6 Map It: From Mind Mapping to BRIEF Maps
Long story, short. Professionals mistakenly abandon outlines, but a BRIEF Map is a new visual outlining tool that prepares you to be succinct.

Your 11th Grade English Teacher Was Right
Working from an outline is always a good idea. As the father in a large family, I get lots of opportunities to edit my kids’ school papers. And even though it can be painful at times, I encourage them to use me as a sounding board. As a matter of principle, I always ask them for an outline.

“Guys, I’m in the word business,” I tell them. “I can help edit your papers, but you’re going to need to give me an outline first.”
One of my daughters, Isabel, was tackling a particularly tough high school term paper on freedom of speech. It was an important project for her junior year coursework. She had been working on it for months, and it needed to be eight pages long.
“Dad, I have so much research; I don’t know where to start,” Isabel complained as the deadline quickly approached.

“Don’t worry; just show me your outline,” I said, knowing that her teacher expected one, too.
“Oh, I’ve got one done already.”
“Okay, I’d love to see it,” I replied. But it never appeared. Instead, she quickly planted the rough draft in front of me before I could stop her.
“Just look at the first few pages. I need to know if I’m on the right track,” Isabel said. I dove in and started editing. Before I knew it, I was hacking her paper to pieces with a red pen. She started getting defensive. It was not an enjoyable experience for either of us.
We would have averted much of the confusion and tension if Isabel had completed an outline. Outlines organize and prioritize thoughts with clarity and logic, and help stop nonsensical rambling.
Yet professionals seem to think they can outgrow outlines. Although it’s a common requirement in school, people abandon them as they get older. This is especially true—surprisingly—when preparing for important communication, whether it’s a big pitch, meeting, progress report, or e-mail correspondence. There’s no outline to be seen.
It’s a huge mistake to make, especially when you consider the vast amount of information you have to handle, distill, and disseminate in these situations.
So let’s go back to Isabel for a moment. Assume that most of her classmates did the same thing she did: completed a half-hearted outline or none at all. Then consider how hard it was for her teacher to read all of their semicoherent papers.
I did some quick calculations: There were about 100 students submitting the paper, or about 800 pages to correct. If each one took 5 minutes, the teacher had more than 60 hours of correcting to do.
In this instance, Isabel’s teacher did this tedious work of editing over her spring break. Ouch—clearly no vacation.
Now imagine if that poor teacher were your client.
How many hours of half-prepared, semiorganized conversations, meetings, and e-mails have you had without preparing a basic outline? Imagine the confusion and mental agony you’ve caused over the years by having an “I’ll just wing it” attitude in the following situations—among others.

An Outline Is Missing, and So Is the Sale
Let’s explore how a sales pitch can go south in the absence of outlining. Landon is a senior sales rep who never uses outlines to prepare for presentations or to follow up with important accounts. He prepares, but just in his mind—never in writing. He excuses himself from planning in advance using one reason or another (not enough time, he’s done this presentation countless times before, etc.). And disaster ensues.

When Landon speaks, he lacks discipline. His PowerPoints run over an hour every time, his follow-up e-mails go for paragraphs, his account plans for his boss are at least 20 pages each and rife with unnecessary details, and even his social media status updates include pointless blurbs about what he had for breakfast. Worst of all, his sales pitch is not only too long but also filled with disconnected thoughts and excessive details.
If Landon had the habit of outlining, his colleagues and clients would notice.
The people you deal with every day are on the receiving end of overexplained, underprepared, and complicated communication. They suffer in the same way as Landon’s prospective clients, who silently think, “So what’s the point?” They wonder why they don’t get what he’s saying, and he ends up suffering in weaker sales, confused customers, and harsh performance reviews.
This happens to you as well. But you can avoid it if you start by sketching out your ideas in an outline.
Five immediate benefits to outlining are they keep you:
• Prepared: I’m ready to deliver.
• Organized: I understand how all my ideas connect.
• Clear: I’m certain what my point is.
• Contextual: I can draw a bigger picture so my point stands out.
• Confident: I know what to say, inside and out.

