Meetings

My colleagues and I always talk and teach about the importance of knowing your audience, and preparing for your work communication correctly. And at the center of that work is the ability to clarify the message and “the ask,” to try to anticipate what the audience will care about, and the questions or objections they […]

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. […]

We live in a world of distractions, constant and loud. We are expected to be available to everyone all the time, we compete for mindshare with unlimited amounts of content and entertainment, we have a social media landscape which can turn every day into an all-day conversation with friends all over the world. Quieting the mind, and […]

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 […]

Death by PowerPoint. Or as Dilbert put it: “PowerPoint poisoning.” It is software that is so despised that it has been banished by many organizations, and is the frequent subject of cartoons about the proverbial drudge of office life. It’s easy to hate on PowerPoint. After all, it’s often the single common denominator between all the boring presentations […]

Communication clarity is really hard in the 21st century… a mantra I have recited over and over in this space. It’s hard because of the noise, the competition for mind share, and shrinking attention spans. But often the best way to combat difficulty and noise is to focus on the most simple, basic elements of […]

Hello, clients and friends of The Latimer Group, We are excited to share the latest issue of Fathom with you, as the first installment of our “Latimer at 20” anniversary campaign. Over the next several months, we will be coming to you with a wide variety of content, all of designed to share our best learnings […]

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 […]

My colleagues and I write all the time about the characteristics and keys to great communication. Many of them are obvious… preparation and practice are near the top of any list. But there is another component to great communication, that often goes unnoticed in our fast-paced, back-to-back-to-back meeting world. Time management, and creating a short […]

This post was written by Hannah Morris, Facilitator and Coach at The Latimer Group. In our first post in this series, we examined the idea that, within our authentic presence, each of us shows up in a variety of different ways based on choices we make to adapt to our environment, audience, and situation. We have […]