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Over the last month, we have spent nearly every day in workshops with some of our top clients. And in every single one, the concept of terrible PowerPoint slides came up. Everyone wants to know how to make their slides simpler. Everyone wants to have a “Steve Jobs” level of simplicity with their slides. But […]

Let me know if this sounds familiar… you have a presentation to give. You immediately begin thinking about your slide deck. You pull out the last presentation you gave on the topic, you dust it off and realize that some of the same slides will work. So you are on your way. Then you look […]

What does the world of communication look like right now? What are the barriers to getting our point across today, at this moment in time? There are a bunch, and none of them are inconsequential. Truth #1: The world continues to be a really noisy place. There are lots of people and things competing for attention span and mind share, and […]

(Writer’s Note: This post is actually a few years old. But I recently stumbled across it in our archive, and it remains just as relevant today as it was when I first wrote it in 2013. In many ways, this problem has gotten WORSE. Anyway… this is a problem many of us are prone to, […]

Not long ago, while teaching a client workshop, one of the participants verbalized a great way to think about business meetings… specifically, a great way to think about the level of information you need to be able to discuss. The participant described the difference between an “index card meeting” and a “full binder meeting.” Some meetings […]

My colleagues and I speak and write all the time about the importance of getting to the point. We talk about the importance of respecting your audience’s time, managing their attention span, and how our fast-paced 21st century world makes this skill a critical one. It turns out that a pretty famous guy, Winston Churchill, […]

At the heart of almost everything we teach is the concept of intentionality… preparing and communicating with intention and purpose. Great communication skills don’t just happen. Not without some thought, effort, planning, and yes, intention. In addition to being intentional about your message’s main points, we also encourage being intentional about the structure, sequence and […]

We all aspire to be better communicators. We all know that communicating well will help us accomplish our goals, drive good outcomes, and add value to our colleagues and customers, and generate business.  But while we all may agree on the benefits of good communication, we generally think about poor communication as a momentary setback. […]

I love to garden. Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows that. I write about it all the time. Its relaxing, gets me outside breathing the fresh air, and there is a distinct sense of satisfaction that comes from creating something and watching it grow. I also love the rhythm of the seasons with gardening. […]

Have you ever considered mapping your progress as a communicator? In short, the only way to REALLY be sure you’re improving as an effective communicator is to have some way to measure that improvement. When we work with clients at The Latimer Group, we use a three-stage rubric of Professional-, Leadership-, and Executive-Level communication… So how do we […]