There has been a definite buzz surrounding the recent Biggerplate Unplugged Conference in London. Everyone who’s anyone in the Mind Mapping world was in attendance last week; bloggers, developers, practitioners. This event even provided a rare opportunity for industry leaders to come together to discuss their predictions for the future of Mind Mapping.
Kick starting the New Year, we held our latest ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor Course at the Hotel du Vin in Henley, UK. With a diverse group of new recruits in attendance, they were eager to explore their creativity, bounce ideas off one another and get to grips with the iMindMap software.
Over the 4 day period, attendees from across the world learnt everything there is to know about Mind Mapping. Thanks to the GRASP solution system, Mind Mapping techniques and the iMindMap software tool, our recruits were able to take a new approach to a wide variety of tasks. Stimulating exercises and a concise step-by-step approach gave everyone the opportunity to harness their creativity, enhance mental performance and identify how they could use creative thinking techniques in their daily lives.
Generate genius ideas that work this year with tips from GRASP The Solution by ThinkBuzan CEO, Chris Griffiths1. Brainstorm the right way
Contrary to popular belief, a team brainstorming session is often the death of big ideas.
The problem is, we are all very impressionable creatures and can’t help but react to those around us. This means that a group of people sitting down to fire out ideas will essentially only be reacting to the first idea voiced out loud. The following conversation will merely be a combination of people supporting or negating that first idea, and other ideas based on associations with the first. It becomes more of an analytical session rather than one of free-flowing ideas.
We had some fantastic news come in this week. Our CEO Chris Griffiths’ latest book GRASP The Solution: How to find the best answers to everyday challenges has been nominated for an award in the management category of the 2012 Small Business Book Awards.
Since its release in October 2011, the book’s had some amazingly positive reviews but this is definitely 
the icing on the cake! Chris is absolutely thrilled and considers it a great honour to be nominated.
The Small Business Book Awards were created to recognise and celebrate books that make a difference to small business owners, managers and start-up entrepreneurs. This is now the fourth year for these awards and the competition is getting fierce!
Chris would love to do well in this competition – but in order to do that he needs your votes! If you’ve read GRASP The Solution and benefited from it – or simply enjoyed it – then we’d be extremely grateful if you could put in your vote for it.
As the New Year approaches, the mental list of New Year’s resolutions starts to form; usually a lengthy list with the aim of dispelling annoying personal habits, or reaching professional goals – and always with a few of the usual suspects making a repeat performance from the year before.
Many New Year’s resolutions emanate from the downfalls, disasters and misjudgements of the previous year, as a last-ditch attempt to avoid repetition in the New Year. We think that by avoiding the same failures, we might somehow pave a path to a more positive outcome at the end of the next year.
CEO of ThinkBuzan and co-author of Mind Maps for Business, Chris Griffiths, argues that this reactive mode of thinking simply doesn’t cut it in the modern world. “What worked in the past no longer fits the bill so we’re being forced to ‘up our game’”.
Rather than simply avoiding making the same mistakes again, we need to be more creative and more innovative. We need to look forwards, for new opportunities and anticipating future bumps in the road. In other words, we need to be proactive.
We were over the moon this week to come across a couple of top reviews of our CEO, Chris Griffiths’ recently released book GRASP The Solution.
The first came from ForeWord Reviews. Based in the United States, this organisation is one of the few remaining wholly independent review sources, which makes it even better to see GRASP The Solution receive a superb 5 star rating from their reviewer Barry Silverstein. The book is described as ‘far-reaching’ and ‘engaging’ and the Mind Mapping chapter was especially well-received!
18th November 2011, by Chris Griffiths
Focused daydreaming is one of the most effective tools for heightening creativity and cultivating powerful solutions to all sorts of business issues. While most bosses may frown upon daydreaming as a complete ‘waste of time’, I’ve recently been flying the flag for its strategic use in the workplace.
Listen to my interview with Henry Bonsu of Colourful Radio for more clarity on the creativity-enhancing benefits of this technique:
Chris Griffiths Interview with Colourful Radio
Also, please check out my guest article on Brainzooming.com where I go into detail on the value of daydreaming and how to use it purposefully:
‘Focused Daydreaming – A Practical Tool for Creativity’ from Chris Griffiths
Want to know more about Focused Daydreaming?
Focused daydreaming (or ‘Thought Experiments’) is one of several creativity topics and tools covered in my latest book GRASP The Solution: How to find the best answers to everyday challenges. In this book, I outline how rising entrepreneurs or those interested in self-development can use daydreaming strategically to access the deeper parts of the mind and develop champion ideas and solutions.
16th November 2011, by Chris Griffiths
Not long ago I had the great privilege to be interviewed by Liam Hughes of Biggerplate.com. We had an enjoyable chat about my new book GRASP The Solution, the value of thinking creatively in tough times and the role that Mind Mapping can play.
Liam challenged me to share my perspectives on all sorts of sticky matters concerning creativity and innovation. Crucially, I debunk the myth that some people aren’t the ‘creative type’ or don’t have a creative brain. With the aid of a defined system and process, absolutely anyone can be creative and put new ideas into practice.
Other topics discussed include the GRASP concept and how the different modes of thinking affect creativity, the Solution Finder process for achieving ‘practical creativity’ and the usefulness of Mind Maps for capturing and cultivating ideas.
It’s well worth checking out. Read the complete interview on Biggerplate.com.
19th October 2011, by Chris Griffiths
Finally the day has arrived! Today is the official launch date of my new book ‘GRASP The Solution’. It’s fantastic to see the media getting excited about the book and feedback from early readers has been exceptionally positive. Last week, the early pre-release copies from Amazon.co.uk sold out in a matter of days and ‘GRASP The Solution’ went on to become a bestseller before launch – hitting number 2 in the overall Business category!
14th October 2011, by Chris Griffiths
It’s almost here! In less than one week (19th October) my new book GRASP The Solution will be officially launched. The early pre-release copies from Amazon.co.uk have already sold out and the book is currently ranked in the top 100 out of the 5 million books sold on Amazon – number 3 in the Business category!
My goal in writing this book was to lend a huge helping hand to entrepreneurs and individuals who feel they sometimes struggle to make the ‘right’ decisions, are regularly disappointed by the results of their brainstorming sessions or at a complete loss on how to take their business forward.