Jan2009

One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah Ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister.

He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which gives you six months to find it."

"If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?"

"It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy."

Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility. Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet.

"Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?" asked Benaiah.

He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile.

That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity.

"Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what I sent you after?"

All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled. To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, "Here it is, your majesty!"

As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweller had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: gimel, zayin, yud, which began the words "Gam zeh ya'avor" -- "This too shall pass."

At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.

2008 saw a huge year of growth and change, not just at Mindworks but everywhere so it seems, but life is never stagnant and change is constant and that is simply the way of it, as time moves on…

And so, at the end of 2008 and after a huge year here at Mindworks we were looking forward to a little winding down and Christmas cheer over the Festive season, and a jolly good rest!

Laurie and his wife, Lydia, have been off exploring overseas for a very well earned break, visiting family and/or playing tourist in Hawaii, America, Canada, Italy & Hong Kong for a few weeks while the office was run by skeleton staff in his absence (i.e. me still chained to the computer!)

Laurie worrying about freezing off important Laurie & wife Lydia exploring the alleys of

We began preparing for 2009 last year with our (a) new “Energizer” course, (b) the much anticipated extension to our 'Train the Trainer' course, “Maximize Your Training Impact” Level 2 along with a number of other projects in the works, to keep us busy.

Our public workshop dates for 2009 have been set and can be found above or on our website - if you are thinking of coming along to one, please pencil them in your diary now so you, and your staff, don’t miss out.

We’re looking forward to working with you all again this year (after Laurie returns in the last week of January) and thank you for your custom and being a part of our ever growing list of friends and happy clients. We always enjoy working with you.

Laurie, Lindel, Shez, Eric, Jeannie, John, Sue-Ellen, Roger and all the team at Mindworks would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families the best, happiest, safest and prosperous 2009, full of success, (both personally & professionally ) and, most importantly….FUN!

P.S: Need help training your staff in Speaking Skills? Building Rapport? Stress Management? Laurie is but one of a number of experienced and dynamic speakers under the Mindworks banner, experts waiting to assist your organisation - call us for more information - or check this page for areas were we might be of benefit.

P.P.S: Did you know that the ratio of the volume of grey matter to white matter in the cerebral hemipheres of an average 20 year old equals 1.3 - at age 50 it is 1.1

(Miller, A.K., Alston, R.L. and Corsellis, J.A., Variation with age in the volumes of grey and white matter in the cerebral hemispheres of man: measurements with an image analyser, Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol., 6:119-132, 1980)

EVALUATION & RESULTS GRAPH

A Positive Mindset and sensible Goal Setting = Success - let Mindworks show you how

MEMORY MNEMONICS

A mnemonic device (pronounced "neh-mon-ik") is a memory aid.

DO YOU HAVE ANY YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE?

Never Eat Soggy Weetbixs (North South East & West)
Mars Visits Every Monday, Just Stays Until Noon (Passes) (Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune (Pluto))
Tropical Storms Make Therals Exciting (Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere/Ionosphere, Exosphere
Elephants Great Big Dirty Feet – Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit (Music line notes: EGBDF)
A Tense Grey Cat Lay Very Low, Sneaking Slowly, Contemplating A Pounce" (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces)

ENERGISE, EXCITE & ENGAGE with ROGER CARTER

THE THREE "E's" OF TRAINING

Who is Roger Carter?

6 MARCH 2009 - BRISBANE

Looking for ways to Energise your audience?

Excite them with your Presentation?

Engage them fully?

Would you like to know how to keep the Energy high and facilitate a higher level learning experience through fun and interaction?

This hand’s on, practical workshop is designed for trainers, teachers, facilitators, educators and coaches to experientially explore the utilisation of games to add value to your training ‘toolbox’ of tricks and resources. During the workshop we’ll create a non-threatening fun environment using games, activities and simulations. At the end of the day you’ll go away with at least 30 practical low prop activities suitable for any group – young, old or in-between.

The ‘Energise, Excite and Engage’ workshop is guaranteed to provide you with many ideas and games that you can utilise with your own training and development groups.

During the full on one day workshop we will:

Discuss the risk management issues
Discuss the concept of ‘serious fun’
Demonstrate how to teach on the run ‘fly by the seat of your pants’
Provide you with a simple model to de-brief your activities
Provide you with low cost/low prop games
Provide a basis on how to ‘invent’ your own games
And depending on the dynamics of the groups more….

BOOK NOW to secure your seat - $395.00 + GST

SEE HERE FOR FURTHER DETAILS....

