Say what? That was my initial response when i first heard the term. I met with a friend the other day and he piqued my curiosity. I’ve never claimed to be the smartest guy in the room, but i try and get my head around things when they come up. First off, he’s a techie but beyond that he is brilliant. Yup, another Sun City resident we have never ever tried to reach. When we met a year ago, my hope was to get him marginally involved in the museum. He still has all kinds of ongoing projects he is involved in, so i didn’t want to infringe on his time too much. After 3 hours at my house earlier in the week and another 2 hours at his yesterday, i was truly excited by his ideas. Mind mapping has been around for years. He calls it road mapping because it sounds less “new age.” Much of his career was spent teaching start up businesses how to create a business plan that made sense to potential investors. They have to be comprehensive or they have no chance. For anyone who has worked with white boards in developing strategies, it was an easy understanding. Breaking it down to simplistic terms; it allowed for users to create a comprehensive plan while using a computer and the software programming. Everything was drop and drag which made it user friendly. Ideas could be bantered about and rethinking and adjusting on the fly was a breeze. As i thought about my work years with organizations, we always set goals, but never created plans to accomplish them. That’s just not how organizations think. They are always reactive, never proactive. Virtually every org i have been involved with in Sun City does nothing in this manner. Nothing. I’ve told you the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum has a 5 year strategic planning committee. If we are smart enough to get our heads around this concept, we can actually create an organizational/business model to get us there. Time will tell, but at this moment in time i am excited by the prospect of what we potentially can do.
