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🧠 The teams with the highest individual IQs…
Often make the worst decisions.

If everyone thinks the same way, shares the same background, or has the same view, you don’t get better ideas. You get blind spots.

This is of the main point of Matthew Syed‘s Rebel Ideas, which I recently read again.
A few weeks ago, I shared thoughts on his other book, Black Box Thinking, about how we learn from failure.
Rebel Ideas feels like the perfect follow-up. It’s about how we learn from others, especially those who see things differently.

Here are a few ideas that stood out:

🧠 Smart individuals don’t guarantee smart teams
A team full of high performers can still make bad choices if they all think alike.
Diversity only helps if different voices are actually heard.

🧭 We need both depth and distance
Syed says real insight comes when we combine deep expertise with fresh perspectives.
It’s not one or the other, but both together that matter.
He shares the story of DEC computers — but it made me think of the Blackberry film.
They were so focused on what had worked before, they couldn’t imagine people wanting a phone without a keyboard.

⚠️ Secrecy hurts innovation
Some companies keep ideas hidden to protect themselves. But when they shut out new thinking, ideas stop growing.

📊 The problem with averages
This really stood out to me:
“When an average is used well, it brings together many insights.
But used badly, it forces one solution on everyone.”

And one line still sticks with me — especially now, when “diversity” is talked about more than ever, even as it feels more important than ever:

“Our species is the most formidable on the planet not because we are individually strong, but because we are collectively diverse.”

📚 If you’re interested in better decisions, innovation, or working well with others, this book is worth reading (or re-reading).

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✈️ “Katja, what have you been doing this summer?”

Well… among other things, re-reading (yes, re-reading!) a book that’s just as powerful the second time around:
📘 Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed.

I don’t often re-read books – there are simply too many still on my list. But thanks to a WhatsApp discussion with two wonderful colleagues I was reminded of Syed’s work, I picked this one back up. And I’m so glad I did.

I had forgotten how striking the opening chapter is, with the story of Elaine Bromiley, who died during what should have been a routine anaesthetic. This wasn’t just a tragic mishap, it was the result of a system that failed to notice and respond to mounting danger.

And that’s exactly what this book is about: not just reacting to failure, but building cultures that learn from it. That celebrate iteration. That pause before blame. That evolve.

Some insights that hit home (again):
🔁 The paradox of success: it’s built on failure
🎯 The guided missile analogy; failure isn’t the opposite of progress, it is the mechanism of progress. Feedback is course correction.
🧠 We’re hardwired to oversimplify complex systems
⚖️ Winners need both innovation and discipline
⏸ Pausing before blame can change everything

And still just as powerful:

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford

It’s not perfect, though. Syed credits the Ancient Greeks with initiating the idea that failure can be productive — and while that may be true in Western intellectual tradition, it’s too narrow a lens. Other cultures show similar thinking:
– In Ancient Egypt, the evolution from the Bent Pyramid to later designs shows clear adaptation and learning through trial.
– In Ancient Chinese philosophy, concepts like balance, reflection, and continuous refinement point to a mindset of growth through iteration — not shame.

🎯 Whether you’re in aviation, healthcare, education, or business — this book is a must-read (or re-read) for anyone serious about creating systems that improve over time.

👀 Next up: Rebel Ideas — a timely revisit to another Syed classic, and why diverse thinking isn’t just “nice to have,” but mission-critical.

📚 Curious: what’s a book you’ve re-read that hit differently the second time?

#BlackBoxThinking #LearningCulture #LearnFromMistakes #Facilitation

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Have you ever found yourself mid-conversation thinking, “Wait… what are we really talking about here?”
That’s exactly the kind of moment Charles Duhigg explores in Supercommunicators — and why this book was such a timely read for me.
As someone who works closely with clients navigating challenging conversations, I found this framework immediately useful:

🧩 Duhigg breaks down communication into three types of conversations — practical, emotional, and social.
The key? First, figure out what kind of conversation you’re in. And know that it can shift — sometimes more than once — in a single dialogue.

Some highlights I’ve already put into practice:
🔁 Looping for understanding — a central listening skill where we reflect back what we’ve heard to ensure clarity.
💬 As Yale psychologist Margaret Clark puts it:
“The best listeners aren’t just listening. They’re triggering emotions by asking questions, expressing their own emotions, doing things that prompt the other person to say something real.”
🧠 Prepare with purpose — even a few intentional questions beforehand like “What does this person really need?” or “What mindset do I want to bring in?” can shape the entire tone of a conversation.

