Think on Your Feet® - Verbal Communication Workshop

Communicate with impact with Think on Your Feet®, the complete verbal communication programme. It helps you analyse, organise and present your ideas with clarity, brevity and impact, never being caught-on-the-spot again:

• Making every conversation count, with structure and purpose.
• Ensuring your ideas are understood and remembered.
• Dramatically improving thinking and communication skills when on-the-spot.

This is the official Think on Your Feet® workshop. McLuhan & Davies Communications, Inc. has appointed us as their exclusive UK distributor. We are the sole provider of their suite of business-communication workshops in the UK.

The Think on Your Feet® approach emphasises structure when communicating. It ensures your ideas will be understood and remembered:

• Respond confidently and concisely in all formal, informal and ad-hoc situations, especially when caught on-the-spot or under pressure!
• Explain complex ideas and handle tough questions by condensing your thoughts, simplifying information and avoiding listener overload.
• Think on Your Feet® is the only workshop that trains you to analyse, organise and present your ideas - fast!

Who is it for?

Think on Your Feet® is designed for anyone who:

• Is concerned about communications, including senior executives, managers, sales and marketing professionals, technical specialists, financial analysts, public affairs experts, and training professionals.
• Needs to be clear, convincing and memorable when speaking to others.
• Doesn’t relish the idea of speaking in public, dealing with difficult questions, or being put on the spot.
• Needs to demonstrate good leadership qualities, to convince and persuade others, to be seen and acknowledged as a leader.

Workshop overview

Think on Your Feet® is not a presentation workshop, it's a unique programme that ensures you can confidently get your message across and be remembered, no matter what situation or level of individual/group you are communicating with.

It blends traditional reasoning techniques with the latest skills in verbal communication, you'll:

• Be in control of what you say by learning how structured thinking turns nervousness into energy.
• Learn the art and science of speaking convincingly and confidently, without relying on notes or creating any awkward silences.
• Learn ten organisational structures to focus your communication.
• Find you have time to think before you speak and be able to confidently select from a range of easy-to-use strategies to structure your response.
• Concentrate on what is in your listener’s mind, Think on Your Feet® gives you a simple, handy system that helps you to be understood and remembered when you communicate at work.

In just over thirty years, Think on Your Feet® has been delivered to over half a million business professionals worldwide (August 2018) and can now be delivered in 16 languages.

Workshop benefits

Whether you are addressing one person or fifty, Think on Your Feet® provides the techniques to focus in on issues, organise ideas and speed up preparation and response time. Typical situations include:

• Answering questions on the spot.
• Communicating with staff.
• Briefing management or clients.
• Handling the media.
• Getting your ideas across at a meeting.
• Explaining complex information clearly.
• Giving evidence.
• Selling a product or service.
• Promoting your organisation or yourself.

By focusing on an individual’s ability to think quickly and clearly, Think on Your Feet® dramatically improves oral communication skills.

Over 95% of workplace communication is ad-hoc, unplanned and informal - most organisations already provide structured presentation training for the 5% of formal communication. Organisations need to focus on the challenges their people face when communicating verbally, this workshop provides structures to use in these informal situations:

• Off-the-cuff discussions.
• Q&A's.
• Meetings.
• Summaries.
• Status and project updates.
• Conference calls.

Your organisation will have people who are confident when presenting, defending, and discussing an idea or position persuasively and quickly.

Workshop Objectives

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Answer questions quickly and coherently, especially when under fire.
• Structure ideas simply and persuasively.
• Ten organisational structures to focus communication.
• Flesh-out ideas with memorable examples.
• Avoid common communication traps.
• Handle objections positively.
• Deal with hostile situations.
• Use “bridging” strategies to clarify questions, defuse issues and buy time.
• Anticipate questions and prepare answers.
• Use techniques to identify listeners’ hopes, fears and background knowledge.
• Use simple, jargon-free language that listeners can understand.
• Turn nervousness into energy.
• Separate topics clearly using transitions.
• Organise ideas while talking.

Above all, GET TO THE POINT AND BE REMEMBERED.

Workshop Outline

The Think on Your Feet® workshop begins with quick coherent thinking—the bedrock of communication—and ends with dramatically sharpening skills to speak more convincingly. The workshop provides all-purpose strategies for organising your ideas, and shows how to match your message to your audience.

We always cover a core programme, together with lots of practice and feedback.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Think on Your Feet® can count towards your CPD recognition with leading professional associations and trade organisations. You can normally record your attendance in the 'organised learning' or 'self-learning' sections. Please check with your membership organisation for more information. In addition to this, Think on Your Feet® qualifies for Personal Development Units (PDUs) towards your PMP.