- "Well funded work fails; impoverished work succeeds: it may not be about resources."
- "Is the need intelligence or imagination?"
- "Unconscious belief colours perception; so..
- ..What you believe, reveals how you learned to see."
- "Practice works - in sport. So why don't we do that with our work?"
- "Is it about technology, or about using our minds?"
- "Are we thinking or just exercising old habits of thought?"
- "It is hard to see clearly what you deny exists."
- "Just as learning the alphabet enables us to communicate, learning to think develops our human potential."
- "Once recognised, it's hard to see it any other way."
- "Certainty is just an emotion - don't be overcome by it."
- "Starting with what we already know, we limit our future."
- "If you don't design your own strategy, you'll be a part of someone else's."
- "To use our minds effectively, we need to direct thinking towards a focus."
"What we see on the ground, depends on the direction from which it is illuminated from above."
“Adrian has all-round enthusiasm and prodigious intellectual capability. We know him as the personal development guru whose attention to detail, fanatical interest in ideas and their development make him a wonderful facilitator”. University of Liverpool
Graduate School
“Co-ordination and delivery of a complex innovative programme of activities that have added considerable value, assisting us in attaining 13% new product development throughout this year. ...entertaining, enjoyable and understandable.... a new way to achieve positive change in the way we manage mature markets.’
John Hannah, Business Manager / Group Managing Director,
Vita Liquid Polymers
"82% of businesses ... now more likely to experiment with new products and services 6 months after the events ...suggest the improved agility... has been durable...One business reported additional turnover impact of £80,000 already achieved and predicts a total of £500,000 over the next two years".
Independent auditors report on "Innovate with Confidence" impact
"Hi Adrian, Sophie, Thank you so much. You brought a much needed new perspective backed by solid experience in those new ideas, and in cutting through barriers. I very much enjoyed watching everyone engage in the day, and see folks thaw out and get excited about the ideas. I think the intro you both gave was perfect, and some follow up and further discussion could cement the work.This is very exciting"
Software Engineering Team Lead, from a Team Strategy facilitated event
“The idea generation methods from Adrian and Sophie were instrumental in helping us to immediately embark on developing lots of research ideas. The online format was excellent, keeping us focused - what a truly excellent and incredibly enjoyable experience this has been.”
Laura Salisbury, Royal College of Art, online UK-wide Researcher Event
Download our free pdfs
Ten Tips for Better Thinking
and
Stimulating Creativity at Work
What we do
We help companies, organisations, research groups, and individuals make step-changes in their thinking effectiveness. People naturally enjoy proactively organising and building their futures together. We help them do that, using systematic approaches to creative, effective, and skilled collaboration based on our model of mind.
We do this through learning events and facilitations delivered face-to-face or online to address different thinking situations.
Facilitated sessions are bespoke designs to address client needs and include such topics as business strategy, the interface between academia and industry, innovation, personal organisational effectiveness, helping groups thrive, collaboration, vision planning, team strategy and development, decision making.
" People: Understand similarities, appreciate differences; work with people and change."
Our core training interventions applicable in all sectors are on foundational subjects such as "Practical Thinking - for the purpose of doing"; "Problem Solving & Decision Making"; "Working with People"; "Getting Organised for Life"; "Creativity & Innovation".
Our "Secrets of Researcher Success" is a programme developed specifically for academic researchers delivered online or face to face, and covers:
1 - Thinking
2 - Organising Yourself
3 - People
4 - Becoming a Star Researcher
Why this matters
Innovation performance gains, Gov. Auditor's report.
- What problems keep you awake?
- How are you going to find ways to solve them?
- How will you inspire people to rise to the task and relish working together on the challenges facing you all?
- How can you create the future amidst change, whilst managing the present?
- What if small changes could make a huge difference in your organisation or company's performance? How could you identify what those might be?
- If you could all be 5% more effective and engaged tomorrow, what would that mean to you?
Success depends more on finding ways to think more effectively, and to shift our perception, than it does on an IT upgrade. We can help you do that.
