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When you need to generate ideas

Gilly Meek, de Bono Accredited Trainer Have you ever been in that situation when you need to come up with ideas but your mind goes blank? Or maybe you can’t think past the same old solutions that keep resurfacing? Sadly, … Continue reading

Charity Challenge (February 2020 – Manchester) – Think on Your Feet®

We delivered another great Think on Your Feet® workshop in Manchester this week.  Thanks to all our attendees for contributing so positively, making it a fun and engaging two days. Due to its success we ran our third charity challenge. … Continue reading

Charity Challenge (January 2020 – London) – Think on Your Feet®

Here at Indigo we’ve had a busy start to 2020.  We delivered another busy Think on Your Feet® workshop in London. Thanks to all our attendees for contributing so positively, making it a fun and engaging two days. The charity … Continue reading

Sponsoring The Engineers And Scientists Of The Future (YES19)

The final of the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES19) global competition was held on Tuesday 10 December at the Royal Society, London. Teams of postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers went head-to-head to compete for a prize fund of £15K. Every year … Continue reading

Charity Challenge (December 2019 – London) – Think on Your Feet®

Congratulations to Charlotte Cullen from Wolff Olins for winning the London Think on Your Feet® Charity Challenge last week.  Charlotte delivered a passionate, informative and heartfelt pitch telling us why her chosen charity should get a £100 donation. Voted the … Continue reading

Anxiety when communicating, can cloud your thinking

You’ve been expecting that really tricky, difficult conversation with a key stakeholder. Within the first few minutes you get a response, a question that you didn’t anticipate and the rest of the conversation goes a bit wrong. You’ve spent days … Continue reading

Too busy to think?

The decision is made – two weeks later you have to backtrack! How many times has that happened to you, either as the person making the decision or as a part of the team bringing it to life. This happens … Continue reading

Soft skills are essential for strong business growth

As a seasoned communications professional with experience spanning four decades working with a variety of large and small organisations, I feel I have built up a powerful armoury of soft skills. Which is comforting, especially in light of the fact … Continue reading

A mum’s tale – Thinking on your feet after a career break.

After a career break to raise two boys, the day finally came to wave my youngest off to school. The time was right for me to return to work. I’ll be honest, although I was excited about the prospect of … Continue reading

Time and people, the ingredients of project success

By Trish Thirley, Master Trainer Project Management The saying goes, “You’ve got the same hours in the day as Einstein, Mozart or Ghandi – so don’t tell me you don’t have time!” A common question on our project management workshops … Continue reading

Essential soft skills for graduates

Most newly employed graduates have the sector-specific knowledge required to hit the ground running, yet many lack the fundamental practical core skills that prevent them actually doing the job and reaching their full potential. These transferable skills, used across the … Continue reading

Indigo Business Services Named Best Training & Development Consultancy 2018 – UK.

RICHMOND, UK, 18 December 2018: Indigo Business Services Named Best Training & Development Consultancy 2018 – UK. By Corporate Vision Magazine’s Small Business Awards. Indigo Business Services Limited is a leading international training consultancy that helps organisations gain competitive advantage … Continue reading

When you need to answer quickly and persuasively…

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet®, Six Thinking Hats® and Skilled Presenter™ trainer. Imagine you’re asked to present at a really important meeting. You’re ok with the presentation itself but the questions and answers section fills you with dread! … Continue reading

When your mind goes blank, when writing…

You’ve got a great idea. You need to sell your idea. Your fingers hit the keyboard. Your mind goes blank? Absolutely nothing! Your mind goes blank. You’ve got writer’s block. This happens to all of us at times. So how … Continue reading

When your mind goes blank, when responding…

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® trainer. You’re stood by the coffee machine, a Director happens to bump into you and asks you how things are going with that project you’ve been working on with her team. You open … Continue reading

Waterfall or Agile? How will you manage your projects?

Research shows that the majority of projects spend more time and money than estimated, and many also fail to meet customer needs accurately too. This means delivering poor customer value, and low confidence in project success. Many organisations are struggling … Continue reading

Make your projects work

By Trish Thirley, Master Trainer Project Management Often, the word ‘project’ elicits a groan from managers and staff alike. Overrunning, overspending or just not happening! Those are the typical pain points that our clients share with us when we talk … Continue reading

Classic Lateral Thinking™ in action: Plastic bottle tops that double as Lego blocks.

This article, first published in March 2010, has become topical again with all the discussion regarding implementing a plastic bottle tax to tackle waste and ocean pollution. With a little Lateral Thinking there could be more innovative ways to solve these challenges… …bottle caps … Continue reading

Indigo Business Services Named Exclusive UK Distributor for Think on Your Feet®

RICHMOND, UK, 30 August 2018: McLuhan & Davies Communications, Inc. has appointed their exclusive UK distributor, Indigo Business Services Limited. Indigo will be the sole provider of their suite of business-communication workshops in the UK. “From September 2018 our 17-year relationship … Continue reading

Creativity throughout an organisation

We all know that change is happening more often and faster than ever before! Organisations have to be innovative, whether they’re responding to change or driving it. They’ll need to innovate at all levels and in all functions to be … Continue reading

Getting your message across when presenting

By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. Most people are very nervous about public speaking and giving presentations. There are a number of ways to deal with nerves in our … Continue reading

Getting your message across when writing

By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. We’ve all been writing for most of our lives and have developed our own style and method. Most of us probably haven’t questioned … Continue reading

Getting your message across in conversations

By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. Conversations, unlike formal presentations and written documents, give no time to prepare how to get our message across. In conversations, we can’t try … Continue reading