📚 Supercommunicators is now firmly on my recommended list for facilitators, coaches, and anyone who wants to become a better conversationalist — especially when the stakes are high.

(see in link below to his TedTalk he did last year on the same topic: The science behind dramatically better conversations | Charles Duhigg | TEDxManchester https://youtu.be/lg48Bi9DA54?si=AYCzLBRJWhQu6c_h)

#Supercommunicators #CommunicationSkills #LeadershipDevelopment #TrustedAdvisor #Facilitation #ActiveListening

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Earlier this year finished The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, and it made me rethink how adaptable our brains truly are. As a Senior Communication and Leadership Development Facilitator & Coach, I’ve always been interested in neuroscience. This book offered some eye-opening insights that I wish I’d known—not just for the work I do, but on a much more personal level, especially when it comes to recovery.

Here are 3 things I learned that really resonated with me:

  1.  💪🧠 The Brain Can Rewire Itself for Both Communication and Physical Function
    One of the most powerful concepts in the book was how the brain can reorganise itself after an injury—not just for speech, but for physical movement as well. My mum had a stroke eight years ago, and was left partly paralysed, along with speech challenges. At the time, we were often told, “It is what it is,” but if I had understood neuroplasticity back then, I would’ve known that the brain doesn’t just accept damage—it can adapt. Whether it’s movement or language, other parts of the brain can step in to take over. Recovery is possible, and the brain has an incredible ability to heal, even when it seems like all hope is lost. 
  2.  🔄🧠 Repetition and Practice Literally Change Your Brain
    Neuroplasticity isn’t just about recovery—it’s about growth. Repeating tasks, whether learning new skills or practicing communication, physically rewires the brain. As a coach, I’ve seen this firsthand: consistent practice strengthens the neural pathways necessary for leadership and communication. It’s not just about putting in the hours—it’s about creating lasting change in how we think, communicate, and act. 
  3. 🌱✨Rest + Stimulation = Lasting Change
    The section on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was eye-opening. It shows that with the right stimulation—and crucial rest—the brain can make permanent changes. This mirrors what I see in leadership development: true growth often comes not just from pushing hard, but from taking time to reflect, rest, and let new skills integrate. 

These insights really hit home for me, especially in the context of my mum’s journey. I believe it could have made a world of difference in her recovery. The brain’s capacity to adapt is real, and that’s something we can all take into our own lives—whether we’re recovering from an injury or working on personal growth.

#Neuroplasticity #LeadershipDevelopment #Coaching #PersonalGrowth #Neuroscience #ProfessionalGrowth #TMS #TheBrainThatChangesItself

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A sign how much I enjoyed a book are the sticky notes after I finished reading it… see here my copy of Terry Szuplat’s Say It Well.

It’s so wonderful to read on a topic I suppose to know *something* about and getting all inspired and excited again! There is a lesson here: always be open to learn and expand your horizons, especially on topics you’re familiar with.

Not just what the book teaches us on communication (and it’s a LOT) but also how.
Terry takes readers on a journey from the conception of a speech or presentation to the delivery, with anecdotes from the Obama White House, his own story (beautifully vulnerable) and presentations from other speakers (perhaps sometimes lesser-known speakers, but no less impactful!) –  I found it easy to read… and difficult to put down.

Some of the highlights for me:
* Scope it out – 10 questions to ask before any speech, I especially love the question ‘what do we (speaker and audience) have in common?’
* What a speech really is…  a performance, but “the ability to deliver the performance that only you can deliver”.
* Follow the BBQ rule (if you don’t say it in at a BBQ with friends don’t say it in a speech)
* The three questions to determine to use a statistic in a speech or not
* And finally: the power of hope, the only way to end a speech: that progress is possible, with a cautionary note on ‘being disciplined’

Highly recommended!

#BookRecommendation #CommunicationSkills #EffectiveCommunication #SpeechWriting #SayItWell 

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/15/zoom-video-calling

Yes, part of the dreaded ‘zoom-fatigue’ is the constant looking at yourself. It’s like you’re walking around with a mirror all the time.

Hiding self view does help. To avoid the urge to turn the self view back on, like the author of this article, make sure you position yourself well before you hide your self view.

Are you ‘filling the frame’? Is your background not distracting? Is there enough light on your face? If the answers are yes, you can turn off that self view and focus on the meeting instead.

