A 'picture' of the situation builds as discussion proceeds and shortly the map begins to be an interview resource in its own right. A 'friendly' and powerful aid, it is also an ideal device from which to summarise. When both parties are involved in its generation, it can be a powerful negotiating tool and in addition to such use in consultations, it has similar benefits in the following areas. Any issue can be acknowledged and noted and placed on the Mind Map in as many locations as the client wishes, using agreed key-words. Since the key-words are agreed, communication is closer to clients' deep structure and confusion is lessened.
Key words remain open to renegotiation and such renegotiation results in increased clarity.
A single line through each redundant key word shows reprioritisation and the old logic though still in view, is less easily returned to. He also acknowledged that there were two matters that needed attention. These related to PR and income generation and each had a deadline. To do this we developed branches for each of these aspects. As the mapping proceeded, Ted became focused upon resources and how he could use them to resolve the two 'lesser' problems.