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better thinking | better communication | better projects

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About Richard Evans

Richard Evans is Marketing and Operations lead at Indigo Business Services, a UK based training and development company operating internationally. Indigo is the exclusive UK Distributor for the Edward de Bono Limited's suite of business thinking and creativity workshops, and MDC Training's Think on Your Feet® suite of business communication workshops. Richard has been a Chartered Marketer for over 20 years, having worked for a diverse range of commercial, not-for-profit and charitable organisations.

The best story wins – facts tell, but stories sell

Ever found yourself struggling to get your point across? Realised too late that you’d lost your audience with too much information? You’re not alone. Every day, businesses lose opportunities – not because they lack great ideas or produce poor products, … Continue reading →

Take control of your AI-assisted writing

AI is revolutionising how we write. It’s speeding up the drafting process, suggesting alternative phrasing and even correcting grammar. But here’s the catch AI lacks human judgment. It often produces content that’s generic, unfocused or even misleading. Without a strategic … Continue reading →

Structure and communication: the keys to project success

Projects are everywhere. You’re either part of one or managing one, even if you aren’t qualified to do so! In fact, many people have received little to no training in project management, but manage to deliver with structure and clear … Continue reading →

Empowering public sector workers to communicate with clarity, simplicity and confidence – under pressure

Think on Your Feet® to manage diverse audiences, simplify complex topics and respond effectively in high-pressure situations. Effective communication in public sector roles is challenging due to the complexity of the environment, the audience and the work itself. Our public … Continue reading →

Combat information overload and unlock your team’s potential

Get your message across, supercharge productivity and spend less time in meetings Information overload is a significant and growing challenge, impacting both individuals and organisations. It slows down cognitive functions, affects mental health, disrupts decision-making and reduces productivity. The constant … Continue reading →

Miscommunication – how much is it costing you?

Do you ever feel like miscommunication is slowing down progress or causing unnecessary complications in your business?  You need to be able to  Think on Your Feet® and master clear, confident communication. Think on Your Feet® is a proven program designed … Continue reading →

Effective stakeholder communication and engagement

Effective stakeholder communication is the backbone of business success, but it comes with hurdles that can derail projects, strain relationships and jeopardise long-term goals. When they attend the Stakeholder Engagement™ and Think on Your Feet® workshops, our clients tell us … Continue reading →

How do you survive delivering projects, when you aren’t a Project Manager?

Delivering projects when you aren’t a formal project manager presents unique challenges. Without the training or authority that typically comes with the role, you may face several obstacles that can impact the success of the project. Fundamental project management training … Continue reading →

Are you ready to revolutionise the way you tackle meetings?

Six Thinking Hats® is a game-changing tool that has transformed decision-making processes for businesses around the world. Why Six Thinking Hats®? Developed by Dr. Edward de Bono, the Six Thinking Hats® framework simplifies thinking by breaking it down into six … Continue reading →

Why creativity is your most important business asset

Creativity is not just about artistic endeavours, it’s a strategic tool that fosters growth, competitiveness and sustainability. Several businesses have struggled or ultimately failed due to a lack of creativity, innovation or adaptation to changing market conditions. While it’s not … Continue reading →

Charity Challenge (May 2024 – London) – Think on Your Feet®

We had a fantastic Think on Your Feet® workshop in London this week. Thanks to everyone who attended and contributed to making it a fun and engaging couple of days! Picture this A room filled with eager minds, each armed … Continue reading →

How Willy Wonka showed us that AI can’t always get it ‘write’!

On the 24th February this year, hundreds of excited children queued up waiting to see a spectacularly advertised ‘Willy Wonka Experience’ in Glasgow, Scotland. Their parents had paid the princely sum of £35 per ticket and all were expecting great … Continue reading →

CASE STUDY – The Skilled Presenter™ – Controlling Nerves in a Challenging Environment

John experienced significant challenges in communicating as he transitioned from the military to civilian life. For many years, he struggled to communicate effectively and confidently in face-to-face interactions, often feeling extremely nervous and emotional, even to the point of tears … Continue reading →

Why learn how to use the Six Thinking Hats®?

Six Thinking Hats® is a practical business thinking and decision-making tool, developed by Dr. Edward de Bono. The concept involves wearing metaphorical ‘Hats’ of different colours, each representing a different perspective or way of thinking. Why learn it? Being able … Continue reading →

How to engage your audience and perform with impact whether online or in-person!

