The thing about all this flexible working is all those conference calls. How can you maintain your leadership sangfroid down a phoneline? In my Leadersmithing book, I say that meetings are free training. Conference calls are no different. Here are three cards you can play: Read More
Sermon preached at St Michael and All Saints, Edinburgh, 22 January 2017
I wonder if you know that I went to Finishing School? Lucie Clayton College, to be precise. Joanna Lumley went there in the 60s. When I attended in the 90s, they still had their model of a car, so one could practice getting in and out of it without showing one’s knickers. Just the passenger seat, mind: ladies don’t drive. I learned how to sit for a ‘girls in pearls’ photo, how to glide down a staircase, and how to say No to men: “I’d really rather not.” Read More
My Godson fixes me with a beady eye. “If I finish my peas, do I get a sticker?” I was on holiday, taking the twins on a Progress to meet their northern relatives, and visiting friends en route. Every fridge I saw boasted a sticker-chart, and every meal seemed to go the same way, coupled with endless negotiation about getting dressed, sharing toys, doing jobs, and behaving in general. The more enterprising children would have shocked Luther with their creativity in conjuring up fresh sticker opportunities. They reminded me of those cartoon Catholics of yore, who played the system by figuring out that sinning generates more God points than leading a blameless life, because it enables you to get grace top-ups through confession and absolution.
Imagine you are in your workplace. Perhaps it is an office, or a car, or the kitchen, or a classroom. You have been given a pair of those 3-D specs, the kind with a red and a green window. Putting them on, you notice everywhere you look a blizzard of angels. They are cartwheeling across your mousemat, swinging from your car mirror, making faces behind your rather cross boss, helping you load the laundry, and singing about God. Read More
I have just been reviewing John Hughes’ The End of Work which I like very much. He argues that Marx used a sleight of hand in introducing the concept of unalienated labour, seeing behind this prestige the hand of God. His arguments are essentially etymological. The first word he examines is criticism. Read More
