What we're thinking

Christmas Whether you’re celebrating with loved ones, hoping it’ll snow, glued to a screen, heading for the sun, missing someone, having a party, travelling for a well-earned break – or wondering where your delivery is – I hope Christmas brings you some cheer and the New Year brings your hopes and dreams. Thank you for… Read more

Whether you’re winding down or still working at full throttle, I hope there’s something in this post that’s just what you need for a quick boost – or a completely new perspective. 2018’s most popular TED talks Want to catch up on TED talks? Here you go – TED’s top 25 of 2018. No, I… Read more

  December is here…and that means Christmas parties. Not just mince pies and mulled wine – but also colleagues, including your boss. I’ve previously posted festive season tips*; thanks to the readers who asked me to get going with this earlier in December. “I read your post the morning after I’d done EVERYTHING you shouldn’t… Read more

Speaking as a Brit, I’m acutely aware that the very word ‘feedback’ can make the toes curl. Those from other countries and cultures may indeed smile. Here we can talk a good game but, when it comes to the crunch, I suspect many people would rather do public speaking than give or get feedback on… Read more

More and more of us are working remotely; some of us some of the time, some of us all of the time. There are pros and cons… What’s great about working remotely? Many of us can now work any time, wherever we are. We might be working at a regional hub, in a hotel or… Read more

Make sure all the words in your visuals can be read easily. Thanks to my friend Andie Hemming for this one. Now it might sound like common sense…but it isn’t common practice. Andie and I heard – and struggled to see – some very clever people give presentations recently, and that was how I tested… Read more

Want to better handle those moments when you’re asked to evaluate creative work, a.k.a. feed back to the people who did it? Yep, there’s a Zoomly bite-sized workshop for that*. This is something that happens a lot in creative enterprises of all persuasions: content creators, ad / design / media / branding / experience /… Read more

Participants in Zoomly’s workshops often ask ‘how do I…?’ questions and they always give me food for thought. One topic that always generates lots of questions is productivity: “How can I get stuff done?” I think there are six essential steps to focus on if we’re to improve. 1.Set and focus on your goals We… Read more

Whenever I deliver Zoomly’s ‘How to give effective feedback’ bite-sized workshop, there’s some initial squirming from a number of the participants. Particularly the Brits: we seem to get tangled in skirting around the subject, dressing it up, putting a bow on it – and let’s not forget serving up s*%t sandwiches*. Some of us find… Read more

Good question! Seriously, if you’re giving some thought to your audience’s likely questions, you’re way ahead of many other presenters. Whilst it’s essential to prepare your material and yourself, there’s much more to a successful presentation than the ‘ME show’. Failing to prepare for your audience – and their questions – is preparing to fail…. Read more