Why should your presentations be more dynamic, engaging and persuasive? Whether you’re giving sales pitches, leading meetings or presenting research findings – the ability to present dynamically can set you apart and open up opportunities for growth. Dynamic presentation skills … Continue reading →

Plan, Perform, Practice – the three P’s of dynamic and persuasive presentations

Many psychological surveys rank public speaking as a greater fear for us than death. Rather than run from our presentations – we need to harness those fears. Here’s our three P’s of dynamic, persuasive presentations: Plan Probably the most important step, … Continue reading →

Too much to read and remember?

We all face the challenge of business reports that remain unread, emails that don’t get dealt with, time-sensitive documents that don’t get the attention they deserve. We all have to read, absorb and recall more written information than ever to … Continue reading →

Indigo is proud to sponsor the YES22 People Choice award – but who will win?

“We are proud to have sponsored the YES People’s Choice award for over a decade now.” said Robert Fisher of Indigo. ”Having a brilliant mind and amazing ideas is at the heart of this competition – translating ideas into something … Continue reading →

Hybrid meeting challenges and how to overcome them

The pandemic changed the way we work and changed it fast. After that initial scramble to source the tech and make sure everyone is supported to work remotely, we are now looking at ways to integrate hybrid working into the … Continue reading →

Leaders can do more with less

  Leaders have opportunities to use creative thinking every day. Whether they’re making improvements, cutting costs or solving problems, they have to go beyond what has been done before. The constant need to do more for less demands creativity from … Continue reading →

Supporting Young Scientists – Young Entrepreneurs Scheme “People’s choice” award in 2019

Indigo are proud to champion university teams through our ongoing Young Entrepreneurs Scheme “People’s choice” award in 2019. Jack Fleet was a member of the University of Manchester’s winning YES19 team, Larvita. ‘Our business idea was a vertical insect farm producing … Continue reading →

Charity Challenge (February 2020 – Manchester) – Think on Your Feet®

We delivered another great Think on Your Feet® workshop in Manchester this week.  Thanks to all our attendees for contributing so positively, making it a fun and engaging two days. Due to its success we ran our third charity challenge. … Continue reading →

Charity Challenge (January 2020 – London) – Think on Your Feet®

Here at Indigo we’ve had a busy start to 2020.  We delivered another busy Think on Your Feet® workshop in London. Thanks to all our attendees for contributing so positively, making it a fun and engaging two days. The charity … Continue reading →

Sponsoring The Engineers And Scientists Of The Future (YES19)

The final of the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES19) global competition was held on Tuesday 10 December at the Royal Society, London. Teams of postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers went head-to-head to compete for a prize fund of £15K. Every year … Continue reading →

Too busy to think?

The decision is made – two weeks later you have to backtrack! How many times has that happened to you, either as the person making the decision or as a part of the team bringing it to life. This happens … Continue reading →

Essential soft skills for graduates

Most newly employed graduates have the sector-specific knowledge required to hit the ground running, yet many lack the fundamental practical core skills that prevent them actually doing the job and reaching their full potential. These transferable skills, used across the … Continue reading →

Indigo Business Services Named Best Training & Development Consultancy 2018 – UK.

RICHMOND, UK, 18 December 2018: Indigo Business Services Named Best Training & Development Consultancy 2018 – UK. By Corporate Vision Magazine’s Small Business Awards. Indigo Business Services Limited is a leading international training consultancy that helps organisations gain competitive advantage … Continue reading →

When your mind goes blank, when writing…

You’ve got a great idea. You need to sell your idea. Your fingers hit the keyboard. Your mind goes blank? Absolutely nothing! Your mind goes blank. You’ve got writer’s block. This happens to all of us at times. So how … Continue reading →

Waterfall or Agile? How will you manage your projects?

Research shows that the majority of projects spend more time and money than estimated, and many also fail to meet customer needs accurately too. This means delivering poor customer value, and low confidence in project success. Many organisations are struggling … Continue reading →

Classic Lateral Thinking™ in action: Plastic bottle tops that double as Lego blocks.

