Bromilow

Three months ago, I watched a perfectly competent project manager get absolutely destroyed by a communication skills course that cost her company $3,500. The irony? She walked out more confused about basic workplace interactions than when she started.
This isn't another generic "improve your communication" article. After seventeen years consulting with everyone from mining companies in Perth to tech startups in Melbourne, I've seen enough training disasters to write a book. More importantly, I've identified what actually moves the needle when it comes to professional development.
The Real Communication Crisis Nobody Talks About
Here's what gets me fired up: everyone obsesses over presentation skills and public speaking, but the real communication breakdown happens in everyday workplace interactions. I'm talking about the stuff that makes or breaks projects—those critical conversations that happen between meetings, the feedback that never gets delivered properly, and the assumptions that torpedo entire initiatives.
Last year, I worked with a mining contractor in the Hunter Valley. Brilliant technical team. Absolute disasters when it came to client communication. The problem wasn't their knowledge—it was their complete inability to translate complex information into language that made sense to stakeholders who didn't share their technical background.
Most communication skills training courses focus on the wrong things entirely.