What is a concept map?

Sometimes inspiration arrives on its own, but most of the time the best ideas need a little help and a lot of organization. Concept mapping is a way to organize ideas about specific topics, and it’s also a great way to delve deeper into subtopics while showing how everything is related.

Concept mapping can be used to teach concepts, detail marketing campaigns, show process flows, or even learn new subjects. It’s also beneficial to show the organization of businesses as a tool in business analysis. With a concept map, an entire business can be captured in visual form so that every team understands its place within the larger org.

Benefits of concept mapping templates

Concept mapping is organized and highly visual. A template for concept mapping is beneficial because it:

• Is great for visual learners. Concept mapping templates make it easy to grasp complex subjects that would be harder to understand if presented using only text.
• Encourages critical thinking skills. Showing the relationship between topics encourages deeper learning.
• Breaks down difficult concepts. Information that’s difficult to communicate easily—such as blockchain mechanics or involved multimedia campaigns—is more easily digestible when it’s broken down into smaller subjects.
• Locates holes in concepts. Once you begin breaking up information and asking questions, it’s easy to see where new ideas are needed. This is a great opportunity to get the entire team involved—and online templates like Lucidspark’s concept mapping template make sharing with team members simple and straightforward.

How to use the concept map template in Lucidspark

It’s easy to use Lucidspark as a concept map maker. Here’s how to get started:

1. Put the main subject being discussed in the center of the template. Using shapes, freehand drawing, and lines, begin adding related concepts to the board and showing their relationship.
2. As you break down each topic into further subtopics, add text to the shapes, or import images for additional context.
3. Use Lucidspark’s Zoom integration and live chat to solicit input from your team as you continue building out related concepts and relationships.
4. Add context to sections with sticky notes; change the colors to designate important notes or places that need to be explored further.
5. Share broadly and make an action plan with your findings.