Five years ago this week, the UK was closed because of pandemic fear, fuelled by a hysterical media, inflamed by dodgy data from an “expert” at Imperial College and not helped by pathetic politicians who lacked critical thinking skills. As we discovered later, the politicians knew the actual danger to health was close to zero for anyone under 80 years of age, and so they partied, socialised and had affairs regardless, while continuing lockdowns and furlough policies which polled as popular.

One of the best-selling books in the UK is The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.  The author explores the recent catastrophic decline in youth mental health and its potential causes, focusing on the impact of technology, social media and overprotective parenting. It’s a sobering read, and I am sure the book will get some blowback based on his challenging views. Still, for this reader, it offers some profound thoughts about the importance of (and the lack of) real-world connections, close relationships and friendships among young people.

The acronym debate rages: WFH v RTO.  [Work From Home or Return to Office]. As a friend said at lunch this week, it's almost like "another dimension to the culture wars". Liberty-equality-duvet, versus to the tyranny of the commute and the humdrum office. It is The Rebellion vs The Empire, the remote planet outliers living the dream on Alderaan, while the menacing Death Star looms: with Vadar-like CEO's issuing RTO mandates: ‘get on board, or we'll destroy your world!’

I wrote a few months ago that remote working could turn out to be the tobacco of the early 21st century. Some thought I’d overstated the point.  But just because something is popular, and widely enjoyed by millions, doesn't mean it does not have unforeseen consequences.

Someone wise once told me that there are only two good ideas in the world at any one time, and that somebody else is already using yours.  That reality of that struck me profoundly, at the end of 2017, when after five years of heroically failing to raise enough funding for an original screenplay project called Leicester Square, I sat back in a recliner seat in a cinema in the very same named square in London. 

We often blithely talk about disruption, innovation and change as irreversible forces, and swap tales of the demise of Nokia, Blockbuster, Kodak, and Toys R Us. But now a wave of change is swamping theatrical cinema, and this time it feels more personal! Will cinema survive a world of streaming, social-media and nanosecond attention spans? If an Art Deco gem in a borough with some 400,000 residents can be shuttered, what hope for small towns, art-houses and niche theatres?

I am just got back from a trip to Australia. I had never been before, so the time, distance and investment all felt very “bucket list” and my anticipation was high.

I was delighted to contribute to some ideas to ‘I”, the IMD thought-leadership journal, on the importance of the side-hustle. The evidence is growing that the nature of work is not only now determinedly hybrid, but organisations are being staff with blended networks of different types of employees, affiliates, consultants and gig workers. But even amongst those contracted to an employment entity, staff are increasingly finding their most productive, enjoyable and fulfilling hours at work are AWAY from their main employer. I conducted a survey amongst my network and found that over two-thirds of respondents, many of them senior managers in large, well-known companies, are actively working on something “elsewhere” from their normal day jobs.

So the world’s biggest superstar Taylor Swift has just released a mammoth break-up album, with the Morrisey-esque title, The Tortured Poets Society.  Her new record is “inspired” (if that is the right term) by two deep, heart-breaking and over-wrought love affairs with two of the finest of the male species - British men; an actor called Joe Alwyn, whom she was with for six years, and then Matty Healy, the lothario frontman of The 1975.

The first three months of the year are typically a professional and personal slog, and things brighten after that. I am not with curmudgeon TS Eliot, who thought that “April was the cruellest month…stirring dull roots with spring rain.”  

I'm just back from a visit to Muscat, Oman as a speaker at the 7th Annual OSHRM Conference, on the theme "sprinting towards the future of work." The city was flooded as I arrived, so much of the city was closed. Being from the UK, there was nothing particularly extraordinary for me about the amount of rain, I guess it’s just the case that rain itself is somewhat extraordinary in Oman, and it makes travel and roads very difficult.

I recently had the pleasure to meet with Scott Newton to talk about GLUE, hybrid work, productivity, engagement and a whole host of other topics. Scott is super smart and works and advises top teams on strategy and value creation. So, it was great to have him anchor the conversation and draw so many people together from around the world to explore this idea called GLUE. You can see a recording of the conversation from Linked-in Live below

One of the cultural highlights of London in 2023 was the Lightroom’s retrospective of Britain’s greatest living artist David Hockney.  It was an evocative and deeply immersive experience, surrounded on all sides by Hockney’s art, while kids tried to jump in the virtual puddles.  

My book GLUE is now out in the wild, published last month, and sparking a conversation about a new mode of leadership for the way we now work and live.  I was asked by Linked-in Book Club to craft a single page summary for the book, so I settled on the key leadership behaviours that make a difference in creating glue.

Lennon and Macartney wrote: “There are places I'll remember | All my life, though some have changed | Some forever, not for better | Some have gone, and some remain”. We often think of our lived experience through people and places, with our emotions and feelings heightened by being there with someone we love.  There the setting, the context, the landscape and the shadows of that place matter.

I have just launched a new irregular newsletter called The Organisational Advantage (or 'The OA' for short) which I will push out via Linked-in, for connections and new followers.  The ‘OA’ should not confused with the rather wonderful, but completely bonkers Netflix TV series of the same name, but refers to the ‘organisational advantage’ created by a leader’s investment in social capital, collaborate behaviours and nurturing glue. 

I was asked to contribute some ideas to an article for Forbes magazine on “How to win back a disengaged team”?” The full article, by Sally Percy, is linked below, but the contribution got me thinking.

Wow! Well that just happened! A veritable launch party for my new book GLUE, in the company of some of the loveliest people I know. It made perfect sense to hold the launch party for GLUE at The Union Club. I first visited the club about two decades ago to hear Anthony Minghella talk about film-making, jazz and selling ice-cream in Hull.

Being a leader has always been difficult.  While the purpose might be strategic, the reality of the role often means tackling a burgeoning inbox of people issues, technology and process problems, crisis management and disruption aplenty. But those leaders charged with steadying the ship are themselves now being disrupted like never before.