The question that empties your head
You’re in a meeting. Everything is going fine. Then someone asks a question you didn’t prepare for – a client, a director, a journalist – and for a moment your mind goes completely blank. You know the subject. You could write a report on it. But asked to answer it out loud, in the next three seconds, the words won’t come. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to think on your feet in exactly this kind of moment, the answer isn’t having the confidence; it’s knowing how to structure what you need to say.
It’s one of the most common, and most avoidable, moments of professional discomfort. And it happens constantly: over 95% of workplace communication is ad-hoc, unplanned and informal, yet most organisations only ever train people for the 5% that’s scripted and rehearsed, like formal presentations. Nobody trains for the other 95%, the meetings, the Q&As, the “got a minute?” conversations.
A method born from real speeches, not theory
Think on Your Feet® wasn’t invented. Its foundations were laid by Dr Keith Spicer, a prominent Canadian public figure who served as Canada’s first Commissioner of Official Languages and later chaired the CRTC. Spicer learned a three-part method of structured, spontaneous speaking in Paris and began teaching it to senior bankers and accountants who needed to think and speak clearly under pressure.
In 1985, Roger H.B. Davies acquired the rights and built it into a full professional workshop, which became the flagship programme of McLuhan & Davies Communications in Toronto. From there it went global: one of the first clients, Ernst & Young in Australia, introduced it to the Australian Institute of Management. And its reputation spread from there. Today, Think on Your Feet® is delivered in over 30 countries and 12 languages, and more than half a million professionals have taken the workshop worldwide (Think on Your Feet® International — Our Story).
Indigo Business Services is the exclusive UK distributor for Think on Your Feet®, delivering the programme with the same original licensed materials used around the world.
How to Think on Your Feet®: what the workshop actually teaches
The workshop isn’t about presentation skills, it’s about the other 95%: the moments when there’s no script. It teaches ten practical techniques for turning a jumble of thoughts into a clear, memorable answer in seconds, not minutes.
For individuals, that means:
- Answering tough questions coherently instead of rambling or freezing.
- Turning nervous energy into focus, rather than letting it derail the answer.
- Coming across as more credible, concise and in control – without notes.
For the organisation, the payoff is broader:
- Sharper client and stakeholder conversations, from board updates to sales calls.
- Fewer meetings that drift because no one can summarise a point quickly.
- A consistent communication standard, so junior and senior staff alike can represent the organisation well when put on the spot.
Clients tell us the workshop is the biggest game changer in terms of presentation skills and communication strategies.
Ready to Think on Your Feet®
Think on Your Feet® is a practical two-day workshop. It’s, delivered online or face-to-face, and trains you to analyse, organise and present your ideas fast.
If your team’s weak point isn’t what they know, but how they explain it under pressure, this is the workshop that fixes it.
Book the Think on Your Feet® workshop for you →
Enquire about Think on Your Feet® for a group or team →
