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Collective Imagination: The Human Advantage in a World of AI
When we think about the future of work, it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of artificial intelligence and automation. We constantly hear how machines are going to do this faster, and that smarter, and generally more efficiently than us humans ever could. And while there’s some truth to that, there’s one thing…
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What Does It Mean To Be Human?
By Dr Kear Brain, Chartered Clinical Psychologist & Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) To be human is to suffer, to face mortality and the truth of impermanence. To be human is to breathe and grieve and love. As humans we have an innate capacity for connection and a fundamental need for belonging – to find our…
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The Synergy of Souls and Circuits: Winning with AI
As we stand on the cusp of an AI revolution, it’s becoming increasingly clear that artificial intelligence is not just reshaping the workplace but redefining the very essence of our professional and personal lives. However, as with any transformative force, there will be winners and losers (and I don’t mean like a scene from Terminator).…
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Leveraging Election Year Challenges to Enhance Workplace Trust and Inclusion
As 2024 unfolds, we’re entering what many are calling the biggest election year in history. With over 60 countries holding elections and more than 3 billion people expected to vote, the political climate is bound to spill into workplaces around the globe. While some may see this as a distraction, forward-thinking organisations can seize this…
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Putting People First: The Essential Strategy for Success
With the workplace continuing to evolve at a rapid pace, a fundamental question arises: Are companies truly embracing a people-first approach, and what does it really mean? In today’s tech-driven world, job-specific skills have long been the focus of recruitment and professional development efforts. However, a notable shift is underway, placing increasing emphasis on skills…
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Shifting Sands, Solid Foundation: HR’s Blueprint for Change Resilience
By Mike Pearson In the throes of the modern workplace, where change is the only constant and burnout feels like an ever-present spectre, Human Resources finds itself at the forefront of a transformative movement. A crucial aspect of this transformation lies not only in making pivotal decisions for change but also in meticulously considering the…
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Start a ‘Ta-Da’ List Instead of a ‘To-Do’ List
Ever experienced that familiar end-of-day frustration when you glance at your to-do list only to find it has mysteriously multiplied? The struggle to feel a genuine sense of accomplishment in your workday becomes even more challenging. Traditional to-do lists, a hallmark of many people’s productivity practices, can quickly transform from helpful tools to overwhelming burdens.…
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Why for many, psychological safety isn’t working and what to do about it
In the dynamic landscape of today’s workplace, fostering a culture that encourages both psychological safety and psychological bravery is essential for performance and wellbeing. Organisations that help their leaders create this sense of belonging which empowers their people to share ideas, speak up, give feedback, and challenge the status quo, will innovate, and adapt to…
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Why 2024 should be the year we stop saying ‘Human Resources’
By Katie Jacobs For all the value it delivers to organisations, is there a more poorly named function than HR? In an era where people crave more than ever to be seen and treated as individuals, to describe them as merely ‘Resources’, working to maximise the fortunes of the company, can leave a bad taste.…
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Why human leadership is good for people and the planet
By Katie Jacobs From extreme weather events to the cost-of-living crisis, the case for business leaders to take environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues seriously has never been clearer. But with so many competing priorities on the table – global economic and political instability for one – it can be tempting to let ESG slip…
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How human leaders create more inclusive cultures
By Katie Jacobs Wherever you live and work in the world, it’s likely the society around you is becoming more diverse, driven by factors like globalisation, immigration and the increasing accessibility of travel. But while our communities and workplaces may be becoming more diverse, that doesn’t automatically play out into greater levels of inclusion. People…
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Embracing change and challenge: Building a growth mindset
By Katie Jacobs Without meaning to get anyone reading this too depressed, there’s a lot going on in the world right now that can make it hard to remain mentally strong. Financial insecurities for many, the destablishing speed to technological change (will I be replaced by a robot?), and a barrage of worrying headlines, from…
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The biggest impact on your people’s wellbeing? It’s you…
By Katie Jacobs We’ve all heard the adage ‘people don’t leave organisations; they leave managers’. It’s a bit of a cliche, but it’s nonetheless true. Individual leaders and managers have a huge impact on people’s wellbeing. In fact, according to a recent study of workers across 10 countries by The Workforce Institute at UKG, managers…
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Protecting wellbeing in the public sector and blue light services
By Katie Jacobs Those who choose to work in the public sector are often driven by a strong sense of purpose and a desire to help others. But while having purpose and meaning is linked to wellbeing and positive emotions, those who spend their lives looking after others can sometimes neglect to show themselves the…
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Banking in the age of uncertainty: how can human leaders make a difference?
