Communication

“That’s not what I said…”“That’s not what I meant…” “You’re not hearing me…” You’ve probably said at least one of those three things at some point in communicating with your colleagues. At first pass, they may seem like simple objections, simple statements to help steer someone to the point you’re trying to make. But if […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Facilitator and Coach at The Latimer Group. Stories create connection, pure and simple. At The Latimer Group, we have a favorite quote about stories: “There isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love once you’ve heard their story.” Fred Rogers – a man whose life’s work was to bring people […]

I had a powerful discussion yesterday with a room full of people from one of our client companies. We were talking about their new service area, and how to position it. Their company is in a highly competitive industry where differentiation is hard, and where price is highly scrutinized.  The fear in the room is […]

Here’s a great goal for you in your next meeting or presentation. Make it your mission in life to make it easy for people to remember what you say. Have you ever had the experience where a presenter just walked into the room, and from the moment he or she opened their mouth, you were captivated? […]

Hello friends! We are continuing our latest blog tradition of fielding your questions about effective communication. You can send us the questions any way you want… via phone, email or the “Dear Latimer” box on the right side of most pages on our site. When we get a question we will always answer directly back […]

Think about what makes you feel engaged, productive and motivated at work. Is it feeling like a cog in a machine? Is it the feeling that you have no meaningful understanding of the people leading you? Is it feeling alone and isolated? Of course not! Healthy, happy workplaces foster connection: Humans fundamentally want to feel that they […]

My wife and I were at a wonderful birthday celebration yesterday for a dear family friend, and the party was filled with many friendly faces, some of whom I had not seen in a while. Among those faces was a lawyer friend who is an accomplished and highly-regarded litigator, and who I had interacted with […]

My colleagues and I always preach preparation and practice before you stand up to speak. And whenever I bring up these twin concepts in a workshop, there is almost always someone who raises their hand and says “well, what if you don’t have time to prepare or practice? What do you do then?” That question always […]

We spend a lot of time in this space, and with our clients, discussing how to communicate more effectively. We discuss how to prepare and structure a message, how to capture attention, how to make the meeting valuable, how to get to the point, etc, etc, etc. We talk about how to make your audience more likely to want […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Facilitator and Coach at The Latimer Group. In Part 1 of this post, we examined the importance of knowing one’s persuasive point of view to effective communication. It is our thesis statement. It is what our audience most needs to hear in order to understand our message, care […]