Concept Mapping for Business and Education: All You Need to Know
Concept Mapping for Business and Education: All You Need to Know
Did you know that 65 percent of the population are visual learners? When it comes to organizing your thoughts or brainstorming with a team, having a visual can help those learners.
But, how do you make a visual that works? Concept mapping can help in a variety of settings. Keep reading to learn what you need to know about concept mapping for business or education.
What Is Concept Mapping?
Before we get into how you can use concept mapping, let’s talk about what it is. To put it simply, concept mapping is a visual database in which you and your team can organize your thoughts and ideas.
You draw out your knowledge, then link related pieces together with a line. It helps show relationships between ideas and thoughts.
For example, if your team is working on a project, you can use a line to connect a goal to the steps you need to take to reach that goal. You can use concept mapping to show that you need to get a loan from the bank and to show how you will spend the money.
In a classroom setting, concept mapping can help students organize their knowledge. For instance, students can use concept mapping to organize the ideas they learned in their history class. A concept map could show how the invention of the cotton gin led to an increased demand for cotton.
Why Use Concept Mapping?
There are several reasons you might want to use concept mapping in business or education. For example, maybe your team is working remotely; using a concept map can help everyone visualize the ongoing conversation.
In addition, there are several other reasons you might want to consider using a concept map.
Dig Into a Topic
Are you looking to go beyond the surface level of ideas? Concept mapping helps you dive deeper into a topic.
You can see all the different pieces related to that topic and how they connect and work together. You can organize all your knowledge in one place, which leads to better results. Concept mapping helps you visualize information.
Organize Your Thoughts
Concept mapping works well when you need to organize your thoughts and brainstorm. Your line drawings can help others to understand your ideas better.
For example, you could draw out your thoughts about a topic you’ve been assigned to write about. You could draw out the points you want to include in your paper and use arrows to link ideas or to connect the points to one another. You might also draw out an organizational structure that you want to use in your paper.
Remember Important Information
It can be hard to remember important information or details. Concept mapping can help you and your team to recall key information, people, and other details.
For example, the team might need to work with a new supplier, which means you need all of the information you can get about the supplier. If you map out the details, it’s easier to remember the information.
Understand How Concepts Are Related
Concept mapping can help you and your team to understand how different concepts are related.
For example, you might have a team where the team members specialize in different areas. Your team might not know how everything fits together. Concept mapping can help you show how all of the pieces fit together.
Benefits of Concept Mapping
While a concept map can help you make a better visual and dig into topics, is it really worth the effort?
YES. There are many benefits to using concept mapping.
Better Decision Making
Do you need to take a big leap, but you aren’t sure if your team is ready to jump? On the other hand, are you feeling pressured to take an action, but you aren’t sure if it’s the right move?
You can create a concept map to show all of the details, which can help you make better decisions.
Improved Collaboration
Are you looking to work with a team but need a way to organize the team’s ideas and thoughts? Concept mapping can help you bring your ideas together.
For example, you and your team could meet to brainstorm your ideas about a new topic. You could create a concept map to show your team’s thoughts as you talk through your ideas.
When you finish talking about each point, you can organize the details in a way that makes sense to everyone.
Creativity and Innovation
Are you looking to add more creativity and innovation to your team? Concept mapping can help open the door to new ideas.
For example, you could map out the details of the design of your website. You could also focus your concept map on the ideas for a new product. As you and your team map out the details, you can add more creativity to your team.
Explore Different Paths Easily
Are you looking to explore different paths, but you aren’t sure how to organize the ideas? Concept mapping can help you to explore different paths easily.
For example, you could map out the different paths that you can take to get to your goals. As you map out the details, you can work with your team to explore the different paths.
Improved Memory
Think mapping out the details is a waste of time? It might surprise you to know that concept mapping can actually help you improve your memory.
Types of Concept Maps
There are a variety of different types of concept map examples, and finding the right one for your project can help you successfully use it. We’ll cover a few of the most common types of concept maps.
Spider Map
Spider maps are relatively simple and great to use when you have a single idea or theme you want to build on. You start with the main topic in a circle in the middle; you then draw lines to other circles that have subtopics on them.
