“A man may keep very busy indeed without doing any thinking at all, and the easy course—the course of least resistance—is to keep so busy that there will be no time left over for thought”.

Harvey Firestone, “Men in Rubber”.

Change: career bending.

The world of work is changing, reshaped by forces ranging from demographic shifts (getting older), transformative technology (AI/AR/VR/blockchain), multi-polar globalization (rise of China and India), to unbundled, distributed work and a work/life reset. Welcome to an era of career bending times, where to survive and stay relevant, we need to continue to reinvent ourselves. This means actively planning for long term careers, lifelong learning and updating our own operating systems. It may also mean evolving our management styles, focussing less on our “zone of control” or “size of kingdom” and more on our “zone of influence” and “zone of impact”. Less on being bosses and managers, and more on being leaders and coaches and learners.

A thought for leaders: As Pope Francis said “we are not living an era of change but a change of era”. As the world of work changes and industries transform, are you preparing yourself, and your people, for these shifts. Are you taking control and agency over the change or will you be swept by the tide wherever it takes you? Remember that career bending, is far better than career ending.

Culture: toleration.

Dominic Rabb resigned as the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK following accusations of bullying. In his resignation letter, he said the inquiry had “set the threshold for bullying so low” and created “a dangerous precedent”. He pointed out that, he hadn’t sworn, shouted, thrown anything, physically intimidated or intentionally belittled anyone. But, as this piece describes, having a ‘threshold’ for bullying is out of date. It’s now recognised that bullies are as likely to undermine or discriminate against individuals with a pattern of smaller slurs or “microaggressions”. Yes we all want results, but the reality is that a fearful workforce is often an underperforming workforce, and the best-performing teams are “psychologically safe”, unafraid to speak up about mistakes and to challenge their bosses and colleagues.

A thought for leaders: Organisational psychologist Adam Grant has said that “to understand the values in a culture, we often examine which behaviors get punished. But we also need to consider which behaviors *don’t* get punished—what people get away with”. And as John Amaechi says “A culture is defined by the worst behaviour tolerated”. What do you tolerate? And how can you raise the bar to ensure you have a safe culture?

Resilience: shared experiences.

A thought for leaders: In our hybrid worlds, are you supporting, encouraging and creating the conditions for shared experiences? What ways are you supporting collective resilience, where people can draw on each others strength? And how can you ensure that the quiet moments that matter, are maintained.

And finally, here’s another leadership principle.

Resist Temptation – Minimise Distraction

Dig a little deeper into this principle here.

You can follow Flow Group on Linkedin here.

P.S. Our featured artist this month is Summer Wagner, a photographer from the rust belt region of midwestern USA. Her blue toned “visual poems” feature figures transfixed by smartphones. She blends reality and fantasy to hold a mirror up to life online, and our obsession with messaging, scrolling, uploading, liking and reposting.