Maintenance Release 4.2 now available to download

MindGenius Ltd today announced the release of Version 4.2 of their mind mapping software, MindGenius. This release is free to all MindGenius Version 4 customers. Version 4.2 can be downloaded from http://www.mindgenius.com/Business-Download.aspx.

Responding to requests from our enterprise customers and project management community, we have also taken the opportunity to add some great new functionality to this release.

SharePoint
MindGenius now supports SharePoint document library check-in / check-out. It is a key feature of SharePoint and is often used where many people are collaborating on documents, offline editing of documents is required or major / minor versioning is enabled.


MindGenius users can now get the benefit of using SharePoint Document libraries check-in/check-out, including;


• Ensuring that only one person at a time edits a map
• Ability to control the version of your maps by applying version numbers each time the map is updated.
• When checked –out, maps are stored locally and can be accessed and edited offline.


See your SharePoint administrator about integrating MindGenius maps into your SharePoint document libraries.


Export Excel Gantt View
The MindGenius Gantt view now includes an option to export the Gantt view to an Excel spread sheet. Ideal for communicating the status of projects to external Stakeholders or those who do not use MindGenius.

If you are an existing V4 customer, simply download the latest trial version of MindGenius from http://www.mindgenius.com/Support/Downloads.aspx. This will automatically update your installation. There is no need to uninstall earlier versions of MindGenius 4 and your product will still be activated.


If you are new to Version 4, visit http://www.mindgenius.com/Business-Download.aspx. Even if you have downloaded a trial of previous versions of MindGenius, this will give you another 30 day free trial version.

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Intellectual Harvesting with MindGenius

Welcome to 2012!

I hoped you enjoyed the festive season. However, all good things must come to an end and normal business resumes, or as we say -it’s ‘back to porridge and old clothes’. We have another saying in Scotland – “Out with the Old and In with the New”. A new year brings with it an opportunity to plan for the coming year and to identify what we need to achieve in the coming months in order to translate our desires and dreams into reality.

So have you made your New Year resolutions, or plans for the coming year? If you haven’t set any objectives shouldn’t you be considering doing so? Do you really want to drift through the coming year and fail to attain the objectives you want and/or need to achieve?

And if you have a set of objectives, are they the right ones? For you? For your organisation? For your stakeholders?

In this article I am going to discuss a methodology we use with MindGenius called Intellectual Harvesting and how this can help you with objective setting.

Intellectual Harvesting allows people to capture their own, or others, knowledge and experience, and then readily organize it in ways that make sense and can be put to good use. It allows individuals or teams to tap into their personal and organizational knowledge, experience and creativity in order to gain a broader understanding of a given scenario. It surfaces what needs to be achieved and helps identify the best way forward. As a result, people can manage their challenges more effectively and benefit from a sustainable approach to identifying, managing and overcoming challenges on an ongoing basis.

In its simplest form, Intellectual Harvesting is a template which prompts people to ask themselves some fundamental, yet simple, questions in relation to objective setting.

Subject Matter


Intellectual Harvesting can be used to address a specific subject or a wider, more general subject by an organization/team/person.

I will illustrate this article using “Work-life balance” as an example. By this I mean how a person chooses to spend their time and energies between work related activities and personal life activities (e.g. family, leisure, enjoyment)

Who are the Stakeholders?

Stakeholders can be a person, group, organization, or system who directly, or indirectly, dictate, influence or be impacted by the subject matter. By identifying who the stakeholders are and the nature of their interest, you will better understand what is expected of you.

In the figure below I’ve recorded some stakeholders associated with Work-Life Balance. The “Children” parent branch is shown expanded to reveal the nature of their interest.

What is the current situation?


Now let’s understand the current situation. After all it is Point A, the launch pad for your journey to your desired destination, Point B. To document your understanding of the current situation, view it from a positive as well as a negative point of view.

Taking a positive view, what are the strengths of the current situation? What works? What is going well? What are the things that you do not wish to change, or perhaps you would want to build on as they would give you a firm foundation?

To balance this, take a negative view of the current situation. What doesn't work? What are the weak areas in the current situation? What activities are being performed but not effectively? What are the things that should be in place but are not?

Unfortunately you often find that the negative list will be longer than the positive one. It seems easier to come up with negatives rather than positives as we tend to assign a higher weighting to negative information than positive information.

What would be the ideal/desirable situation?

Let’s take another viewpoint and shift the timeframe to the future. If your desires and aspirations were to be realised, what would the future look like and what would possible objectives be?

Look forward to desirable future events/ways of working/achievements with pleasure and anticipation. Don’t be constrained by how you would achieve these. What would it feel like to be in such a situation? What problems, irritations would be alleviated?

Consider how such objectives might fit with, or be derived from, your stakeholders’ interests. Also consider the criticality of such objectives. How long could you go without realising them before some irrevocable, adverse impact occurs or you miss a key window of opportunity to reap a benefit?

