6 Steps to Avoid “Death By Meeting”
Posted On January 29, 2025 BY Dean Brenner
I ask the following question in every workshop or coaching session I lead: “Have you ever been to that meeting or presentation that was so disorganized, that you regretted accepting the meeting invite?” Of course you have. We all have. The Latimer Group spends a lot of time working inside large organizations, and all of […]
Creating a Meeting Efficiency Plan for Your Organization
Posted On January 16, 2025 BY Jay Prewitt-Cruz, EdD
This post was written by Jay Prewitt-Cruz, Director of Coaching and Facilitation at The Latimer Group. At The Latimer Group, our recent winter retreat brought us back to square one on revisiting company norms and agreements for our meeting culture. At first glance, this might seem like a setback. But to us, it’s a significant win. As […]
Meetings are the Organization’s Blood Cells
Posted On December 3, 2024 BY Dean Brenner
How often do you sit in meetings and think to yourself “wow… this is a colossal waste of time“? My guess is your answer is some version of “far too often.” The next time you are feeling that way, do some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations. Make an estimate of what you get paid by the hour. […]
“Pre-Persuasion” Makes Everything Else Easier
Posted On November 5, 2024 BY Dean Brenner
Do you find persuasion easy? For most of us, the answer probably is some version of “sometimes.” It’s a broad question, with lots of variables: what you are “asking” for, the environment and situation, the person being asked, and several other variables can all play a part in how easily the persuasion happens… or if it […]
Balancing Authenticity and Appropriateness
Posted On October 23, 2024 BY Lauren St. Germain
Making the determination about what is and what is not appropriate is a judgment call that we can only make when we are honest with ourselves about who our audience is and what the context is for our meeting.
Mastering Organizational Communication
Posted On September 2, 2024 BY William Ricketson
This week, Latimer CEO and Co-Founder Dean Brenner is a guest on the Fiducient Advisors’ Nonprofit Investment Advisors podcast. The Latimer Group and Fiducient share a close corporate relationship, as we have worked together in a variety of ways on a number of different projects. So we were excited when they invited our CEO to […]
3 Visual Mistakes to Avoid in Your Next Slide Deck
Posted On July 25, 2024 BY Ang Barnard
This post was written by Ang Barnard, Facilitator and Coach for The Latimer Group. Did you know our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than text?! This is according to research compiled by 3M, the corporation behind Post-it Notes. In other words, intentionally using visuals in your presentations can help you capture attention and become more […]
Persuasion Tips: Be Prepared to Argue BOTH Sides of a Topic
Posted On June 20, 2024 BY Dean Brenner
We think and talk about persuasion a lot over here at The Latimer Group. We believe that the ability to use your words to create good outcomes is a critical skill in our world today… this has probably always been true, but perhaps never MORE true than it is today. In a world where communication and information […]
Think About Your Sound… and Your Silence
Posted On May 28, 2024 BY Dean Brenner
Most people think of their communication as a tangible and clear output: words on the page, images and messages on a slide, words coming out of the mouth. And there is truth in that belief. Strong communication is a series of clear outputs. We spend a ton of energy here at The Latimer Group helping […]
Forensic Preparation for Stronger Connection
Posted On March 12, 2024 BY Dean Brenner
How do you prepare for that big sales call, or that important meeting with your boss? If you prepare at all (not trying to insult you, but a shocking number of people still try to “wing it”), and if you are like most people we meet, then your prep goes something like this… organize your […]