The Engineer Your Plan IQ Matrix provides you with essential guidelines for building a solid plan to bring your creative idea to fruition. This is the fourth of a five-part series of mind maps that explores the creative problem-solving process. Coming into this stage of the creative problem-solving process, you have probably generated several viable ideas that can help you overcome your problem.
The purpose of this step is to select your very best ideas and evaluate which ones are the most likely to succeed. This process, of course, begins by envisioning possible future scenarios for implementing your ideas, and then exploring which scenarios will help you best accomplish your main objective.
Specifically, the mind map breaks down how to envision possible future scenarios that will help bring your creative ideas into the world. It presents you with a number of thought-provoking questions to help you outline each of your scenarios with clarity and purpose. It then outlines how to evaluate each of the scenarios you came up with. This helps you choose the best option for moving forward. And, finally, the map explains how to engineer a plan of action to help bring your idea to fruition.
Here is a quick breakdown of each branch of the Engineer Your Plan mind map.
- The Purpose: The first branch of this map briefly outlines the purpose of this specific stage of the problem-solving process.
- Envision Future Scenarios: The second branch explores how to write out effective scenarios to help bring your creative ideas to life in the real world. This branch also breaks down the benefits of writing scenarios and how they can help improve your ability to make decisions.
- Outline Scenarios and Universal View: The third branch presents you with several thought-provoking questions that will help you outline each of your scenarios with a greater level of clarity and purpose. In addition to scenario planning, this branch also outlines the questions you must ask yourself to help clarify your Universal View. Your Universal View must be aligned with your scenario planning strategy, otherwise, conflicts may exist and additional problems may arise that could sabotage your progress.
- Evaluate Scenarios: Having outlined your scenarios and clarified your Universal View, now comes time to evaluate each of these scenarios and then select the best path moving forward. The more thorough you are at this stage, the fewer mistakes you will make when it comes time to put your creative ideas into action.
- Engineer Plan of Action: The final step of this stage of the problem-solving process is to engineer a plan of action to help bring your creative idea into real-world application. This branch outlines what areas you should be focusing on while developing your plan of action.
This map provides a roadmap and framework for developing a plan of action for solving your problem. Referencing it regularly and committing it to memory will help you to embed these concepts and ideas into your subconscious mind. A mind map, of course, does this beautifully because it mirrors the synaptic connections made in your brain as you try to establish new habits of thought and behavior. It brings together key concepts and ideas that help your brain to fully integrate and process this information. The brain, subsequently, rewires itself as it attempts to establish new habits of mind. It’s an ideal tool for creating lasting change and transformation.
Stick with these principles, memorize and incorporate them into your life, and you will progressively develop the necessary habits-of-mind to help you to lay down a solid plan of action to bring your creative ideas to fruition.
Below you will find links to all five problem-solving mind maps. Together they will provide you with a comprehensive outline of the creative problem-solving process.
- Define Problem
- Investigate Problem
- Re-Imagine Idea
- Engineer Plan of Action
- Execute and Master
- BONUS: Solving Life’s Problems provides a solid introduction to the process and the mindset required to help you solve your life’s problems most effectively.
When you purchase the Engineer Plan of Action IQ Matrix you will receive:
- A PDF copy of the IQ Matrix, which you can use for printing in high resolution.
- A JPG image file of the IQ Matrix, which is ideal for viewing on tablets and mobile devices.
- A Desktop Background version of the map you can use for reference on your computer.
- A MindManager file for those who wish to edit the content of the IQ Matrix.
- A printable PDF summary of this IQ Matrix to help you better understand each concept.
Additional visual resources and variations of this IQ Matrix might be added to your account page at no extra cost in the future.
