Category: Blog

Imagine you’re sitting in a conference room and the speaker arrives at the podium holding a huge stack of papers and immediately starts showing endless power point slides. Each slide is dense with so many bullet points, sentences and graphs—you can barely take any of it in. It’s a barrage of information. How do you feel at that moment? Bored? Frustrated? Angry? What are you thinking about? How can you escape? What’s for lunch? If you fall asleep, will anyone notice?

Daniel was brilliant. A data analyst at a rapidly growing startup, he had swiftly proven himself to be a keen thinker who could quickly find patterns amidst rows of data. There was just one problem.

The number one tip of all if you really want to improve communication is: Eliminate Weak Language such as ‘Filler Words’. In English, the main filler word is ‘um’ – every language has some version of the hesitation form.

I had just wrapped up a team meeting when a trampoline fell on me. Working from home can come with its own hazards. My wife and I chose to live in a small apartment, prioritizing location, amenities, and common spaces over size. But with the amenities cut off, the common spaces sealed off, and the location now irrelevant, all we’re left with is an expensive studio — and me working in the closet. And that’s where I was parked, nestled cozily under a hanging trampoline, right before I got this concussion.

So you made it to the big time. You landed a speaking slot at a large conference. With hundreds of panels and workshops, and hundreds of speakers, how can you make your talk memorable long after the conference cleans up from an influx of attendees?

On Friday October 9, 2015, Jurgen Klopp, a German soccer coach, walked into his first press conference as Manager of Liverpool FC in front of a room packed with reporters from around the world. The club had underachieved for many years and faced many challenges and doubts. Klopp simply stated that everyone involved had to ‘change from doubters to believers’. Just over four years later, Liverpool FC were World Champions.

As a new year takes off, many of you are gearing up presentations for new business or proposed budget spending, or a brilliant departmental plan. You may be thinking, “How can I structure my presentation so that it is clear, concise, and memorable to my audience?” or “Listening to boring a presentation is painful. I don’t want my audience to feel that way.”

Well that was a bit different! It started with booking the flight. The options were severely limited, there was no priority security lane but there wasn’t any need – the teams were bored waiting for the next passenger to scan. How lovely!

If a soft skill becomes measurable, does that make it hard data? In case you haven’t heard, metrics are the wave of the future. (And the future was yesterday.In an age when our time is at such a premium, we better know in advance that something is going to be worth our while. When it comes to Learning & Development, that translates as: “Will this training drive measurable growth?” And while instincts go a long way, nothing says measurable like a line graph.

People ask me all the time for tips for working from home, specifically how to improve on time management. My response: “have you ever heard of energy management?” Psychologist Adam Grant makes the argument that productivity isn’t about time management