Mind Mapping In Your Practice

Business Of Dentistry Podcast

What the heck is mind mapping and why is it relevant to your dental practice? That's what we're talking about today on the Business of Dentistry. A couple of years ago I took a hard look at mind mapping as a tool for organizing my thoughts. I had heard about mind mapping before but really didn't know how it would apply to me. In today's episode I explain what mind mapping is and give an example of how it may help you organize your thoughts on the way to building systems and processes in your practice. More About This Show Before we can talk about why mind mapping can be so helpful in your practice we have to understand what it actually is. Mind mapping is a way to get ideas out of your head and onto paper or screen so you can explore the ideas fully. You can do this either by writing your ideas down or by using a mind mapping software tool. I use X Mind, which has a free or a paid version. There are several others on the market, but the three that are the most popular are Free Mind, Mind Manager and X Mind (these are listed in order of popularity). Mind mapping differs from an outline in that it isn't linear. You write your idea down and it's the main subject, it is the tree trunk. Growing out from your tree trunk are all the related concepts and topics, they become the branches. You can drill those down even further, those become the twigs. To illustrate this point on today's show I mind map the idea of improving your customer service. So that is your main idea, your tree trunk: improved customer service. Branching out from there you come up with a few ideas: clean the office, better phone etiquette, reduce wait times and send out surveys to post-procedure patients. Now you take each of those topics or branches and dive deeper: who is going to clean your office? How will they go about doing so, and how often? Who is going to check on the cleanliness and how? And what phone etiquette are you going to implement? Will you have a certain way of answering the phones that is standard? If so, who will come up with it? Answering all of these questions creates more twigs stemming from your branches. Once you've listed your branches and twigs print out the image and give your staff a copy at your next staff meeting. Ask them for their feedback and input on what you have so far. Are these good ideas, what would they add to your existing mind map? Getting them involved in the process of making your practice better creates a stronger staff unity and loyalty, and a much happier place for everyone to work! And that's your action step from today's show: explore mind mapping. Do your own research on Google and find out more about it. Make up your mind whether or not it's a fit for you. Let me know what you decide, after you listen to episode 20 of the Business of Dentistry. Tweetable: "Have your staff involved in making your practice better." Episode Resources X Mind Free Mind Mind Meister MindManager iMindMap Business of Dentistry on Facebook Connect with me on Twitter Leave us a rating or review on iTunes!