The T.A.P. process for visual mapping

Wallace Tait and I were talking last week about what businesspeople need to know about mind mapping software, and we got on the topic of his T.A.P. process, which makes it easy for newbies and experienced mappers to create effective business maps. So I decided to post this excerpt from my e-book, Power Tips and Strategies for Mind Mapping Software, where he explains this simple but powerful methodology:

To create effective business mind maps, Wallace Tait recommends a three-step process, which he calls “T.A.P.” Here’s how it works:

T: Tap into your thought processes, capturing your ideas and transferring them into a visible, non-linear format in your mind map. At this stage, neatness doesn’t count. Just record your thoughts and ideas, quickly and randomly.

A: Arrange, group, add, delete, rearrange and clarify the content of your mind map until it is complete and well organized. At this stage, you need to look at your thoughts and ideas with a logical mindset. This is also the step where you can add images to enhance your map, plus links to documents, files, web pages and other resources, to help clarify the points in your map.

P: Present and share your ideas in a format that suits you and the recipients of them. During this final stage, you may want to present the map itself to your target audience. But more often, when you are making presentations to logical, left-brained thinkers, Wallace recommends that you export your map into a linear format, for use in other applications like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. Most mind mapping programs also enable you to convert your map into an image file. Wallace has had excellent success with printing his maps onto poster-sized paper, which he then uses to present his ideas to his audiences.

Don't let it's simplicity fool you. The T.A.P. process is actually a great way to understand the value of mind mapping software. It's sort of like the "ready, fire, aim" approach to brainstorming. You first generate as many ideas as possible - do a brain dump - and then evaluate, group and organize the ideas later. The fact is, mind mapping software makes this last step incredibly easy, much easier than any other type of business software.

This and many more productivity tips like it can be found in my e-book. Click here to learn more.

Comments

[Edwin]

Good Job, Chuck! This approach is simple but very usefully. You make me think of the UML(Unified Modeling Language) and the RUP(Rational Unified Process) in the software engineering industry, the relationship between and UML and RUP is similar to Mind Mapping and your T.A.P, people need a complete rules and regulations to guide them through the visual modeling/mapping process.

[Wallace Tait]

Thanks for the exposure Chuck.
When I initially created TAP, I wanted to have a process that would be practical, quick to use and reveal tangible results for the information manager; TAP does this and more.
I am in the process of writing a handy reference book that can be accessed on the fly by busy academics and business users of the tools and techniques of Visual mapping.