News items
With face-to-face work looking set to be off limits for a while yet – we have reinvented more of what we do in an online format and created some brand new webinar offerings.
Our coaching is now all virtual. We continue to offer performance and leadership coaching at mid-senior level and core skills coaching for more junior staff.
Two new webinar series launched for communications professionals:
Medical writing that is more compatible with how the mind operates. A series of four short webinars that unveil some of the processes governing how people take on board and relate to new information. The emphasis is on how to present information in both written and visual form to healthcare professionals to improve message clarity and recall.
What the brain reveals about our power to influence others. In two short webinars we introduce some of the most relevant concepts from behavioural science – cognitive biases that influence and guide human behaviour.
Pricing and further details are given in the links provided above. Please contact us if you would like to run these webinar series or for further information.
Do you need to present, pitch your ideas or speak to groups as part of your work? If so, why not learn to present the natural way – with storytelling and an engaging and fluent style?
Why think like a storyteller?
“Storytelling” is the language our human brains use to make sense of the world. By learning to think and present like a storyteller, you develop the skills and strategies to transform dry professional messages into emotionally engaging, credibility-enhancing experiences that inspire meaning, belief and action.
You also make it easier for yourself as a presenter because storytelling triggers better recall and grows confidence.
Develop a presenters’ toolkit
In this session, we show you how to take some of the challenges out of presenting. We will build your confidence and skills by moving from an easy conversational starting point to some mental strategies that take the pressure off, engage the audience and act as a support structure for you.
We share valuable tips and strategies modelled from some of the world’s top communicators in business, media, politics and leadership roles.
Experience a different sort of workshop
• Learn the structures and techniques that take the strain and build confidence and credibility
• Create buy-in and build bridges of connection with audiences
• Engage your listeners
• Build context for change
• Humanise complex ideas and data
Open the door to a different kind of presenting
Contact us about holding this session as a webinar or a personal coaching session or stay tuned for the possibility of face-to-face open sessions later in 2021.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, Novartis, Transport for London and The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics are among our most recent clients to take advantage of our narrative mastery programme. The skills and processes of narrative intelligence are the invisible glue in truly connected and collaborative organisations and these clients are keen to have this thinking in place for both top leadership teams and communications staff across all business units.
Narrative skills are the invisible glue of truly successful organisations. Helping people connect to the business story is recognised as crucial and yet many organisations struggle to do this - failing to motivate their employees or to engage their customers as a result.
Our storytelling programmes help overcome this. We develop leaders skills and understanding of narrative influence and provide toolkits of techniques and ideas to sustain you subsequently.
» Read more
Narrative intelligence includes the ability to articulate where the organisation is headed in ways that make sense to people. It involves:
- Inspiring people by telling stories that bring the values and purpose of the organisation to life and
- Giving purpose and meaning by helping them think in narrative form – so that they too can understand and articulate the business story.
Our programmes help communicators and leaders bring these skills into play quickly and in a structured, consistent way that is also genuine and real. It usually involves some or all of the following:
Leaders workshops on:
- Storytelling for leaders
- Corporate or strategic narrative
Employees workshops:
- Storytelling skills in action
- Story-listening (employee workshops for renewed energy and change)
Training workshops for internal facilitators – to supply a toolkit of techniques:
- Surfacing a Higher Sense of Purpose: how to work with groups to explore the corporate story
- Story triggering: helping others find and tell stories in support of the main narrative
- Story-listening: sharing stories through an appreciative lens, such as that of appreciative inquiry, to trigger renewed focus on positive change and build the story and culture everyone wants from the bottom up
- Active story sharing to spark new ideas and behaviour change.
Contact us for further information on short webinar sessions that we are running for clients on request in 2021. Our in-person programmes and open workshops are on hold during the pandemic. You can see details of an earlier open workshop here.
Read our article on A narrative toolkit helps IC drive connection and collaboration published by the Institute of Internal Communication.
A sense of story unleashes our intrinsic motivation and many organisations are missing out by not developing a full narrative toolkit and connecting and engaging in this way. Read our article on how a narrative toolkit can help IC practitioners and business leaders drive collaborative success in the June issue of IoIC Online. » Read more
As part of our narrative mastery programme, several business units at TfL have taken a fresh look at the mental gymnastics of communication and the role of storytelling as a leadership skill. » Read more
People will only ever follow you as a leader if you have their trust and emotional proximity.
Most successful leaders intuitively cycle through five styles of conversation that help them build high quality relationships and draw others towards them.
And although these leaders may not know it, there are significant neurobiological and evolutionary mechanisms behind this which underline the fundamental importance of these types of conversation. Essentially, these translate to ..... » Read more
- Familiarity and intimacy build safety;
- Feelings of being valued and empowered build motivation
Your most profound duty as a leader is to build quality relationships and to minimise threat
The REACH approach takes a look at successful leadership behaviour and provides five areas of focus for everyday and important conversations. It supplies a rule of thumb and an easy way into a different, richer view of communication.
Why use REACH?
- A practical tool providing an easy way to remember important behaviours in the moment
- Helps you achieve your main leadership duty of building trusting relationships
- Provides a framework for learning essential leadership skills
REACH in the workplace
We hold webinars and individual coaching on how to bring this approach into life, how to get started practically and – importantly – how to develop the component skills. We also explain something of the neurobiology of change and motivation.
