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CASE STUDY – The Skilled Presenter™ – Controlling Nerves in a Challenging Environment

John experienced significant challenges in communicating as he transitioned from the military to civilian life. For many years, he struggled to communicate effectively and confidently in face-to-face interactions, often feeling extremely nervous and emotional, even to the point of tears … Continue reading

Presenting to an audience that is not an expert like you

Gilly Meek, Accredited The Skilled Presenter™ Trainer You’ve been invited to present to a non-technical audience. Excited to share your expertise and insight, you open PowerPoint® and start building your slides. You include lots of information and data, as you … Continue reading

When you need to get technical – do people really understand you?

In every industry, there are technical teams with specific skills. These teams have various internal stakeholders, (executive teams, managers and other employees) and external stakeholders (customers, providers and the public)… …success or failure hinges on the team’s ability to clearly … Continue reading

Once you’ve made your mind up… changing it can be really difficult… or can it?

In business, changing your mind can be seen as a weakness and that you have a lack of clarity or direction. People who change their minds can be considered unreliable or indifferent. Changing your mind in business, known as pivoting, … Continue reading

Why learn how to use the Six Thinking Hats®?

Six Thinking Hats® is a practical business thinking and decision-making tool, developed by Dr. Edward de Bono. The concept involves wearing metaphorical ‘Hats’ of different colours, each representing a different perspective or way of thinking. Why learn it? Being able … Continue reading

How Lateral Thinking enriches team creativity and collaboration

Virtually every business in the world promotes ‘teamwork’. Teams play a crucial role in generating profit, gaining market share, enhancing customer service, increasing engagement and securing a competitive edge—all contributing to organisational success. Teams are the social ‘bond’ that blend … Continue reading

Think on Your Feet® when storytelling – utilising the Think on Your Feet® techniques to tell a story

People are more likely to remember information when it’s wrapped in a story. The flow of your narrative and the strength of the images you position, will help your listener recall what has been said and remember it. As humans … Continue reading

Ensure your sales team can confidently think on their feet

Sales can be a challenging profession and the way businesses sell is constantly changing. Effective communication is a cornerstone of success for sales professionals. Our clients tell us their sales teams consistently face communication challenges that impact their ability to … Continue reading

How to engage your audience and perform with impact whether online or in-person!

Why should your presentations be more dynamic, engaging and persuasive? Whether you’re giving sales pitches, leading meetings or presenting research findings – the ability to present dynamically can set you apart and open up opportunities for growth. Dynamic presentation skills … Continue reading

Collaborative Writing

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer With the introduction of hybrid working, we are spending less time in face-to-face conversations. So when you send that business report – you may not have a chance to talk someone through it. Having great writing … Continue reading

Why creativity is essential for strategic thinking

Before beginning a strategic thinking or strategy development activity, we often spend excessive time and effort on determining the rigorous analytical, solution-oriented processes and skills needed. These methods are crucial and should not be discarded. They help us understand an … Continue reading

Allowing people’s creativity to flow when writing for business

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer Creativity in business enhances success. It fosters engagement, teamwork, innovative ideas, product and service enhancements. Breaking old thinking habits and work patterns. But how often do businesses actually promote creativity in their business writing? In creative … Continue reading

Plan, Perform, Practice – the three P’s of dynamic and persuasive presentations

Many psychological surveys rank public speaking as a greater fear for us than death. Rather than run from our presentations – we need to harness those fears. Here’s our three P’s of dynamic, persuasive presentations: Plan Probably the most important step, … Continue reading

Overcoming the most common regulatory writing issues

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer Regulatory writing is essential in ensuring compliance and safety, but it comes with its own set of challenges! We spoke to Richard Morris, a Writing Dynamics™ trainer at Indigo, about some of the common regulatory writing issues … Continue reading

The magic ingredients behind great Project Managers

As you start working in projects, it’s tempting to think that all you need to do is buy some expensive project management software and – snap! – the project will be an overnight success! Sadly – while there is a … Continue reading

Too much to read and remember?

We all face the challenge of business reports that remain unread, emails that don’t get dealt with, time-sensitive documents that don’t get the attention they deserve. We all have to read, absorb and recall more written information than ever to … Continue reading

The do’s and don’ts of presenting

The pandemic presented many challenges to the way we live and work. The birth of the beloved online meeting meant that a lot of the skills we had honed and perfected before, were simply lost or substituted for other skills. … Continue reading

Creative leadership

As the saying goes, ‘In calm water, every ship has a good captain’. It’s only in turbulent times that leaders need to show what they are made of. With financial storms looming, what can leaders do to keep their organisations … Continue reading

Indigo is proud to sponsor the YES22 People Choice award – but who will win?

“We are proud to have sponsored the YES People’s Choice award for over a decade now.” said Robert Fisher of Indigo. ”Having a brilliant mind and amazing ideas is at the heart of this competition – translating ideas into something … Continue reading

Be more John Wayne – the lost art of brevity.

