About Us

• Most people do not communicate as effectively as they want. That problem isn’t new, novel or interesting. What is interesting is why they are ineffective, and how bad traditional solutions are at solving the problem. We can objectively say that whatever the setting (whether executive boardroom or conference podium), when a presentation fails, it does so because it is lacking insight, insufficiently engaging, packed with too much material, poorly structured, and at its core…too much about the presenter and not enough about the audience. And as you reflect on this, even a moment’s thought reveals that these are not fundamentally questions of delivery. Why is it then, that so much current communication skills training glosses the real issues in order to spend hours with a video camera, focusing on eye contact and body language — even though such a focus has no hope of solving the real problem? INTERESTINGLY, THERE ARE TWO REASONS. The Wrong Answer is Easy Delivery skills training is an easy thing for the trainer to do. Just set up a video camera, talk about body language, and let people’s inherent fascination with themselves on camera take over. The time really flies by. But nothing important changes. The Right Answer is Really Hard Understanding why communication goes wrong, and how to fix it, raises much deeper questions. It requires a very deep understanding of the way humans process information and what happens when that gets violated. Think of it this way: Imagine you’re at a party, and you’re introduced to someone named Phil: “Hello, Phil, nice to meet you.” But soon you’re mingling with other guests, and a moment later you’ve completely forgotten his name. Is there something wrong with you? Not at all: we forget Phil’s name because the brain performs badly with information that has no context. “Phil” is an ‘intellectual orphan,’ almost guaranteed to be forgotten. How does that apply to us as communicators? It’s a crucial idea: the typical presentation lacks logical narrative structure (especially when organized using traditional bulleted slides). As a result, that information has no context… and that information is forgotten. The point — when we understand how the brain processes information, we can understand how to communicate effectively with the brain of our audience. AN UNMATCHED PROCESS Oratium’s principles and process are unique, because they are based on a unique journey of discovery and refinement of an approach to communications that works. We have married extraordinary practical experience with a deep study into the science of effective communications, drawing upon disciplines as diverse as cognitive psychology, literature, art history and industrial design. The result is a disciplined process that can be quickly grasped, unmatched both in its intellectual rigor and practical application – and available in every format from a book to live workshops to e-learning.