7 Deadly Speaker Sins

We’ve all sat in presentations and found our mind wandering, or worse given a presentation and lost our audience part way through.

Here are 7 little known subtle but dreadful gaffs to avoid:…

Upbeat Conference Activity

Overcome the graveyard shift and inject some energy into your next meeting with one of our body percussion workshops.

In as little as 15 minutes our percussion experts can bring energy and rhythm to a conference, a great session opener or post lunch energiser.

Top 10 Conference Cock-ups

After 20 years of supporting conferences, we’ve heard some tales that will send shivers up a conference organiser’s spine. Here are a few we can share – there are several more that we can’t.

1. Theme
If an event has the word ‘annual’ in the title there’s a high chance it shouldn’t be happening at all. …

Serious Business doesn’t take itself too Seriously

I spent two days of my summer holiday this year at Disneyland. Later in the trip we drove through Hollywood then past Google and Apple’s global headquarters.  It struck me that each of these mega industries was founded with fun in mind. And perhaps there’s more value to this distinctive founding feature than many CFOs have grasped.

When Walt built Disneyland he said “Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.” …

Is there a place for Humour in the Workplace?

For most of us, work is serious business. We have targets to meet, projects to complete and in some cases even lives to save. A wise man once said, “Just because the work you do is serious, it doesn’t mean you have to be serious about the way you do your work“.

This quote is perfectly illustrated by the image of doctors in an operating theatre…

Is Stress Good? The Science Explains

In this excellent film from Scientific America our body’s chemical response to stress is clearly explained. Take two minutes to take a look and be better equipped to deal with the next crisis, deadline or difficult customer you face.

Learn Leadership Lessons Off the Job

To ask a child to perform a piece of music, in front of her peers using an instrument she has never touched before, would rightly be regarded as cruel. Prior to the performance she should not only learn to read music and listen to others playing the same piece, she should also practice playing her instrument in private.

Why is it then that we expect our bright young employees to step into management roles having read books and attended courses, yet never having actually practiced leading a team? …

Is Your Organisation Growing Fruit or Vegetables?

The great Charles Handy made a rare public appearance earlier this week, not speaking to a group of executives but at a fundraising lecture for the family support network Relate.

His lecture highlighted the fact that the ‘always on’ culture, combined with less people doing more work in organisations, is threatening family life.  …

Scientific evidence shows that women are hard-wired to make better managers

In the early 1990’s neuroscientists at the University of Parma discovered that brain cells not only fire when we perform a given action, such as reaching for a cold drink on a hot day, they also fire when we see someone else doing that action – hence the name mirror neuron (click here for a link to the research). This is why we sometimes wince when we see another person experience pain or embarrassment. 

This theory has been used to explain characteristics such as empathy, the ability to read other people’s emotions, with some research* suggesting that the female brain is better able to create mirror neurons and therefore better equipped to anticipate the moods and feelings of others. The men vs women debate continues……..

Why Hiring Goes Wrong – 7 Reasons Recruitment Fails

Hiring the wrong person for a role is estimated to cost the employer over £20k, with that figure multiplying when it’s a  management position.

Along with the recruitment costs and the time to process applications there’s productivity losses to account for.  And, if the error isn’t detected and dealt with speedily, the fall-out across other staff. …