Changing the way you do things

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Change for the better is always good but we have to make it happen, we can’t sit back and wait for it. Adding to that, the old adage “nothing is perfect” suggests … Continue reading

Collaborative meetings

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. “That was a great meeting, everyone pulled together to work through the issues, came up with solutions and agreed on the best way forward. I can’t wait to get this project started.” … Continue reading

Adding a process to creativity is not restrictive

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Although many people think of creativity as being about a select group of unconstrained, “creative” individuals having inspirational ideas, the practical truth is very different. Inspirational ideas are great when they occur … Continue reading

Making your words effective and dynamic

We all know that time is money: constructing documents, presenting or in dialogue. And the time it commands from your recipient to read, attend or listen. Whatever we write and say has to hit the mark. It doesn’t matter how … Continue reading

Taking time to save time

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Creative thinking and innovation are key to the prosperity of most businesses and organisations today. This is especially true, as we look to the future – there will be some major changes … Continue reading

Creativity for leaders

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Leaders have opportunities to use creative thinking every day. Whether they’re making improvements, cutting costs or solving problems, they have to go beyond what has been done before. The constant need to … Continue reading

Do you plan what you say?

During my career I have received and delivered communication skills training, achieving both effective and candid outcomes. Much of this development has been preparing what I would say in any given scenario – and it’s served me well. However, there … Continue reading

Add IMPACT To What You Say

There have been times in my career when I had business VIP visits and opportunities to make an impact; to show just what an expert I was. I would be asked an easy question such as “how’s the project going?” … Continue reading

Increase and improve collaboration

Two heads may be better than one, but too many cooks spoil the broth… How do we make collaboration work? Collaboration needs a framework. Beyond thinking about the project we’re working on – we also need to be thinking about … Continue reading

Are you getting the most from your team?

We all know that team members have different strengths and weaknesses: some people are good at detail, some prefer high-level thinking, some are creative, some are risk-averse. And bringing these different qualities together is what makes a team so effective… … Continue reading

Better, stronger, faster decisions.

How do you and your team make decisions? Do you: Jump on the most likely-looking solution, because you’re pushed for time? Listen to the person with the most experience? Look to the past and see what worked and whether it … Continue reading

Create a culture of dynamic meetings

Most meetings don’t work hard enough. Don’t take our word for it: A 2016 study estimates that inefficient meetings cost the UK economy £582m per week, with one in three people reporting that many of their meetings are unnecessary. 95% … Continue reading

Getting stronger outputs from innovation

A common challenge in innovation was summed up succinctly by one of our clients: “We’re pretty good at idea generation. But at the end of the session we have 300 post-its and no idea what to do next. Someone takes … Continue reading

Master the knowledge economy with rigorous, dynamic group thinking

Intelligence is a commodity. Expertise is valuable. The worlds of industry and commerce are moving ever faster thanks to advances in technology. There are many advantages to this. Revolutions in remote working and quick communication mean that we never need … Continue reading

Thinking for success

Stephanie Butland – de Bono Master Facilitator and Trainer: Six Thinking Hats®, Lateral Thinking and Focus On Facilitation™ The business world moves quickly, and however much we plan, we can never be ready for everything. Changes in legislation, budget cuts, … Continue reading

How do your listeners perceive you?

By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. The impression we make when we’re speaking is important. Whether we’re presenting, speaking on the phone or having a chat at the watercooler; … Continue reading

Making communication style work for you

By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. When we talk about communication style we are referring to the expression of ideas. Whatever you have to say, expressing it well will … Continue reading

Getting complex and technical information across

By Richard White – Master Trainer: Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™, The Skilled Presenter™ and Grammar on the Rocks™. Communicating complex or technical information to an audience that has no special knowledge of the subject is always challenging. We recently … Continue reading

Making emails work

By Richard White – Writing Dynamics™ Master Trainer When you glance down the list of senders in your email inbox, do different names create different expectations? Some people’s emails are a pleasure to read: you know they’ll be clear; to … Continue reading

Engaging stakeholders

The skills required to understand, engage, manage and communicate with stakeholders. By Trish Thurley, Indigo Master Trainer and Richard Evans Stakeholder management can be the difference between success and failure for anyone who has to deal with other people. Who … Continue reading

Five most common presentation mistakes

By Richard White, Master Trainer – The Skilled Presenter™ We’re often asked for the most common errors people make when planning and delivering a presentation. We’ve helped hundreds of people to improve their presentation skills so we have a good … Continue reading

Why The Skilled Presenter™ will benefit you

By Richard White, Master Trainer – The Skilled Presenter™ Presentations can pose a real dilemma in as much as we all want them to be professional, clear and persuasive but we also want them to be authentic, genuine and inspiring. … Continue reading

The Skilled Presenter™ for sales professionals

By Richard White, Master Trainer – The Skilled Presenter™ A successful sales presentation must win over the client in order to win the business. Great speakers and speechwriters know that the three essential elements of effective public speaking are: Logic. … Continue reading

Are you an occasional presenter?

By Richard White, Master Trainer – The Skilled Presenter™ People who plan and deliver presentations regularly have plenty of opportunity to develop and hone their skills. But, if you are an occasional presenter it’s not so easy. So, if your … Continue reading

The (ugly) truth about workplace communication.

Excellent verbal and written communication-skills is a standard requirement in today’s workplace. Communication plays a vital role in your company’s success and productivity. And ignoring it can be dangerous. Download our FREE infographic: The (ugly) truth about workplace communication. It reveals the … Continue reading

Ever wanted to just get up and walk out of a meeting?

By Ragini Krishnadas Meetings consume huge amounts of time for most of us, our customers tell us that these are often the least productive elements of their day. “That was so worthwhile!” When was the last time you walked out of … Continue reading