This is it everyone, the final Totem Talk.  After 72 episodes and 3 years, we're finally calling time on our podcasting adventure.  It's been a fascinating journey made entirely possible by you, our listeners.  We can't begin to express our gratitude to all of you who have supported, encouraged, contributed and listened to Totem Talks over the years. In this final conversation, Mark Smith & Helen Frewin review the year, some difficult decisions and our hopes for the future. As we mentioned in the conversation, Totem's marketing will look distinctly different next year and th ..read more

The penultimate Totem Talks!  Next month is a wrap up special and will be a little different content wise, so we had to end our podcast on something dear to both of us, and the one thing that could benefit so, so many people. This month we talk exclusively about facilitation skills, how do we get people to talk to one another?  Hear one another?  And understand one another?  We cover a few top tips including "Rounds" as well as the evergreen Six Thinking Hats - courtesy of the legend De Bono. As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tu ..read more

In this month's Totem Talks we have a very special guest.  Helen Frewin welcomes the fabulous Sarah Creevey to the show, and gets well and truly stuck into the nuts and bolts of Positive Psychology - a phrase loaded with connotations - some bad and some er... positive. If you love what you hear and would like to connect with Sarah directly, this is the best place: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcreevey As always, you can find loads of free resources on our website or Pay as You Go tutorials in our online store: http://www.totem-consulting.com/ http://www.totem-consulting.com/online-lear ..read more

In the latest episode of Totem Talks, Mark Smith and Helen Frewin review the latest, greatest and inspirational in the Hybrid Working landscape.  And we come to a difficult conclusion about the New Normal* of working. We also have additional input from the research of our very own facilitator Cat Pugh, who gives us the 4 C's of effective Hybrid Working - Care, Connect, Communicate & Clarify. Links to some of the things we natter about are below! https://www.gallup.com/workplace/397751/returning-office-current-preferred-future-state-remote-work.aspx https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/amazo ..read more

We wanted to get an expert on this subject to bring a sales perspective to the conversation, so welcome Sales Leadership Guru Andy Buchanan to Totem Talks! In this conversation, Andy and Helen discuss what it means to be commercially aware and how we can all do better at this – in sales, in HR, in any role. Highlights include: • We need to think about why someone would want something, rather than how we can sell it.  • Focus on the person we want to influence and their problems or needs. • Speak the language of the person you want to influence – talk about their business, their market, th ..read more

Business Partners: What makes a good HRBP, or any kind of BP? How do we develop them? In this month's podcast Mark Smith & Helen Frewin reveal the Totem Business Partnering framework and give pointers on how this comes to life. As we realise just how powerful a great business partner can be, the natural question is, how do we build these skills in our teams? So there are a few tips in here as well for developing your teams to be even stronger BPs. You can read more on this in our download guide on the subject too, but it's really, really good stuff so we'll trade you for your email address ..read more

A slightly different podcast than our advertised schedule called for, but the requests for this particular topic just kept rolling in - and who are we to deny our adoring fans? In this month's podcast Mark Smith & Helen Frewin explore the psychology behind great customer service, which is actually rather simple.  Taking inspiration from the masters John Lewis and stretching the legs of our newest team member, we cover everything from empathy to allyship - and even throw in The Hero's Journey for good measure (high five to Edward Burnett Tylor) As always, we love getting your feedback ..read more

I thought you were going to just say Therapy - what's the Hypnotherapy all about?  This month we take a deep dive into the world of CBH with our guest Sarah Makinde - consultant and coach extraordinaire! But is CBH not just the tried and tested CBT with a side serving of Hypnotherapy?  Yes and no.  Sarah explains the similarities and differences,  explaining how CBH gives us the tools to manage stress and feelings of anxiety, as well as some physical ailments.  We also peer into the “cognitive-behavioural” theory of the nature of hypnosis - which surprisingly - rejects ..read more

The belated follow up to Totem Talks Episode 32: Psychological Safety comes the aptly titled; Psychological Safety Part 2! Wrestling with the importance of learning cultures, listening to understand and challenging the word “but”. One t, not two. In this month’s episode Mark Smith and Helen Frewin delve deeper into several key components of Psychological Safety in the work place. If you would like to read Google's Project Aristotle's own research into this subject, visit here: https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/ And if you’d like to know more about our view on learning ..read more

Hello fabulous followers!  In this month's Totem Talks we explore the very real and pervasive phenomenon of confidence - and the ability to come across as confident - masking a serious lack of competence in any particular skill or role. This is especially true in organisational cultures that promote people on the basis that they "speak up" or "engage confidently" with stakeholders.  By themselves these are worthy skills, but in the overall context of a role?  We're not so sure. Whilst offering insights and a few ways for organisations to break this trend, Helen Frewin and Mark S ..read more