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By Katja van Koten

“Um.. for our next um… session we ah.. are gonna look at these ah.. words, you sometimes kinda use in sentences when you speak. And ah.. these words don’t really make sense, ya know? They’re really kinda stopping the flow of what you kinda say, ya know? It’s um basically.. distracting for the ah audience, ya know.”

Who has ever been in this situation? You prepared your presentation meticulously. You know what you want to say, and then this happens? “Woah, what was I just saying there? That wasn’t what I was suppose to say? okay okay, relax, focus…” . All the while you stumble through what you were planning to say, talking an hundred miles an hour.

It’s isn’t what you are saying, it’s how you say it. You used a lot of ‘fillers’, with that I mean filler sounds, filler words and filler phrases.

All three variations of fillers are used in that one sentence above. Can you spot them? The filler sounds were the infamous ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’.  The filler words were ‘really’, ‘kinda’ and ‘basically’. And finally the filler phrase, it was just one small one; ’ya know’.

Fillers do not add anything to a presentation. They can even confuse an audience, and unsettle the speaker. So why do we do it?

As a result of our nerves we often speak too fast. That’s when we use fillers. What happens is it that our brain is trying to catch up with what we say. The time it takes us to process what we say leaves a gap, a space in our speech, and we try to fill that space. And the reason we fill the space is that we think we need to keep on talking to keep the attention of the audience.

Now that’s an important point, we think we need to keep on talking for the audience. While we forget that the audience also needs to process what we say. Realising that will not only help us eliminating the fillers we use. It will also add something powerful to our public speaking toolbox.

That is the power of the pause. It’s one of the most powerful tools you can use in your public speaking. It enables your audience to process what you’ve been saying, to make your point. It also makes you calmer and more confident as a speaker. I believe everyone can be a master of pause.

First we need to know where we can put a pause in a presentation. One way to practice this is to look at the plethora of speeches out there and see if you can spot the pauses. A lovely example is this speech: https://www.ted.com/talks/ric_elias

This was a very short speech given at a TED conference in 2011 by Ric Elias. He was one of the passengers of the flight 1549, who landed on the Hudson River in 2009. Here is an excerpt from that speech:

Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary. Well, I had a unique seat that day. I was sitting in 1D. […] Two minutes later, three things happened at the same time. The pilot lines up the plane with the Hudson River. That’s usually not the route. He turns off the engines. Now, imagine being in a plane with no sound. And then he says three words. The most unemotional three words I’ve ever heard. He says, “Brace for impact.” I didn’t have to talk to the flight attendant anymore. I could see in her eyes, it was terror. Life was over. 

Can you spot the pauses?

There are quite a few pauses. In the excerpt alone we can add pauses for various reasons. We can add a pause if we want to emphasise something. Like right after “Brace for impact.” – to let the words really land (pun intended!).

We can use a pause before a punchline so that’s actually before “Brace for impact.”.

Or we can use a dramatic pause. For instance right after “I was sitting in 1D.”.

We can really play with these pauses and in the process of doing so, eliminate the fillers.

Once we know where to put our pauses we can practice it. To practice this for your own presentations you might want to consider this. When you first try using pauses, say in your head ‘period’ in the place of the pause (please only in your head). This way you get used to the pause, and even get comfortable with it, until you eventually begin to master it.

So next time your brain is trying to catch up with what you say, and you feel the fillers coming up fast, remember to pause. Not just for you, but certainly also for your audience.

For more info about my public speaking coaching services please click here

Send me an email to book your first FREE coaching session: katja@sparklingspeech.com

This 20-minutes session is a non-obligation, complimentary session that gives us an opportunity to get to know each other, build rapport, set expectations for working together and decide on next steps.

I look forward to hear from you!

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Interview Life Coach Directory 

Last month I was asked for an interview for the Life Coach Directory, one of the biggest online directories listing qualified or registered life coaches in the UK and Northern Ireland. In this interview I spoke about how to communicate confidently as an introvert and/or HSP (Highly Sensitive Persons). You can find the interview HERE.

Workshop “How to Speak Confidently and Authentically, as a Highly Sensitive Person”

When: 7th November 2017, 7pm.

Where: The Square Pig 30-32 Procter Street, Holborn, London, WC1V 6NX, London

Tickets and info: Workshop – How to Speak Confidently and Authentically, as a Highly Sensitive Person

I’m excited to announce my workshop for HSPs about how to speak confidently and uuthentically.

