Engagement Formats – Company of Mind

We offer a variety of engagement formats to suit different needs. We also work with other facilitators, contributing to large scale events and provide components of other programmes. Our successful track record includes delivering services online, as well as in person.

Below is an outline of some formats with typical parameters. See “Services” for topic offerings and Pricing.

Short Workshops and Facilitations

*Facilitated 1 Day event for media company*

Typical short form workshops and facilitations up to a day in length include selected topics at various levels of depth for different purposes, such as:

1 day – Learning events on key topics such as “Thinking as a Skill” or for more in-depth focus on specific components or topics such as “Innovation“. 1 day facilitations can address an area needing development, such as business strategy or team cohesion.

*1 Day event with 3 parts on the Skill of Thinking*

Half a day – as shorter, more limited, versions

2-3 Hours – as brief introductory sessions.

1 hr minimum as a presented “taster” session.

*“Thinking and Doing – active session on business modelling”, 1 hour slot in 3 day event,* *National Symposium, Birmingham Library*

Online Events

The online format can be adapted for various purposes. We include interactive elements using breakout group work and online tools to facilitate engagement, as well as delivering plenary formats. Here are some examples:

1 day events for facilitations or training.
Minimum 2.5 hour events for interactive learning sessions for up to 50 delegates.
Introductory talks or short presentations as elements of other programmes of up to an hour.
Ongoing input to development programmes, typically for anything up to a year with sessions of up to 1 day, or consecutive days, at intervals.
Sessions at intervals over a longer programme, for example over 10 days (for an online sandpit).

Multi-day programmes

Advanced Management and Leadership

An example two day workshop is “advanced management and leadership”, on collective thinking, strategy, communication, understanding people, and change. This brings together the “thinking” layer material, applied to an understanding of “people”. Typically for companies where managers moving to executive positions already have much experience of managing teams – hence the “advanced”.

*Outline plans for 2 day event in development*

Three-day programmes can allow for a combination of focused learning alongside facilitated elements, or experiential projects such as this an “Aspects of Professional Practice” programme for developing engineers.

*Taught and facilitated elements as part of a 3 day programme*

Development Thinking Structure

Two one-day “book ends” a few months apart, with an optional session in the middle, for a series of learning modules provided by an institution over a longer period of time, to provide an overview framework for a programme.

*Facilitated events at the beginning and end, with interim check-ins for a 3 month University programme*

Facilitations

The facilitation equivalents of workshops of different lengths can include taught thinking components (for example “decision making”); the planning of structure for stakeholder meetings; and working alongside domain experts such as finance specialists, to enhance their facilitations.

*Three part structure for a half day facilitation*

*Multi-day series which allows for a more in-depth process from exploration to proposals*

Strategy facilitations, for example, can take place over 1, 1.5 or 2 days, and follow on from business or departmental work-focused meetings.

*Example of components forming the basis for a Strategy Facilitation*

*Co-facilitation of a regional conference covering the collective thinking output process.*

*Three part output, facilitating future plans.*

Consortia Facilitation

Facilitations for academic and industrial teams to construct proposals. We use thinking tools to help them collaborate on designing proposals. Typically we work though exploration, idea generation, refinement, choice and action, capturing the output of the process to take forward, over several days, which may be non-consecutive to allow time for information gathering between stages. A similar structure is used for commercial business modelling and reinvention.

Components for other Programmes

Workshop Elements

Thinking tools provide natural components to enhance other programmes. For example we provide “idea generation”, “group thinking”, and “planning/action” components around experiential elements of programmes, such as a year-long “Lightbox” programme for professional photographers, providing input over 3 days to an initial week’s event programme, and other large scale programme structures.

*Sessions including learning and a facilated project on a 1 week programme.*

Speaker Presentations

Company of Mind’s Dr. Adrian West also offers an after-dinner or specific conference, masterclass or event presentation on an aspect of Mind and Thinking of relevance for your event.

Dr. Adrian West

“Adrian West is an inspirational, exceptional person, the kind of person you meet only once or twice in your life, who provides a real pivotal experience and shows you an entirely more fulfilling way to live.”

Delegate, Graduate Schools cross-University Residential Programme