Many people are, and have been talking about when and if Mind Mapping will go mainstream soon. After further investigation, I want to give you my thoughts on it (again).
Some of things I hear when my students and I talk about mindmaps are this:
- This is a personal tool!
- Wow, this looks a lot like the way I make notes already
- This method is not clear, I can’t use this. People won’t take me serious!!!
- Can I really use this with my team members?
Different people, different opinions. Some love mindmaps, others get frustrated and really hate them.
Now combine this with things very mainstream like coffee and Windows computers:
Coffee
- Great, don’t want to leave my home before my cup of coffee
- Coffee is my way of relaxing
- I discuss most of my project details near the coffee machine
- I hate coffee. I can’t drink it!
Windows computers
- I have a love-hate relationship with my PC
- I only use it at work because I have to
- Windows is great, I love the entire system
- MAC is everything, Windows is evil
I think Windows computers and coffee are pretty mainstream. Nearly everybody uses it one way or the other.
Mind mapping is not that main stream yet, although it has the characteristics. You have people who love it and who hate it. You have some people who have to use it. There are people who use a method that resembles mindmaps.
According to the Buzan organization, there are hundreds of millions of people using mindmaps. I would say this makes mindmaps already a main stream tool. It might not be as mainstream as coffee, but it is certainly not some small technique a couple of million people all around the world use. It mindmaps are not a big mainstream tool, they represent definitely a sub culture in information management.
Just think of mindmap users as the Senseo drinkers in the coffee world. They are drinking coffee, except a different brand. We, the mindmap community, might even become as big as the Starbucks coffee drinkers one day, if more people start to understand and use mindmaps. I see an important role in this for me and you!
Perhaps you can ask people around you the next couple of days if they ever heard of mindmaps or they recognize the mindmap shape (you probably have a mindmap with you all the time, right 
?)
Mind mapping is one of the first visual thinking techniques that was introduced to the main public for organizing their information. From that moment on, more and more people started to use it.
I don’t think we should ask the question if or when mind mapping will go mainstream. It will. Visual thinking is already being used in mainstream.
We now have the tools and the techniques to use it. We are able to express ourselves in a visual format much easier than 20 years ago. People will benefit more from this everyday.
The moment visual thinking is mainstream, the mindmap will be one of the prominent, easiest and powerful (personal) tools in the visual thinking arena.
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Your thoughts on this are well set out here.
As I’ve used and loved mind maps and other information map types for well over 30 years, I’ve always wanted to get inside the head of people who don’t like the technique. Some just don’t think the way mind mappers do – I suspect that people with a whip-sharp memory just don’t need visual reminders and stimulus. Undoubtedly some have hardly tried it (or never?) and feel the ‘picture’ approach is off the wall without ever having experienced the flow of ideas and clarity that it can bring.
As for going mainstream, I think those of us who blog and tweet about information mapping just have to keep plugging away. I’m sure the Buzan Organization’s figures are correct in the sense that they cover the people who have passed through one of their school or public training programs. I seriously doubt whether that really represents the number of regular, active mind mappers.
I often see tweets and blog comments about mind mapping being something done at school, and not appropriate for work (how wrong they are).
And I regularly ask people if they know about it. Very few say ‘yes’.
I do agree, visual thinking is the key skill to learn and apply, and mind mapping is just one element of visual thinking, albeit a good starting point.
Roy
Editor, Informationtamers mind mapping wiki
Thank you Roy for your thoughts.
We all think in pictures. Some people will really benefit from drawing the picture they need/have/want on paper or in a mindmap. Others just don’t need that. The moment people really need to think in a different format, it is good to know they can visit people like you and me.
By the way, everybody who read this… visit Roy’s website. He created a wonderful resource at: http://www.informationtamers.com/WikIT