Hello and welcome to Working It.
Last week I was in France, visiting Deloitte’s new EMEA campus for staff leadership training. I’m fascinated by the return to corporate-run “universities” 🎓. GE is famous for its Crotonville Campus (opened in 1956), but the idea has long been out of fashion. Now it’s back, and with a post-pandemic focus on real-life connection. Stay tuned for our upcoming Working It video on this topic.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with corporate learning campuses, old and new: isabel.berwick@ft.com. Here’s mine: When I was a junior editor in the 90s, I did a management apprenticeship at a stately home in Swindon owned by my employer, Reader’s Digest. What do I remember? Swimming in the indoor pool, enjoying the open bar and taking the Myers-Briggs personality test. Great fun for a sociable ENFJ. Money well spent? 👀
Read on for expert advice on how managers can prepare for years—or likely decades 😱—of workplace disruption.
Focus on certainty before facing the unknown 🙈
“We’re in a technology supercycle and a geopolitical supercycle, and this is the slowest it’s ever going to be in our lifetimes, which is terrifying when you think about it. And right now, AI is the slowest it’s ever going to be.”
This startling statement about the state of the world comes from Terence Mauri, a leadership expert, founder and author of the upcoming book The silver lining of disruptionnorthI enjoy Terence’s posts. on LinkedinSo I called him to ask: what? is The silver lining of disruption? Because it all seems pretty scary. And how can managers and leaders embrace it?
Terence began by acknowledging how difficult it is for humans to accept change: “We [as humans] “We crave certainty so much that we sometimes miss the silver lining of disruption, and what I mean by that is the opportunity to reimagine work, work that is broken.” The prize for anyone who makes it to the other side of disruption (and this, he stresses, applies to life events as well as work events) is “the possibility that the best is yet to come 🙌🏻.”
He says the first step for anyone interested in reframing their thinking about disruption (and no, I’m not just talking about AI-related change 🥱), is, reassuringly, to think about what remains certain in their working life.
“That’s a really important point because we often forget to ask that question: What are we certain of in our careers? So I’m confident that if I focus on value, that will create some kind of sustainable outcome. I’m confident that if I innovate, I iterate, and I embrace the spirit of curiosity and humility, I will learn, and that’s a great antidote to disruption. And then the second question is: What are the practical ways that managers can reduce uncertainty? One of them is to ask questions.”
These questions should be about self-reflection (how can I do things differently) and also about broader ideas, perhaps with input from the team: “What is emerging, what is enduring, and what is eroding in the future of work?”
As well as discussing the impact of generative AI, Terence’s book looks at many other reasons why work continues to change. Among them, talent shortages – finding people with the right skills and retaining them is likely to be a big challenge going forward. Add to that the demands of new customers who want personalised products and services (for yesterday 💨) and the disruption caused by startups and industry consolidation. All of this makes for an uncomfortable future.
Terence’s method of embracing disruption (essentially, getting ahead of it and taking back some control) reminds me of the difference between the old approach to corporate careers, when we waited patiently to be promoted ⏳, and the newer tactics of creating our own opportunities, making lateral moves to gain skills, and focusing on “being visible.” It’s the difference between being reactive and proactive. Is this, perhaps, the secret to learning to love disruption?
It’s more than that, Terence suggests, saying we need to see the value in taking more risks. “I think the biggest lesson [about managing disruption] “It’s just that we always overestimate the risk of trying new things but underestimate the risk of staying still🧍🏻♀️.”
So there you have it. Let go of comfort and embrace the cold winds of change. Share your own tips on how to make the best of uncertainty (by asking a friend, obviously): isabel.berwick@ft.com.
This week on the Working It podcast
We all make mistakes, even if we like to pretend otherwise 😶🌫️. The recent ones CrowdStrike’s global computer system outage It seems that it was due to a mistake. Most of us would never do something with such serious consequences, but the incident caused an episode From the Working It podcast: How can we recover from our mistakes at work? And how do we regain confidence?
First, I speak to Hugh Carnegy, the FT editor in charge of our corrections and clarifications. He has wise words about how people and their managers should deal with mistakes. And then, Harvard Business School professor Sandra SucherA world-class trust expert, she offers her simple, step-by-step guide on how to act after a mistake. Step one? Properly apologize 😔 and then analyze the kind of harm you’ve done to others.
Five standout stories from the world of work
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Whistleblowing cases on the rise in the UK employment tribunal system: It’s extremely difficult (and often career-destroying) to sue an employer for misconduct, but more and more workers are taking their cases to court. Josh Gabert-Doyon looks at what’s behind this trend.
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How executives approach work during the holidays: Who doesn’t love a juicy analysis of CEO vacation habits? This article by Oliver Balch and Joshua Franklin doesn’t disappoint. Plus, it contains some great advice on how to create a clear chain of command when the boss gets some much-needed time off the grid.
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How we stopped worrying about corporate nonsense: The long and mediocre history of management language is not going away, as Pilita Clark describes in a very funny column. We all love being part of the popular group, which is why these things are now tolerated endlessly (sadly).
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The welfare state is discarding too many people too soonThe UK has a large number of economically inactive people and research shows that many of them want to work but cannot find enough disability support or flexibility for their family circumstances. Camilla Cavendish describes the problems and suggests some solutions.
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Gamification: It’s like fun, but more hellish: Tim Harford looks at the addictive ways our phones, and many other aspects of modern life, keep us hooked. The real fun, he suggests, is in real human connection.
One more thing . . .
Ilona Maher is an American rugby sevens player currently competing in the Olympics. She is also a huge TikTok star. with 1.9 million followersHer videos are so funny that they make you laugh out loud. I am grateful to the Gen Z family members who introduced me to Ilona.
And finally . . .
My friend and FT colleague Claer Barrett won the Newsletter of the Year award at the Publisher Newsletter Awards last week for her course Sort Your Financial Life Out. Claer has condensed six simple lessons on personal finance, which are delivered by email and are free to FT subscribers. Sign up here.
Claer and I will conduct a work therapy session in the FT Weekend Festival The festival takes place on 7 September at Kenwood House in London, and we’ll be answering your questions about work, life, finance and everything in between (go ahead, test us ✅). The festival features 10 stages running throughout the day, and speakers include actors John Lithgow and Simon Russell Beale; Sharon White, chair of John Lewis, as well as familiar faces from the FT, including editor Roula Khalaf and business commentator Martin Wolf.
Get £24 off in-person festival tickets using Newsletters24 discount code.