Now you have identified potential objectives.

What are the barriers, obstacles to progress?

We need to introduce a touch of realism. What would be the obstacles in the way of achieving such objectives? What barriers would you have to overcome? How might you use your current strengths to overcome such obstacles? By doing this you will start to have a clearer idea as to the feasibility of your objective, or a way to achieve it.

On completion of the Intellectual Harvesting map you will have documented your understanding of the subject matter, you will have a better understanding of the challenges that you face and what you have to achieve to have a successful outcome.

So if you don’t have any objectives currently set, have a go at Intellectual Harvesting and use it to help you to identify objectives to give you purpose and direction in the forthcoming year. If you already have objectives, use Intellectual Harvesting to sanity check that they are the right ones.

Hope you have a successful and prosperous 2012.

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Explore the full potential of MindGenius and maximise your ROI

We are delighted at another successful year of continued growth in the global MindGenius user-base. This, combined with high attendance at, and positive feedback from our popular webinar series, has highlighted the need for us to work more closely and in more collaborative ways with our users to help them realise the full potential of MindGenius. As a result, we are happy to announce the appointment of Jamie MacDonald, a highly experienced trainer, facilitator and coach, to head up the client development department.

The range of client development services will include training, both online and onsite, webinars and tailored workshops, and implementation services all geared to help users make the most out of MindGenius and receive optimum return on their investment in the software. So if you want to learn how to effectively capture and utilize ideas in your organization, keep the momentum between Brainstorming sessions and action, or effectively implement improved project planning mechanisms, we will have a solution to help. Of course, you may have specific requirements in your organization and we can create bespoke courses and interventions to suit.

Jamie brings over 20 years’ experience in training, development, HRM and business improvement. He has a broad working knowledge of strategic planning, business process improvement, change management, business growth and people and organisational development and has personally fronted training events, workshops and larger business process improvement projects within numerous major UK and international organisations, UK Councils, and many other private SMEs - working closely with CEOs, Board members, and senior management, as well as staff at all levels.

Jamie said:

“One of my main aims is to help users increase personal, team and organisational productivity, efficiency and results through their application of MindGenius and associated methodologies. Another aim is to help organisations with the implementation and buy-in of MindGenius product and methodologies in multiple-user or large-scale installations – working closely with stakeholders to maximise use and added-value to the business. No matter your company type or size, we will have a range of services offerings to suit and can tailor them to suit you and your organization.”

Get in touch with Jamie either via the comments below or at jamiem@mindgenius.com, with your specific requirements or suggestions on how we can develop and improve the MindGenius client development offering.

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New Year Webinar Update

Get work off to the right start in the New Year with the MindGenius webinar series. Initially we will be running additional sessions on an Introduction to MindGenius 4, an Introduction to Project Planning with MindGenius and MindGenius for Consultants, however this will be expanded to include more diverse topics so please get in touch via the comments below if you have any areas you would like to see us cover.

The webinars aim is to help users make the most out of MindGenius and discover functionality they may not be familiar with. They are free to attend, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the session, and are ideal for both new and existing users of MindGenius.

The series has been extremely well attended with positive feedback on the content and over 95% of attendees rating the content as “good” or “excellent.” Some feedback from recent webinar attendees includes:

“I do hope you'll run more of these. I've had MindGenius for a few months now, but haven't used it much. I had no idea it could do all you showed. I will definitely be using it much more now!"

“Exactly what I was looking for - clear and concise. Can't wait to receive the recording link in order to share with other managers. Plan to start using immediately. Thank you!”

Make sure you don’t miss out and sign up today for January’s scheduled events: www.mindgenius.com/Resources/Webinars.aspx

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MindGenius now supported on Biggerplate mind mapping community

MindGenius are pleased to announce that they are now supported on http://www.biggerplate.com/, one of the largest communities of mind map users in the world.

Becoming a member of Biggerplate is free and, once registered, allows users to share map content with others and to download from a choice of thousands of maps.

MindGenius has many different communities of users including project managers, consultants, and compliance managers, as well as those in a client facing role such as sales and marketing professionals, and MindGenius believes that Biggerplate is a fantastic way for users to connect within and across these different communities.

Initially MindGenius will be sharing a project management set of maps which includes a mix of real life project management examples, reusable templates, and information maps covering areas of project management such as Planning, PRINCE2, Agile methods, etc. As an added advantage for MindGenius users, the MindGenius import capabilities* offers immediate access to most of the content on Biggerplate, not just the MindGenius maps.

How can Mind Mapping Software help Project Managers
Download full map from http://www.biggerplate.com/mindmaps/fNF38bef/how-mind-mapping-software-can-help-project-managers

Check Biggerplate regularly as MindGenius will be continuing to upload fresh content and be sure to share your own maps. Maps can be rated and are searchable in a variety of categories including Business, Academic and General with hundreds of additional sub sets.