Outlines are worth the effort. The potential pain it takes to create one is a small sacrifice for the confusion you avoid and the time you save.
Mind Mapping and the Modern Outline
Despite a growing aversion to traditional outlines, the practice of mind mapping—or visual outlining—is spreading steadily through the business world.
Its adoption makes sense, since all the ingredients that make this method so attractive are present nowadays: a widespread adoption of software, broad use of whiteboards, growing impatience with linear learning, and a strong preference for visual presentations.
Chuck Frey, an evangelist and expert on of the art of mind mapping, discusses the obvious value of these visual outlines1:
Mind mapping software is particularly well suited to information triage, because it enables you to gather, organize, evaluate, and take action on a vast amount of information, knowledge, and ideas … by giving you the power to move topics and subtopics around, attach notes, links, and documents to them that provide meaning and context, and play “what if” with your ideas. No other type of software provides the power and flexibility offered by mind mapping software for manipulating information and ideas.

Mind maps are spreading organically via word of mouth through evangelical adopters like Frey. He explains that companies such as Boeing embrace them enthusiastically because “they provide a skeletal view that lets you think about your thinking.”
Mind maps are gaining ground as commonplace work tools; Boeing even has an internal forum to promote and support them.
Mind mapping software providers like Mindjet—the current category leader that has more than 80 percent of the Fortune 100 using its product—are giving individuals a simpler and more powerful tool to wrestle with information overload and put order to chaos

It takes time to be ready to say less.
Most people are too busy—or lazy—to take the time to prepare to be brief. Blaise Pascal said, “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” If you don’t make the effort and take the time, there will be confusion. Horace warned, “Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.” (“When I try to be brief, I become unclear.”)

What makes software like Mindjet—and even free, toned-down tools like Bubbl.us—so appealing is that they’re highly visual, logical, and intuitive to use and share.

BRIEF Maps: A Practical Tool for Delivering Brevity
The growing number of companies embracing mind maps led me to see what all the fuss was about. So I decided to develop a specific type of mind map—a BRIEF Map—to improve communication by simplifying complex messages into a one-page visual outline.
BRIEF maps explain and summarize important information. They’re highly useful and practical for executive teams to use. Maps can outline progress reports, capture meeting summaries, and synthesize strategies. They can articulate a corporate vision, isolate a key aspect of a new product, or simplify a complex initiative or issue that could potentially take a long time to understand.
Maps keep the topic on track—and keep it clear and consistent.
Each of the letters in the word BRIEF stands for a specific function of one of the bubbles on the map. The middle bubble, which is the focal point or headline of your communication, is called the Brief Box. Before building a BRIEF Map, I recommend using a worksheet (see the following diagram) that captures everything you might say and determining its order and logic. After you have this in place, it’s time to draw it out.
Every BRIEF Map is organized in the following way:

B: Background or beginning
R: Reason or relevance
I: Information for inclusion
E: Ending or conclusion
F: Follow-up or questions you expect to be asked or that you might ask

How a BRIEF Map Can Be Used
Consider the following scenario: Bob is working on a project to replace some crucial technology and update his company’s IT infrastructure in such a way that will ensure rapid growth. He must provide regular reports on the process to the CEO. They are about halfway done, and the president, who is aware of the project’s strategic importance, needs an update from Bob.
Wrong Approach: Bob Chooses to Share but Not to Prepare
The project has had more than its share of frustrations, including unclear expectations, cost overruns, and delays. Despite these challenges, it’s an important chance for Bob to prove his talent and possibly get a promotion. There’s a lot on the line for both him and his company. He understandably wants to make a positive impression on the president, so he decides to stop by his office to give a quick update.