I have always talked about clarity and conciseness as an entry point into good, professional communication. Lots of management books tell us that managers with good communications skills, are often more effective leaders. ‘John Wayne in pinstripes’ was a term … Continue reading

Agile decision-making

Although the Agile model was developed with software design in mind, two of its principles have been widely adopted by businesses in all sectors: Valuing individuals and interactions over processes. Responding to change over following a plan. These are appealing, … Continue reading

Design thinking

The business world has been abuzz with the concept of Design Thinking over the last few years – and with good reason. This non-linear, iterative process is a great way to avoid the trap of rushing in to solve a … Continue reading

Sur/petition – focus on value creation

“Sur/petition: creating value monopolies when everyone else is merely competing” Edward de Bono Competition is based on the idea of different individuals or companies striving to win a part of the same thing. Dr Edward de Bono suggests an alternative: … Continue reading

Converting from academic to business writing

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer Remember those good ‘ole university dissertations when you were 150 words short of the minimum word count? What did you do? You added in words to extend sentences and paragraphs to get you over the line! … Continue reading

Are all graduates masters of verbal communication?

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer When organisations develop Graduate Recruitment Days, you can almost guarantee that at the top of the assessment criteria is ‘communication’! Naturally, all employers are looking for an intake of new talent who can ‘hit the ground … Continue reading

Leading your teams to support strategic thinking

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer Many people see the role of strategy creation to be that of senior leaders. It’s pertinent that they position the future state of the business, the Vision, the Why? Yet developing the strategy (what we will … Continue reading

Forget the “Big Resignation” – what about “the Big Presentation”?

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer When taking on a new role, client or job, you will likely be asked to make “that big presentation!” You know the one… the career-defining introduction, the presentation that ties your stomach … Continue reading

Hybrid meeting challenges and how to overcome them

The pandemic changed the way we work and changed it fast. After that initial scramble to source the tech and make sure everyone is supported to work remotely, we are now looking at ways to integrate hybrid working into the … Continue reading

What to do when resources are cut from your project

In the current climate, nothing is certain. Project management is all about dealing with this uncertainty and risk. Projects deliver the future so you need to be flexible, agile and deliver the right outcomes (repeatedly).  To do this, you need … Continue reading

Leaders can do more with less

  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 do more for less demands creativity from … Continue reading

Virtual selling – the new sales disruptor

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer The world of the sales professional has changed. Consideration needs to be given to the skills that are now needed. The COVID pandemic has meant virtual selling has become the new reality of the sales function … Continue reading

Impactful and effective virtual communication

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer 2020 made businesses adapt their channels of communication. Lockdown meant a focus on virtual platforms, with internal and external stakeholders working remotely. The emphasis for many was ‘Do we have the right platforms in place?’ Perhaps … Continue reading

The big presentation

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer We all have that presentation, whether it’s online or face-to-face,  the one that we really want to go well – the big presentation! Maybe it’s presenting our new strategy to the board, … Continue reading

Giving a project update

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer Project updates are a key part of landing projects successfully – it’s really important to keep stakeholders updated on progress. The way you deliver your updates can be the difference between your … Continue reading

Deal with tough questions that make you feel nervous

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer Nobody likes tough questions. Especially when you aren’t prepared for them! The feeling of a loss of control, that we might not be able to answer the question or that we can’t … Continue reading

Supporting Young Scientists – Young Entrepreneurs Scheme “People’s choice” award in 2019

Indigo are proud to champion university teams through our ongoing Young Entrepreneurs Scheme “People’s choice” award in 2019. Jack Fleet was a member of the University of Manchester’s winning YES19 team, Larvita. ‘Our business idea was a vertical insect farm producing … Continue reading

Make a real difference to your organisation’s creativity

‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, as the saying goes – and we’re certainly seeing that now. The Coronavirus pandemic has led to a proliferation of new ideas everywhere. The Mercedes Formula 1 Team have worked with medics to develop … Continue reading

Robust and clear ideas to take forward

Now that Covid-19 has challenged us to work and think, more creatively, it would be a shame to lose this new ability of approaching life with an innovative mindset. Dr Edward de Bono’s ‘Lateral Thinking’ gives the tools to come … Continue reading

Writing virtually: collaboration and clarity make for great documents that get results

This is a critical time for most organisations and more than ever, documents and communications need to be clear, understandable, and to the point. Have you thought about how you are helping the people on your teams to achieve this? … Continue reading

Navigating the new normal: getting your message across

Imagine that you have just concluded an online meeting or briefing. Everyone who was in that virtual space heads to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Their partner joins them. “What was your meeting about?” they ask. Are … Continue reading

Crucial conversations

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer There are times in our career when we all have to have difficult conversations. As Managers, we may need to have a conversation with a team member to discuss a required behavioural … Continue reading

Getting your point across to a difficult stakeholder

Gilly Meek, Accredited Think on Your Feet® Trainer We all have those colleagues and customers that we find difficult. More often than not, it’s one of our important stakeholders. They might be demanding. They might talk over us or appear … Continue reading

Stop talking over me! Making the most from online meetings.

This weekend I decided to attempt a family ‘Mother’s Day’ get together on Zoom – given the social distancing rules in place. We are not a particularly quiet family, but we are polite and usually observe the informal rules of conversation … Continue reading