Client LoginThose educated in statistics are familiar with the law of large numbers: the larger the sample size (or the greater the number of trials run), the closer the sample’s mean gets to that of the overall population. In brain science there’s a completely unrelated law of large numbers, and it’s this: the larger the number, […]
Wisdom vs. Intelligence: Why My 12th level Sorcerer is Easily Fooled
As a professional communicator, I used to be surprised by how often smart people would miss an obvious point I was making. I imagine I am not alone in this. But I get it now – A core element of our effective communication training focuses on the idea that there is a difference between what people […]
Making Your Message Stick: Tim Pollard Article on Forbes.com
In addition to our informative (and humorous) blogs, we also want to share with our readers some of Tim Pollard’s other writings. Tim is a regular contributor to the Forbes Coaches Council, and recently wrote about the power of making messages and conversations “sticky” or memorable through the lens of the O.J. Simpson Trial. You can read […]
What I Learned Learning to Tie My Shoes at 41
A couple years ago I saw an article about a 3-minute TED talk, “How to tie your shoes.” I was pretty sure I knew how to tie my shoes. Nope. You’ll want to check out the talk to see what we are all doing wrong. Here’s what happened when I did, and I’ll bet you’ll […]
When is Tea like Sex?
OK…if you’re English, as I am, tea is the driving force behind everything – important before and after every major event, which answers the question in the title. But that’s not quite what I’m getting at here. As many of you know, whenever we teach the Oratium class, we stress the importance of engaging the […]
Distracted Loving and Sticky Language
Saturday morning in the hammock, in the breeze…I was reading the most recent Psychology Today and came across an article titled “Love Interruptus” – about how devices like your smartphone are damaging the quality of your relationships, particularly close, deeply personal partnerships. I found it broadly fascinating because I was already aware of how poorly human […]
“How did he come up with that?” The Key to Creativity
Recently I was building a sales pitch for a corporate client where one of the important concepts was “Visibility is critical to your business.” The team brainstormed a bit on how to convince audiences of this idea through a powerful illustration. It was fun, and we came up with various possible analogies involving magnifying glasses or foggy days […]
Be More Interesting Than Your Refrigerator
We’ve all been there. You’re in a meeting, maybe an important one, but the speaker is speaking in a monotone. And your mind drifts off to an unrelated topic…and after an indeterminate amount of time, you suddenly realize that the speaker has stopped talking…and is looking right at you – clearly expecting a response to […]
The Key to Getting Someone to Make a Decision
Think about how often you have an important request of someone – that they buy your product, change their position on an issue, support an initiative, etc. And you make a thorough, reasoned, logical argument, well supported by compelling facts and data – and this person nods and smiles the whole time…but doesn’t do what you […]
Chimps and Presidential Candidates…Closer Than You Think
I grew up and still live in Washington D.C. And as such, I have a well-developed ability to tune out politics when I want to… …But any article that compares the current slate of presidential candidates to a bunch of chimpanzees is guaranteed to catch my attention. Especially so when the article is in a […]