Bob starts out well by hitting on some key highlights. However, he starts to stray a bit, and it’s unclear how this update addresses some of the pressing issues. The CEO gets lost in too many minuscule details; when he starts drilling down, Bob becomes flustered and defensive. The conversation goes long and it ends inconclusively. The CEO is beginning to wonder if the project will succeed—and both he and Bob are beginning to lose confidence.
Right Approach: Bob Prepares a BRIEF Map and Maintains Executive Support
Bob recognizes before the meeting that the president doesn’t have a lot of time, so he draws up this BRIEF Map to keep his context airtight and to the point.
Step 1: The BRIEF Box
♦ Bob crafts a strong headline—his BRIEF Box—that reads “The project is on schedule.”
Step 2: B, or the Background/Beginning
♦ Bob thinks, “Okay—how am I going to start the update after the headline? What’s my beginning or background statement? Well, the last time I talked with the CEO, he had a series of questions and needed me to look into some issues. Since that’s what we last spoke about and what he remembers, I should start there. That’s how I’ll warm things up the first few minutes and explain why I’m coming in today.” And so Bob begins by saying, “I’ve got an update to the last question you asked.”

Step 3: R, or Reason/Relevance
♦ Bob thinks, “What’s the reason I’m talking to him now? Why is it urgent and relevant to do so at this time?” Bob makes a clear connection to the last few updates and states his headline up front, while explaining that he needs to procure a few additional items to keep the project on track.
Step 4: I, or Key Information
♦ Bob thinks, “What will the core of the update include?” He determines three key elements that he would like to share—his select details and bullet points: Where has there been progress? Is the project still on schedule? What specifically is needed? With these three points lined up, ready, and in order, Bob’s made it easy for the CEO to change gears mentally and track the progress report.
Step 5: E, or Intended Ending
♦ There needs to be an intended moment when the update will end and Bob can confidently conclude. Bob has outlined a few next steps that will be followed, and he concludes by saying, “I will get you a price summary and the new timeline tomorrow.”
Step 6: F, or Expected Follow-up Questions
♦ Finally, Bob stops to carefully consider any and all questions he thinks the CEO might ask. This gives even more insight he can use to make his BRIEF Map clearer and tighter. He thinks, “If I give him the update that we’re making progress with the technology and are on schedule, I want him to give me feedback and ask some questions. That will be how I know it went well and whether it was clear.”
♦ He correctly anticipates that the boss might have questions such as: Is this going to cost us any downtime or put us over budget? Are there any unseen risks? Sure enough, when Bob brings those up, the CEO thinks Bob’s reading his mind.

Result: A Successful Update
Because Bob prepared all this in his BRIEF Map, he was able to provide a very clear, consistent, and well-prepared update that was easy for the CEO to follow. Bob walked in prepared and delivered his update in less than 5 minutes. The CEO was satisfied and gave Bob the support and endorsement he was seeking. All because Bob took the extra time to prepare to be brief.

As one executive famously said, “Be brief and be gone.”

BRIEF Maps: What’s the Payoff?
Brevity is all about preparation and preassembly. When you successfully prepare to deliver these important messages, you are confident that you’ve already thought through the key information your audience needs. You’re giving people a preconstructed message.
Imagine it is Christmas Eve. You bought your child a bicycle, but you realize, “Oh no, I have to assemble it.” Now imagine the relief you feel as you look at the box and see the words “No assembly required.”
A BRIEF Map does the same thing: you give a person a “no assembly required” message. That person feels that same sense of relief you did when you saw those words on the bicycle’s box—and will reap the same benefits.
There are no loose parts lying around. The bike is ready to ride.
Long story, short. Professionals mistakenly abandon outlines, but a BRIEF Map is a new visual outlining tool that prepares you to be succinct.

Just say it
Nike was right to encourage athletes to, “Just do it.” Your challenge is to just say it—quickly and clearly—and be done. Like a good workout, the faster and more intense, the better