Agile Software Development
Download full map from www.biggerplate.com

Derek Jack, Director of MindGenius, said "MindGenius are looking forward to being a part of the Biggerplate community and giving MindGenius users access to content across a wide variety of areas. Our starting point is project management since we have recognised a big growth in this community and feel this is a great way for them to connect with other users to share knowledge. We will also be uploading maps on many diverse subjects in the near future. We would encourage our users to take the opportunity to use this medium and share their own expertise, and gain fresh ideas on applying MindGenius."

Liam Hughes, Founder of Biggerplate said “We are very excited to welcome MindGenius and their users to Biggerplate, especially as this has been highly requested by members of our community over the past six months! The focus on project management within the MindGenius business and user-base means we expect to see a significant increase in both the quantity and quality of map content in this area being shared on Biggerplate. As we continue to strengthen our position as a leading source of mind mapping content and community, our new partnership with the fantastic team at MindGenius represents another significant and exciting step in the right direction for Biggerplate and our members!”

Visit http://www.biggerplate.com/ today to get involved.





*MindGenius can currently import MindManager files

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MindGenius Webinars - November and December

Our recent series of webinars has been going well and we are pleased to announce the next in the series.

You can register now for Introduction to MindGenius 4, Project Management with MindGenius and MindGenius for Consultants. 

All webinars are free and open to everyone so sign up now.

November
Wednesday 16th November, 4pm GMT, 11am EST
Introduction to Project Management with MindGenius Register
This webinar will offer an introduction to using MindGenius for your project management activities, including maintaining consistency in project inception, gaining stakeholder buy-in, creating product & work breakdown structures, project resourcing and scheduling and monitoring and controlling your projects.

Thursday 17th November, 6am GMT, 4pm AEST
Introduction to Project Management with MindGenius   Register
This webinar will offer an introduction to using MindGenius for your project management activities, including maintaining consistency in project inception, gaining stakeholder buy-in, creating product & work breakdown structures, project resourcing and scheduling and monitoring and controlling your projects.

Wednesday 23rd November, 4pm GMT, 11am EST
MindGenius for Consultants   Register
This session will cover how MindGenius can help Consultants to facilitate engaging client sessions, capture customer requirements and plan projects.

December
Wednesday 7th December, 6am GMT,4pm AEST
Introduction to MindGenius 4   Register
This webinar is for new users of MindGenius and will cover how to make the most out of MindGenius 4, including how MindGenius allows you to quickly capture and create a visual representation of your ideas, gain understanding on your ideas through analysing and sorting them, develop more creative and comprehensive solutions, and move to action far more quickly.

Wednesday 7th December, 4pm GMT, 11am EST
Introduction to MindGenius 4  Register
This webinar is for new users of MindGenius and will cover how to make the most out of MindGenius 4, including how MindGenius allows you to quickly capture and create a visual representation of your ideas, gain understanding on your ideas through analysing and sorting them, develop more creative and comprehensive solutions, and move to action far more quickly.

Thursday 8th December, 4pm GMT, 11am EST
Introduction to Project Management with MindGenius 4   Register
This webinar will offer an introduction to using MindGenius for your project management activities, including maintaining consistency in project inception, gaining stakeholder buy-in, creating product & work breakdown structures, project resourcing and scheduling and monitoring and controlling your projects.

As always, if there are any additional topics you would like us to cover, get in touch and keep up to date with the MindGenius webinar programme at http://www.mindgenius.com/Resources/Webinars.aspx.

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MindGenius Webinar Series Update

Following a great response to our initial Introduction to MindGenius webinars, we are now pleased to announce more details of our upcoming webinar programme.

The first in this series is for Consultants and will be held on Thursday 20th October at 4pm GMT Summer Time. This webinar will cover how MindGenius can help you;

• Facilitate engaging sessions with your clients
• Capture customer requirements
• Plan projects

Consultants who use MindGenius cover a wide variety of specialities but all have one thing in common: they believe MindGenius can help them improve the experience they offer their customers and this webinar will show how the MindGenius approach can be applied in a consultancy setting.

Read the story of a consultant who uses MindGenius in conjunction with WebEx to deliver online mind mapping to slash the time and cost of collaborative problem solving.

Register for the upcoming MindGenius webinars:

20th October 4pm GMT Summer Time, 11am EST
MindGenius for Consultants Register

26th October 4pm GMT Summer Time, 11am EST
Project Management with MindGenius Register

9th November 6am GMT, 4pm AEST
Introduction to MindGenius Register

9th November 4pm GMT, 11am EST
Introduction to MindGenius Register

More Webinars will be announced next month, are there any topics you would like to see us cover?

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