Sideways Mind

"I was moved by his genius – our best business colleagues are using Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping and other techniques to fly through daily information and reduce research projects to half the size." — Louis Tice, Chairman and Director, The Pacific Institute, Seattle

Sidewaysmind is in the business of training people to use the “new thinking” tools and methods of:

Edward de Bono – Six Thinking Hats method (you will be trained to use Parallel Thinking and also two Lateral Thinking tools – Concept Extraction/Triangle and Random Word); and
Tony Buzan – Mind Mapping method (you will be trained use Radiant Thinking Tool plus the TEFCAS learning model).

All Professional Development Programs are presented by accredited instructor, Anne S Conway, who is also an Australian lawyer and lecturer.

You should check with your accountant as to whether attending Professional Development training programs whilst travelling will have a tax benefit for you.

These “new thinking” tools and methods are different from “traditional thinking” tools and do not take a lifetime to learn and master. Immediately after attending your professional development training session you will be able to use parallel, lateral and radiant thinking as an alternative to your “traditional thinking” tools.

The reason for learning “new thinking” tools and methods is to “outmanoeuvre your opponent” and to “design your way forward” because unfortunately “traditional thinking” tools are limited in where they can take you and when you use them solely, they limit you in time and space to an “argument” for or against and “Debating what can be”.

To illustrate the point — you have knowledge and experience. You are adept at using the argument based “traditional thinking” tools created by men who lived 2400 years ago, so why don’t you have the 'Competititive Edge' in your chosen field.

Why do you experience:

Meetings with no resolution to problems and issues, no decisions made, no new ideas being generated, the biggest mouth/dominant person controlling the agenda of your meetings.
Negotiations where you are unable to meet and change the 'game' of your opponent even though you have learned the games and responses. Where no matter how thoroughly you have planned and prepared, the actual negotiation doesn’t follow your prescribed course and you find yourself unable to take 'control' of the thought processes of the other side during the negotiation to achieve the best outcome for yourself and your client.
Sales strategies and skills you have learned but don’t work for you in either a one on one situation or in group situations.
Marketing strategies and skills you have learned but you find them ineffective and costing a great deal of money because you don’t know how to get yourself and your staff to fully explore your possible markets and find solutions and implement those solutions in a way that will capture your market in a cost effective manner.
Conversations with family, friends, business associates, colleagues, school/career/university/mentors all ending in your feeling as though you are not able to communicate effectively.
Lawyers and Barristers – client interviews, negotiations, court appearances, running cases for clients. All situations where the preparing, planning and actual success of the case is built on fully 'exploring' the case and the flow of information. Where you have learned the use of persuasion techniques but find when the time arrives, that those techniques don’t work for you every time.
Judges and Juries not able to reduce the time spent deciding cases and ensuring at the same time the case has been fully 'explored with discipline and focus'.

As Sir Anthony Mason told Edward de Bono at the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention “… it is often the case in an argument that both sides are right but are looking at different aspects of the situation.” — from “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward de Bono, republished 2000

In essence, anytime, anywhere, you interact with other people and feel you aren’t achieving what you know others are able to achieve.

To have the 'competitive edge' you need to be able to 'control, manage and organise' your thinking processes and the thinking processes of others.

Argument based “Traditional thinking” tools, are drawn from the activities and writings of men who lived 2400 years ago (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle).

You have been trained since infancy in these 'traditional thinking' tools, to argue against another person’s point of view by analysing, assessing, debating and making judgments – in other words to be “adversarial”.

Adding the “new thinking” tools and methods to your way of life, making them a part of who you are, will change your responses to events and situations so that you will not always “argue” first.

Those changes will have a flow on effect because you will use them naturally and easily with your every day activities and interactions, with your family, in your career, your business, and through using them you will “Design your way forward to your future”. Change of this kind is surprisingly simple and easy – actually deciding you want to change your programmed responses is the first step.

Learning the new thinking tools will enable you to become 'creative and innovative' and 'build wealth from the new ideas generated' as well as 'new and innovative solutions to existing and future problems'.

The list below contains just a small fraction of the people and organisations around the world using them now:

Nearly all Fortune 500 companies, ABB, Alcoa, American Standard, AMP, AT&T, Boeing, Bosch (Germany), British Coal, BT (UK), BP, British Airways, Ciba-Ceigy, Citibank, CSR, Du Pont, Erricson (Sweden), Exxon, Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation, Ford, General Foods, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Kodak, Merck, Mondadori (Italy), Monsanto, Nestle, Nokia (Finland), NTT (Japan), Optus, Pfizer, Prudential, Procter & Gamble, Sandoz, Shell, Siemens (Germany), Total (France) and State Governments in Australia and various governments overseas.

Schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Venezuala, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the UK. As well as lawyers, judges and Australia and America, and juries in the United States.

Our accredited instructor, Anne Conway, as both a lawyer and a lecturer has experienced the positive results of using these “new thinking” tools and methods in her work with clients, law graduates and members of the legal profession. Anne has, since becoming accredited to instruct, trained people from the following walks of life in these “new thinking” tools and methods:

Lawyers, employees of Qantas, CSIRO, Premiers Department, Dept of Juvenile Justice, Crown Solicitors Office, Crown Advocates Chambers, Barristers, law students, law graduates, architects, graphic artists, nurses, CEO’s, General Managers and Directors of software, computer and online program companies, secretaries, salesmen, marketing managers, software trainers, executive assistants, receptionists, police officers, firepersons, website designers, teachers, children and persons who are no longer in the workforce but who believe that expanding their thinking tools will assist them to understand and deal with future generations – they don’t wish to be left behind.

Six Thinking Hats

Immediately after attending your Professional Development Program of 1 day or the more detailed 2 day program, be able to use Edward de Bono’s – six thinking hats method to “design your way forward” using parallel and lateral thinking tools to:

Explore all sides of the situation you choose to focus on with discipline and you will be able to ensure that all participants follow the rules you set down for that exploration;

Control, manage and organise your thinking processes and the thinking processes of others;

Ensure that at all your meetings the participants will contribute in a disciplined, productive, energetic and focused manner;

No longer will the 'biggest mouth' or 'dominant person' be in control of the Agenda and outcome;

Set yourself apart from your competition;

Gain the clarity of thought to see issues, problems and decisions that need to be made, in a new light, so that you will be able to solve those problems and issues, and make decisions effectively and efficiently;

Increase your work productivity; and

… these are only some of the benefits

Anne Conway will train you in the use of the Six Thinking Hats method and expand your knowledge and use of the “new thinking” tools into specific areas of your life, your career and business, for example the 1 day professional development program of “Negotiation Skills using Six Thinking Hats”.

We want you to know 'how to think'. Not 'what' you are led by others to think.

A vital difference from what has occurred in your educational experience to this date.

Mind Mapping

Immediately after attending your Professional Development Program of half-day or 1-day you will be able to use Tony Buzan’s – Mind Mapping Method, using Radiant Thinking to tap into the way your brain actually works. Being able to Mind Map will result in you:

Creating Mind maps of large amounts of information gathered on a subject into 1 or 2 maps rather than pages and pages of text;
To learn the information gathered on a subject easily and quickly;
To present those large amounts of information in an organised format;
Improve memory and recall;
Improve the results you attain in exams;
Plan major activities and projects in a fraction of the time normally taken;
Take notes in meetings, school and lectures quickly and easily;
Make notes for your speeches and lectures quickly and easily;
Make presentations using Mind Maps;
Reduce study and learning time;
No longer make “lists” but map out your day in agendas, diaries, daily activity maps;
Analyse contracts, leases, documents easily and quickly;
Analyse, map and learn legislation, subjects of your choice quickly and easily;
Through using the TEFCAS learning model, you will change the way you think about learning; and
These are only some of the benefits of attending a professional development program on Mind Mapping.

We want you to know “How to Learn” efficiently and effectively. This is vastly different from your educational experience to date of being told "What to Learn" without the “How to Learn”. Immediately after attending the Mind Mapping professional development program you will know “How to Learn”.

Two weeks after your practical workshop, Anne will contact you to discuss any questions that may have arisen in implementing your “new thinking” tools and methods into your life, career and business.

Note: you should check with your accountant the tax benefits of training in professional development programs whilst travelling in Australia as training programs are provided in Sydney, New South Wales and in Hobart, Tasmania.

Professional development programs will be provided outside Australia where numbers permit. Contact Anne Conway on the link below to “express your interest” in either attending or holding a Professional Development Program in New Zealand, Hawaii, Mainland America or London.

Select from 1 day or more detailed 2 day programs in Six Thinking Hats and
Select from either a ½ day or 1 day program on Mind Mapping or a 1 day Think, Learn and Create program.

Six Hats | Mind Mapping