You can continue exploring the subtopics more by adding more branches; however, this map will allow you to see how the ideas connect and to go more in-depth on the topic getting discussed.
Flowchart
Flowcharts are a formal way to show a series of steps, as it is typically used for processes. These are also relatively easy to create. It’s good to have a starting point with the ending point on the other side.
It can get organized, so it’s visually appealing, but its basic design is to be useful. These are great to use when you want to understand how a process works or make a decision.
Hierarchy Map
You might be familiar with this type of map and not even know it. This type of map often gets used in organizations to show the hierarchy of different people.
For example, at the top, you would see the CEO. Next, you would see the people she manages, then the people they manage, and so on and so forth.
This helps with understanding systems in place and their order. This type of map is excellent to use when trying to understand the different elements of a system and their order.
For example, a hierarchy map could get used to illustrate predators and their prey.
System Map
System maps are great to use when you want to show a system as a whole. You can use them to show all the different parts of a system and how they work together. This is especially helpful in showing how things relate to each other.
For example, a system map could get used to show the body and its different parts, such as the heart and lungs, along with the different chemicals that your body needs to stay alive.
While it might look similar to a spider map, it’s actually quite different. Concepts don’t just flow out but can connect in different ways. These are great to use when you need to understand how a team functions or the inner workings of a system (i.e., the cardiovascular system).
How to Use Concept Mapping in Business
Concept mapping can be used in business to help solve problems, make decisions, and to better understand yourself and others. You might not realize it, but concept mapping is actually all around you. Concept mapping can help with the following in your business.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is used to look at both the current and future state of a business. It’s a great way to look at where you are now and how you can get where you want to go.
Concept mapping is often used to do this, which allows you to create a plan for action. You can then use this plan for different aspects of your business, such as marketing.
Understanding Your Team
Concept mapping is a great way to understand how things work within a team. Concept mapping can be used to show how things are related.
In other words, concept mapping can be used when you want to say, “this is how we’re working together.” Using concept maps for your team forces you to look at how things work together and where potential issues could arise.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is used to get ideas out into the open. Sometimes it’s hard to do this, especially in a work environment. This is where concept mapping comes in.
When you use concept maps, you can create a visual brainstorming map and get all your ideas out. This can be done by you, a team, or even a larger group.
You can start with one idea and branch out from there, which allows you to explore the different ideas you have and create new ones.
How to Use Concept Mapping in Education
Students can use concept mapping in the classroom to better understand what is being taught. Teachers can use concept mapping to help students solve problems.
Some teachers might use concept mapping to see students’ understanding of what was taught and spark student interest. There are several ways you can use concept maps in education.
Exploring Literary Themes
Sometimes in literature class, you are given a theme or a character and asked to show how the theme or character appears in other literary works. Students can use concept mapping to show how the theme or character stands out from others.
Tracking Concepts
You can use a concept map to track concepts in a lecture, such as the reaction of a person with schizophrenia. This could show you how a person who is affected by schizophrenia would react to different situations compared to how other people might react. It could also help you understand how we can better treat people affected by schizophrenia.
Planning Plots or Outlines for Papers
You can use concept mapping to get your ideas together for papers, stories, or other assignments. Students can use concept mapping to plan up to a certain point. You could even use concept mapping to make sure everything goes in order.
Understanding Complex Concepts
Some concepts can be hard to understand. You can use concept mapping to see how the different concepts are related to one another or to see how they interact with one another. This can help you see how different concepts fit together.
How to Use Concept Mapping in Remote Environments
You can use concept maps in remote environments to get everyone on the same page quickly. When you’re working remotely, it can be easy to lose sight of what the rest of your team is doing. By using concept mapping, you can easily coordinate your efforts and get on the same page.
However, you do need a tool that allows you to use concept mapping in a remote space. In addition, if that tool happens to have a concept map template that puts you ahead of the game.
Organize Your Thoughts With Concept Mapping
Concept mapping has a lot of benefits in the business and education realm. They’re great to use in person and in remote situations.
Are you looking for ways to better connect with your remote team? Huddle IQ has the tools you need for online collaboration and presentations. Start now for free and see how we can help your remote team accomplish more.