Overview

All the material you need to learn and apply the Mindworks Approach, apart from a standard 100 billion neuron human brain which you must supply, is provided in The Mindworks Box.

The Mindworks Box

The Mindworks Approach is a straightforward yet powerful way of thinking through any situation and developing and implementing improvements. Based around a 9 step process, which provides a light structure for the kind of thinking we do naturally, the Mindworks Approach has a number of benefits. These include:

• ensuring that ideas are developed in a connected and logical way while also stimulating the creative and analytical thinking which is essential to the introducing improvements;
• providing a shared, jargon-free language for thinking about organised activities;
• enabling, when needed, complex situations to be tackled via the repeated application of a simple process at different ‘levels’ of an organisation.

The outputs of  the Mindworks Approach can be used as the basis for using more complex methodologies such as those related to project management, information systems analysis and strategic planning and budgeting.  This helps to ensure that clear thinking is done before these more complex and potentially time consuming approaches are used.

What’s in the Box?

The nine step process is introduced via an A4 card which demonstrates what users have to do at each step via a simple worked example.  This is supplemented by Technique Cards and Theory Cards.  Technique Cards introduce a range of creative thinking, evaluation and project management techniques on one side of A4, showing how these can be used at different points in the 9 steps.  Theory Cards introduce underlying ideas and theories, helping to deepen Mindworks Approach users’ understanding of what they are doing.

Three cards related to emotional intelligence have recently been added to the Box as understanding, using and managing one’s feelings and emotions is critical to effective innovation.

The Mindworks Box also includes: an audio CD which introduces the nine steps; Ideas Grids for capturing ideas and information in a structured way; Mindworks Meeting Cards, which are designed to enable productive meetings; and a CD-ROM with additional Technique and Theory Cards and computer based presentations which explain in more detail each part of the Mindworks Approach.  The CD-ROM also includes a detailed worked example, drawn from a real project, and an MP3 version of the Audio Guide which can be played on an MP3 player or computer.

The Mindworks Approach is stimulating, versatile and has been used by thousands of people around the world.   It has been used to design and improve whole organisations, business processes and teams.  It can also be applied by individuals to think-through their personal or work goals and identify ways in which these might met.

To find out more about pricing, and the services I and my associates provide to support users, please contact me via andrew.mindworks@gmail.com or by phoning my ‘Skype In’ voicemail number + 44 (0) 20 3239 9176 which I can monitor wherever I am.  For Skype users, my user name is Andrew_mindworks.

New! Online Delivery

The Mindworks Approach, and coaching in its application,  is now available via an online delivery service using a combination of specially configured blogs, wikis, instant messaging, Skype and other Web 2 and internet based technologies including email. The Mindworks Learning and Coaching System is very simple to use: if you can send an email you’ll have all the skills that are needed.

Onllne delivery offers a number of benefits:

• we can provide cost-effective coaching for individuals, as well as groups, wherever they are in the world and whenever they need it;
• Participants can work at their own pace and in their own time, rather than being ‘forced’, for example, to think creatively when the time isn’t right which can sometimes happen at a workshop.
• Coaching can work much better in an online environment, where people are able to reflect on their thoughts and think about the ideas and advice suggested by their coach in their own time.  Research, and my experience, has shown that online interactions can be far more effective than face-to-face ones in certain situations.
• Participants can be more creative – again research has shown that individual brainstorming is more effective than brainstorming in groups. (A combination of the two is particularly powerful.)
• The thinking of individual team members can be linked together in ways which simply weren’t possible before, forming networks of minds and ideas.
• Learning material, instructions and examples can be provided as and when needed as Mindworks’ users work on real projects.
• Links are provided to our new Mindworks Stories website which includes real-life examples – drawn from everything from the Space Race through to stories from organisations which have used the Mindworks Approach – which reinforce learning about innovation and improving organisations.
• Our new Mindworks Approach site provides step-by-step guidance to each step and technique, using videos of a worked example.

Online delivery can be blended with short workshops and face-to-face coaching when necessary and feasible.

Participants learn the approach by first applying it to something imaginary, often an organisation which might form part of the Huge Corporation.  Then they move on to applying it to the project they are working on, a business idea they want to develop, the business area they’d like to improve and so on, developing and implementing ideas for improvements.

Pricing for Mindworks Online is UK£1500.00 (plus 17.5% VAT for UK customers) for an indivdual.  This includes an individual licence to use the material provided and 10 hours of coaching support which can be spread over any period in bite-sized chunks.   Prices for teams – we suggest a maximum of 9 team members – include discounts based on the number of participants and the amount of support required.  Significant discounts apply to not-for-profit organisations, community groups and budding entrepreneurs.

For large organisations, we also offer a package of training, support and accreditation for internal coaches which can also be delivered online or offline or by a combination of the two methods.

Copies of the Mindworks Box are available for those who would like their own printed copy of the material for UK£100.00 plus VAT.  The boxes contain sets of Mindworks Meeting Cards, which are not available online, and some of the key cards in the box are laminated.  Boxes can be shipped globally by 24 courier if required.

If you would like to find out more please contact us via one of the methods listed above.

Payment can be made online via credit or debit card to our Paypal account.

(c) Mindworks 2008