Who we are
Our backgrounds are in research, industry, and design: for technology and Mind. Dr. Adrian West co-founded the Advanced Interfaces Research Group in Computer Science at the University of Manchester, leading computer science and psychology contributions to international research projects. He has worked in Space and Defence, and led a team of engineers at a U.S. venture capital technology company. He was Research Director for The Edward de Bono Foundation UK, and has inspired over 200 cross-function innovation teams.
Sophie Brown, co-founder of Company of Mind held the position of Creative Director at the Edward de Bono Foundation UK. Sophie studied Fine Art at Edinburgh, before moving to larger canvases of Landscape Architecture designing environments and running construction contracts across North West England. She co-designs and facilitates our thinking programmes, and develops graphics for the Canvas of the Mind in the thinking and facilitation arena. 
Get in touch
Contact us to find out more, or to discuss your requirements.
Email:think@companyofmind.com
Highlights
Articles on the topic of "Better Thinking Together" at Fellowship of Mind. Contributors welcome.
Business Model Canvas: A useful reinvention tool we employ for business and for personal careers: Sophie Brown is one of the co-creators of Business Model You. (ranked #1 in business start up books by The Independent) and “Business Models for Teams”.
MBTI: Adrian West is a qualified MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) practitioner who can administer the Personality Assessment (Step 1) for individuals and teams to support their innovation capacity.
Facilitation example: Photo legacy project. and Article "Stepping Back to Jump Forward" following online "Rethink" session for Redeye The Photography Network.
"Boost Your Brain to Grow Your Business" Sample of Workshops from the Innovate with Confidence Toolbox. See also the Innovate with Confidence collaboration.
Design and Facilitation of multi-university Research Sandpits, such as Materials challenges, Archaeological conservation and Biomedical materials online over 10 days, or in person over 2-3 days.
Interview on "How can we be more creative? in Research Staff newsletter "Incite".
We help people do the thinking themselves to create, innovate, make strategy, and act, making the most of all the expertise in the room.
- Your session was wonderful. Not only did you deliver the tools and approaches we were after, but you backed it up so well with theory in such an entertaining, engaging and accessible way, giving people who have never done this before, insight into the leadership and thinking arena.
- A complex innovative programme of activities that have added considerable value, assisting us in attaining 13% new product development throughout this year.
- Interesting and entertaining...you do a better job than the BBC to inform, educate and entertain...perception, and the brain fascinates me!
- 82% of businesses...now more likely to experiment with new products and services 6 months after the events...durable...One business reported additional turnover impact of £80,000 already achieved and predicts a total of £500,000 over the next two years.
- This has been the most brilliantly inspiring, fascinatingly challengingly and wonderfully motivating week...
- The experience has been truly transformative, offering me invaluable insights into problem-solving...The wealth of knowledge I acquired during this workshop surpassed my expectations.
- Virtual learning has been incredibly challenging during the past ten months - the sessions with Company of Mind were invaluable. They helped me to think and work more resourcefully. I found a new way to display my research and see the overarching contribution and design. Although simple to do, it supercharged my thinking and moved me from literature to a research design that addresses some of the gaps being problematised in the literature.
- Feels amazing - I now have an empty in-box, it really takes the mental pressure off.
- What a fantastic course it was. I was riveted for every single minute... stimulating but also very useful. I can honestly say it will change the way that I think and work from now on
- What a revelation your event was for me. The techniques you are teaching...will give me exactly what I need - whole day was wonderful.
- Awesome - and very useful. It is honestly the most useful thing I have learnt in the last ten years of my life.
- The best put together thinking course materials I've ever seen and used
- The event went really well. Adrian was fantastic... delegates were left pretty awe inspied... probably one of the most underdeveloped areas in professional terms.
- IBM assessed the programme as delivering 'startling benefits that could not be achieved through other means'. Sophie's planning of the practical thinking exercises and participation in the facilitated discussions were core to the success of the programme.
- I quickly learnt the skills from my colleague and used the tools to secure an important collaboration with a leading international group.
- Thanks for changing my life, saving my marriage and making me a better human being.