This article, first published in March 2010, has become topical again with all the discussion regarding implementing a plastic bottle tax to tackle waste and ocean pollution. With a little Lateral Thinking there could be more innovative ways to solve these challenges… …bottle caps … Continue reading →

Indigo Business Services Named Exclusive UK Distributor for Think on Your Feet®

RICHMOND, UK, 30 August 2018: McLuhan & Davies Communications, Inc. has appointed their exclusive UK distributor, Indigo Business Services Limited. Indigo will be the sole provider of their suite of business-communication workshops in the UK. “From September 2018 our 17-year relationship … Continue reading →

Engaging stakeholders

The skills required to understand, engage, manage and communicate with stakeholders. By Trish Thurley, Indigo Master Trainer and Richard Evans Stakeholder management can be the difference between success and failure for anyone who has to deal with other people. Who … Continue reading →

The (ugly) truth about workplace communication.

Excellent verbal and written communication-skills is a standard requirement in today’s workplace. Communication plays a vital role in your company’s success and productivity. And ignoring it can be dangerous. Download our FREE infographic: The (ugly) truth about workplace communication. It reveals the … Continue reading →

Three challenges Managing Projects™ helps to solve:

The frustration of never-ending projects that drag on and drag you down. Stops ‘risk’ from being a chore, making it your best ally for saving time and effort. Avoids the pain and humiliation of failure, by ensuring success. Tips Use … Continue reading →

My day is just meetings, meetings, meetings…

Does this sound like a familiar problem? Too many of us find ourselves spending many hours a day in meeting after meeting, which all too often fail to reach any sort of positive outcome, even after hours of debate. The … Continue reading →

Research: Supporting the management of change

Change is something that we are all experiencing more often. Any kind of project will initiate some kind of change, whether that’s a change to the way you communicate with clients to a restructure of a team. It’s important for … Continue reading →

Listen – to be more influential

Experts say the ability to express yourself verbally often reaps influence. There is evidence (Journal of Research in Personality) that being an effective listener is also as important. Effective listening is two-way, it: Prevents miscommunication. Confirms understanding of the message. … Continue reading →

Understood and remembered – add structure and IMPACT to everything you say…

‘Brain fog’ – that’s what happens when you get asked a question you know the answer to, where your response is unclear, often a little confused and long! There can be many reasons for this: An intimidating audience (your team, … Continue reading →

Reducing project failure… an article for Project Sponsors

Projects are a great way to manage change. But with more and more projects clamouring for the same resources, some are likely to fail. Add increased pace, increasing levels of complexity and ambiguity, and achieving project success becomes extremely difficult. … Continue reading →

Project management for non-project managers

Project management, a profession for some – for others, it’s a requirement as well as their day job, no matter what role or level of seniority. As a marketer I manage projects on a daily basis, having never been project … Continue reading →

The three P’s of dynamic, persuasive presentations

Public speaking is a top fear for many people. It’s okay to be afraid as long as you try to keep that fear at bay when you give a presentation. Here’s our three P’s of dynamic, persuasive presentations: Plan Probably … Continue reading →

Good writing leads…

I had a discussion recently with someone who didn’t think writing was a leadership skill, rather, something to be learned by new hires versus the old hands. I found this interesting. Only recently I’d heard of a senior executive being … Continue reading →

Improving how your graduates write

Madison Abernethy recently graduated from the Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada, where she developed strong interests in marketing, media and corporate communications. Throughout University she was plagued by writer’s block. She admits that 95% of her designated writing … Continue reading →

Top tips – communicating with difficult stakeholders

Stakeholder management can be a challenge, you often need to juggle between positive and negative groups or individuals. A logical way to build good relationships, especially when communicating with a difficult stakeholder, is by using techniques learnt on our Internationally … Continue reading →

Selling your ideas – stakeholder communication

Our blended, computer simulation based, Stakeholder Engagement (including Simulation)™ defines a stakeholder as ‘anyone that can affect what you are trying to achieve.’ Engaging and communicating with these groups is core to business and project success. These include colleagues, customers, … Continue reading →

Selling your ideas – cutting though the noise…

Guaranteeing clarity of your message is becoming harder because of increasing disruption and distraction in today’s business environment. You still need to get people to read, see, listen and understand what you are trying to say. How can you be … Continue reading →

Will your idea work?

So, ‘innovation is a part of your culture’  and you have accepted that ‘change is inevitable…’ You have set your focus and generated fresh, fast and on-demand ideas, so what next? Do you just pop them in a box somewhere … Continue reading →