Blog Posts Archives - Page 5 of 8

Welcome to 2021

Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind, hi! It’s us! Your friendly neighbourhood Pickering Group wishing you a very happy New Year. We hope it’s everything you want it to be, but there’s a ton of pressure on 2021 to deliver us everything we missed out on last year. 2021. You got this.

Seven stories leaders should tell

Now settle in, Best Beloved, it’s time for a story. But what kind of story? When we talk about business stories, we’re really talking about illustrating our core message with a tale that puts it in context. We’re making points and making connections, and we’re using stories to make them memorable, clear and emotionally effective.

KISS: Keep It Simple, Squad

Let’s be clear: no really, let’s. Clarity in both written and spoken communications is key to getting the results you want. And yet persistently we see superfluous and extraneous verbiage that is impedimental to both comprehension and ratiocination. Or rather, words are confusing and it sucks.

It's a conspiracy!

This election cycle we’ve seen conspiracy theories come to new prominence. The upswell in conspiracy thinking is having a tangible influence over political discourse, and it's tiring. Even the lizard people are over it.

Should you use memes in presentations? Take the test.

What is a meme? We’re glad you asked. It’s a unit of social currency, a piece of concentrated information that spreads around a group. It’s an in-joke, like what we all know about Ian since the conference last year.

Our annual Xmas Jokestravaganza

Last year we started our tradition of providing you with cracker jokes that you can read aloud to your loved ones around the dinner table until they politely ask you to stop. They’re puns! They’re vaguely business related! They’re better than the paper hats!

Have you heard of Vulnerable Narcissism?

Is there someone in your workplace who always has to draw attention to themselves? Or do you have a client whose demand for your focus go way beyond what’s necessary to service their needs? Does Dave really need to spend all that company time making TikToks? You might be dealing with a narcissist.

Are your PowerPoint's poisoning us?

It seemed like the best idea ever: liven up business presentations with a slide show. Pictures! Graphs! A weird 80s Dr Who-style spiral dissolve vortex! Surely visual aids would turn boring meetings into a mashup of Mad Men and a game of laser tag.

A guide to using humour in your presentations

We often stress that your one job in any business presentation is to deliver your message - clearly, concisely, in a way that’s relevant to your audience – communicate your message. You shouldn’t feel any pressure to entertain, especially if worrying about your delivery is going to distract you from the job at hand. But - and it’s a big but – humour can be a way to deliver that message more effectively.

On spontaneous pleonasms and other devices

Riddle time! What sounds like a disease, but makes people want to get closer to you? Literally any rhetorical device. Many can make your written and spoken language more engaging, some we should be wary of, and some we should avoid.

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