Many of us may think that being an HSP is a hinderance when you’re presenting. The intention of this workshop, is to show that being an HSP will actually help us and our audience. Whether you present in front of a group of people, or during a meeting at work, or even at a social event. Dr Elaine Aron mentions in her book that Public Speaking […] “is a natural for HSPs, yes it is.”

In this interactive workshop we focus on what in fact does make us natural speakers. How we pick up on the subtleties in a room. How we prepare our presentations meticulously. And how we want to add value.

Come and join me for this workshop, which is the first of its kind!

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By Katja van Koten

At university I used to give around three or four presentations a year. I always wanted to give my presentations at the start of the semester, before everyone else. Not because I was so brave – I was just trying to outsmart my fellow students. You see I thought if I speak first than they can’t compare me yet with the other speakers. I don’t have to feel unsure about them being better. And, because I’m first, they might think I’m brave to do so and they won’t be that critical. Clever, isn’t it?

Well not really, for a start it’s negative approach. I’m not good enough. Sometimes I wish that I had filmed these presentations, because I’m sure now that it wasn’t so bad then. It took me nearly ten years before I had the courage to ask someone to film me during a presentation. I must admit I could only watch the video after two weeks or so, with the sound off! I couldn’t stand my own voice!

So why did I do it? I did it because I wanted to improve. And I wanted a different perspective. I highly value the feedback I get from my audience, and I wanted more. I wanted to see what the audience was seeing and hearing. I wanted to understand why certain things I said appealed to the audience – and other things didn’t.

One of the beautiful aspects of modern technology is that nearly everyone carries a camera these days. It’s so easy to ask someone to film you when you’re presenting. And once you’re over your first initial resistance and see more of your presentations you will note the differences, the changes, and your progress as speaker.

Nowadays, I’m not bothered at all when my presentations are filmed. It has learnt me so much about how I’m perceived when I present. No need for clever tricks anymore.

So are you ready? Lights, camera, action!

For more info about my public speaking coaching services please click here

Send me an email to book your first FREE coaching session: katja@sparklingspeech.com

This 20-minutes session is a non-obligation, complimentary session that gives us an opportunity to get to know each other, build rapport, set expectations for working together and decide on next steps.

I look forward to hear from you!

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By Katja van Koten

“Never apologize for talent!” Madame Morrible exclaims to Elphaba in Wicked.

Wicked is a musical and prequel to the Wizard of Oz. It is about the profound friendship between Glinda (later known as ‘The Good Witch’) and Elphaba (later known as ‘The Wicked Witch of the West’). They met at Shiz University. There, in front of the headmistress Madame Morrible, Ephaba’s frustration about not being with her sister, manifests itself physically in an explosion. Elphaba apologises, but Madame Morrible wants to hear nothing of it (‘Never apologize…!’). She decides to teach Elphaba sorcery, and so the story began.

Never apologise for talent. It reminds me of one of the best advices I ever received about giving presentations and about being confident ‘on stage’. Don’t apologise when you’re presenting. Period. Why? Because you command the stage. I mean that not in an arrogant way, but in a confident manner. Note the subtle but distinct difference.

I can’t recall how often I hear presenters apologise when they are on stage, and this includes myself. Saying sorry after you stumble over your words. Or what about “just bear with me whilst I’m ….”? Even a sentence that starts with “Let’s hope… (my laptop will work etc.)” sounds apologetic. And the absolute killer “I’m not really prepared”. To all this I simply say: ‘Don’t do it!’

You learn three things when you don’t apologise. First it’s a practice in how to continue calmly and with confidence after a ‘mistake’. Secondly you learn how to keep the momentum. Apologising is always disrupting the story you’re telling. It undermines the authority you have on stage. And last but not least you will realise when you carry on like nothing happened – that the audience usually don’t even notice that you made a ‘mistake’! So why even worry?

I must admit it took me a while before I learnt not to apologise when presenting. And so to remind myself after I saw the wonderful musical Wicked in the West End I bought a t-shirt. The shirt has the memorable words of Madame Morrible on it. “Never apologise for talent! Talent is a gift! And that is my special talent, encouraging talent!”

Let me encourage you not to say sorry, but to be bold, confident and sparkling when you’re presenting!

For more info about my public speaking coaching services please click here

Send me an email to book your first FREE coaching session: katja@sparklingspeech.com

This 20-minutes session is a non-obligation, complimentary session that gives us an opportunity to get to know each other, build rapport, set expectations for working together and decide on next steps.

I look forward to hear from you!