When booking your venue to host your next training session, consider the following points to assist with the comfort of your participants:

1. Is there plenty of natural light? Avoid rooms where there is no access for natural light - delegates will unconsciously seat themselves to areas that best suit their needs. Some like plenty of light, others less. If you have areas where the natural light can enter the room, and another side of the room governed by artificial light that can be adjusted up or down, then you have catered for all requirements.

2. Do you have control of the temperature? In the sometimes wildly fluctuating Australian environment, it is of benefit to be able to adjust the temperature of a room as required. Better than allowing your participants to either freeze or boil during the course of the day. A lack of personal comfort destroys clear thinking and lowers attention/retention.

3. Can delegates leave the training rooms to access fresh air and a natural environment? Many venues offer their clients lovely natural surroundings to enjoy during breaks which aids memory retention - a relaxed mind can more easily 'store' the information gleaned during the intense learning period, and the chance to sit outside surrounded by gardens is soothing and calming for the mind. Avoid venues where you cannot leave the room all day - a change of view can benefit enormously and refresh your audience, preparing them to dive right back into the work when they return from their break.

4. Does

the venue have someone close at hand for those "emergencies"? Every now and then, the gremlins take hold of a well organised day - the iPod stops working and you need a new CD player, your projector decides to sulk after working fine the day before, you need an extension cord for your media or simply some blue tack or tape - something can go wrong and easy access to venue staff can cut down on unexpected delay times when trying to circumnavigate unforseen problems. We once had to walk down 2 flights of stairs, across to another building and up two flights, just to find someone to help. Had this happened when the Presenter was alone, it might well have set the whole day back by a good time while the problem was addressed. Venue staff close at hand can prevent a disaster.

5. Does the venue offer a range of healthy, tasty refreshments and can they easily cope with 'special diets'? Weighing your delegates down with huge, rich lunches is not helping their learning process. The body uses a lot of energy in digesting large quantities of mixed foods - what does everyone want to do right after a Christmas feast? Fall asleep of course, and big lunches during the training day will not aid their concentration when you most want them alert and bright. Consider healthy, light alternatives in place of rich, heavy meals - and make sure your venue can cope with the special diets - the rarest we've had is a "Nightshade" diet, but the venue came up trumps, all kudos to them.

Our “Maximise Your Training Impact” seminar is our most successful and popular seminar, and so far has been condensed into one day of training only – and yet… The cry of “we want more” or “this should be a two day course” has been a recurring theme on our collected Evaluations for a few years now. And it’s true: our course could easily extend to two days as Laurie has a wealth of information to share and really has to cut his presentations down to fit into the one day time frame – so what to do about this?

Well, we’ve decided to develop a second day, our Level 2 for those wanting to learn more and extend their abilities further. Make things “even better”.

As a result, Laurie attended three dedicated professional development courses last year to refresh and reacquaint himself with N.L.P. (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to refresh his skills in this area and incorporate them into the Level 2. M.T.I. course. This workshop will of course be available both in-house and as a public workshop.

Discover the modules we've had to cut from the Level 1 course - and discover new areas developed the Mindworks way, to extend your 'toolbox' further.

and join us for two fun days of exceptional training - we "train the trainer" to be "even better".

If you've already experienced this seminar with Laurie, we would love you to pass on your recommendation and comments to your colleagues - as I've said before, 95% of our business is via word of mouth promotion & recommendation!

(All our public courses are $395 + gst per participant which includes welcome tea/coffee, morning & afternoon teas, lunch and take home workbook covering the days programme. Discounts available for group bookings.)

It's always hard to pick a few relevant comments from the overwhelming responses we receive from participants - here are a few and thank you so much...it was our pleasure doing business with you ...

Looking for fun ways to split up your groups? Then check out these fantastic new cards developed by Bellmetrics. Designed to offer you a myriad of ways to break up your groups throughout the day, this box set comes complete with a set of cards and detailed instructions on how to use them, along with a layout of all the groupings for various sized teams that are possible and ideas for games and energisers. A handy tool for Facilitators, Trainers and Teachers - this has been developed using technology designed to ensure your groups are well mixed, every time. The mix of symbols, patterns and pictures provide you with a tool to develop your own games and educational activities.

Interested? Then just call Mindworks 07) 3289 4977 or email: info@mindworksteam.com.au and we will place your order for you - These retail at $60.00 (plus p&h) and work with all four learning styles : Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic & Tactile.