Root cause essentials: Unleash the power of your mind with mind mapping

Mind mapping can be traced back to Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance, but it was Tony Buzan who coined the term in 1974.  

Mind mapping is a great way to evolve your team’s thoughts and bring them to life to spark the creative thought process of finding solutions to problems.  

Mind mapping is a visual illustration with the main problem in the center of the branches building outward. Mind mapping seamlessly blends logic and creativity, allowing us to think and navigate information proficiently. 

Why mind mapping?

A few key benefits of mind mapping include:  

• Allowing you to see the big picture 
• Providing snippets of information 
• Accelerating the ability to solve complex problems 
• Improving comprehension of the information 
• Organizing information in a linear fashion 

Remember, mind mapping is supposed to be quick and easy; it is about structure and process, not doodling.  

3 steps to mind mapping

Follow these three steps to simplify mind mapping:

1. Determine the problem: First, determine the problem, and log it in the center of the page, allowing you to expand your thoughts outward.
2. Identify your main concepts: Come up with three to five main concepts and add the branches off the center circle; these are the essential subtopics. Use only keywords and short phrases, allowing you to begin organizing the information.  
3. Identify subtopics: Explore subtopics by adding details that are related to the ideas. 

Get the tools to start mind mapping

When mind mapping, keep in mind that to draw attention to essential information, you can use different colors, fonts, italic, bold, upper or lower case and images (if using images, make sure they represent the thought).

Enjoy mind mapping with these tips and release the power of your mind.  We’d like to invite you to download our ebook and tools on root cause analysis (RCA), which includes a template to start your mind mapping exercise.

Resources about root cause analysis:

• Ebook: Uncovering the Root Cause
• Blog: 5 Steps to Performing an Effective Root Cause Analysis
• Podcast: Flipping CAPA on its Head with Prevention and Understanding the True Root Cause
• On-demand webinar: Root Cause Analysis – Getting to the Root of the Issue and Getting it Right
• Blog: Uncovering the Root Cause and Overcoming Challenges Along the Way
• Blog: Root Cause Essentials: Using the PDCA Approach to Support Continuous Improvement