used method is PowerPoint, i.e., a pre-established document that more or less redundantly outlines the exact progression of a 2-hour training session, for example, step by step. There is this pre-conceived notion of the pedagogical progression.

Why not, but this presents several dangers. The first danger is that the participants receive the message that no matter what happens, no matter what they do, regardless of their contribution during the training, the pedagogical progression will go to the same place. That is, they are being told that they have no impact, no competence on the subject on which we precisely want them to become competent! Yet, this is the goal of professional training. Therefore, the pre-established fixed document has no mnemonic value; it is completely external to the people participating in the training.

If we revisit the purpose of professional training: it is to guide participants on a journey to become more competent on a subject. It is not about listening to a lecture, because listening to information given to us has little to do with what we retain.

Example at Arte France

I take the example of training sessions I conducted for the channel Arte during the transition to digital and the dual TV and web activity the channel was building. I conducted numerous training sessions to help TV staff appropriate technical and methodological concepts from the digital sector. And there were many words, for example, that they did not understand. They needed to appropriate these new methods, techniques, and languages.

I was given a PowerPoint where I just had to flip through the slides to cover the entire subject of the training in one day, the sum of information the participants were supposed to receive. But between receiving information and integrating it, again, it is not the same thing! And for the participants, it can be quite soporific. I took the opposite approach with mind mapping. I knew exactly all the information I was tasked with conveying to them, but instead of imposing my personal logic, I proposed at the start of the day to make a list of questions, problems, unknown words, things that were blocking them because they had already been confronted with this digital world, quite mysterious to them at the time.

So I simply started by noting on the screen, in mind mapping, the questions, the words they did not understand, the problems they had, etc. So the structure we saw on the screen came from them. It was them, not me. I had imposed nothing; it came from them.

Then, knowing where I wanted to go, I started with a topic in consultation with them. “Is it okay if we start with this topic?” “Yes, yes.” And so I pulled the threads from what had come from them and in interaction with them, because questions could arise as we went along. And we delved into the topics hierarchically in mind mapping. We explored step by step. And once we had roughly covered one aspect, I moved to another topic. And so on throughout the day. It was up to me to be open to what came from them while not forgetting important parts that were in the training objectives, of course. But since it was a subject I knew very well and the objectives were clear, I made the connections between the topics.

That is, we reached the objectives through paths that were unique to this group, very singular paths. And at the end of the day, immediately after, instead of receiving a formatted deliverable that had nothing to do with their experience, they received a multi-page PDF file with the home page, then the main topics, and then the sub-pages where we delved into each sub-topic.

Of course, the mind map can be displayed on a single page, but it makes a huge page! It is not readable on a single A4 page, of course. That’s why I make it into a multi-page PDF.

Throughout the day, I reorganized the map in consultation with them. I had started with their topics, and little by little, I grouped some together, we found other topics that became main topics along the way, etc. The thought process was built and written collectively during the day. So, this document was theirs. I was the architect, so to speak, or rather the builder, and they were the architects.

What interested me at the time was that I conducted many training sessions on the same subject for different groups at Arte France, and the objective of these trainings was always exactly the same. But depending on the group, with the objective met each time, the maps did not have the same structure at all. For some groups, certain topics were explored more deeply than others. All topics were always covered, but with entirely unique ways of approaching them for each group.

Is it difficult?

There is a concern one might have about this technique: it is not easy to facilitate a meeting and simultaneously take notes at high speed of what is being said. Yes, it is difficult. I am not saying it is easy, but it is a practice that can be experimented with and learned. Mind mapping software is very easy to use: the Enter key creates a new topic, and the Insert key creates a new branch in the tree. It is really extremely simple to use. Once you get a little used to it, it works well. It is a technique I have often taught, notably during a research-action project where there were 5 groups of people working in parallel on collective intelligence. I had Master’s students at Paris 7 work on it, to whom I taught the technique, and they took mind map notes during the meeting. It worked very well: they had never done it before, they practiced a little, and we had very high-quality synthetic documents. Of course, from these documents, you can export to PDF, but also to Word, etc. It depends on the tools.

What I cannot do, however, is take notes while I am speaking myself.

Mind Mapping Tools

Personally, I use the commercial software MindManager, which I am very accustomed to and which suits me well. But there are others, many others. It is a very common tool now. There is one I recommend, called Freeplane, which is almost as ergonomic as MindManager in use, I find, and which can produce very high-quality exports, notably in XML format. It is a very good tool, Freeplane. There is also Xmind, which is paid software but can be used for free with a limitation: it cannot export to PDF. But this is not really a limitation today, as you can simply print, and now, in the print menu, you can print to a PDF file. So, it is not a limitation. There is also the software FreeMind, which is very spartan in my opinion, quite historical, and which I personally find quite minimal.

I would say that among all these, the free version of FreePlane is perhaps the best. But ultimately, the best tool is the one you are accustomed to. I have been using MindManager for 20 years, and I feel comfortable with it.

Technical note on multi-page PDF export

Easy to say, but a MindMap is a tree that can be very large. So, if you export it to PDF on a single page, each part will be very small. Of course, on a computer, you can navigate through it, zoom, etc. But if you print it, unless you print it on a very large sheet of paper, it will be very small and hard to read. Personally, I prefer to do multi-page PDF exports. How do I do that? Well, I fold the MindMap and print it to PDF. So, that’s page 1 of the PDF. Then, there are these functions in MindManager: I hide topics so that it fits on a page but is not too small, is readable enough, and I print to PDF only that open topic. That’s another PDF file, page 2, and so on. I do this, page by page, unfolding, refolding, hiding, showing. So, you have the first page, which is the whole map, and then, page by page, you have the sub-parts of the whole. You end up with a number of pages, a number of PDF files, each being a page. Then, you just need to combine them together, assemble them. For that, there are many tools online that allow you to merge multiple PDF files. Personally, I use a software I purchased, installed on my computer, called PDF Exchange Standard, which allows me, after printing the first page to PDF, to print the second page, which has the same name, and the software asks me if I want to replace the previous file or if I want to add a second page to the existing file. I do the latter. So, in the end, once I have printed the pages one after the other, I have a complete PDF file with all the pages. This PDF export takes a little time, but it remains very quick, and it creates fully usable, printable documents that can be used in reports, summaries, etc.