By Richard Nicholson In the ever-changing world of banking, leaders have a crucial role to play. By prioritising their teams and fostering a people-first culture, they can drive productivity and help navigate uncertainty. But can it really be that easy? We all know the challenges faced by leaders are plentiful: reducing costs, preparing for long-term…
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Five ways to balance performance and wellbeing
By Katie Jacobs It would be hard to find an organisation today that doesn’t at least ‘talk the talk’ on the importance of wellbeing. After all, there’s no shortage of evidence that wellbeing IS a business issue. Take research from Deloitte, for instance, that found for every £1 employers invest in supporting their people’s mental…
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Creating the conditions for inclusive conversations
By Katie Jacobs What do leaders need to focus on to succeed in today’s challenging work environment? According to 90% of HR leaders surveyed by Gartner, it’s not finances, strategy or operational excellence – although we aren’t for a moment suggesting you completely forget about these. It’s the more human aspects of leadership that make…
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Keep your ‘human’ switched on throughout the employee life cycle
By Emily Murton I’m sure most of you have heard of the ‘employee life cycle’, otherwise known as the ELC. Every interaction, every touch point, and every stage of this cycle contributes to an employee’s perception of the organisation, and as leaders, we must consider how to humanise each stage to ensure continued motivation, performance…
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The future of leadership? It’s human
Are human skills becoming obsolete? With the increasing pace of technological advancement through AI tools such as ChatGPT, it’s not an outlandish question to ask. AI can now write essays on almost any topic, unpack complex ideas, solve tricky maths problems… and even construct jokes (admittedly, not very good ones). Despite these innovations, many of…
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Finding team flow: It’s all about positive human connection
How much time do you spend online? If you’re the average ‘global internet user’, then it’s almost seven hours per day, according to 2022 research. And for people who spend the majority of their working days looking at a screen, that might even seem like a conservative estimate. While technology is undoubtedly a force for…
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The three conditions that create TeamFlow
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” That quote from American businessman Henry Ford might be almost 100 years old, but it remains as relevant today, if not even more so. With many of us having settled into a hybrid way of working – according to Accenture’s 2021 Future of…
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The secret to high-performing teams: it’s flow
Here’s a little nudge to shake up how you think about developing and investing in some very important people: your team. Traditional team building and development approaches tend to be based on a deficit model (focusing on what’s lacking), strictly hierarchical and with a belief that creating high-performing individuals is what will add up to…
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Ten micro-actions to boost your wellbeing
At the start of a new year, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by messages around creating a ‘new you’. While aiming to make positive changes to our lives is not in itself a negative, the fact is that many of us set unrealistic goals, setting ourselves up to fail. We try to achieve too much,…
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A guide to inclusive cultures
By Renay Lloyd Integrating strengths-based processes into talent management systems can help companies manage biases and drive innovation and inclusion. At Bailey & French, we’re seeing more of our clients across the public and private sectors wanting to allocate more time, resources, and budget, to building inclusive cultures – and rightly so! Diverse and inclusive…
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Why now is the time to priortise your own wellbeing
How are you? It’s a question so many of us brush off with a simple ‘fine’. But with the year fast coming to a close, a period where many of us can feel burned out, let’s take the time to consider how we really are, by creating the space to focus on our own wellbeing.…
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Building purpose-led leaders and organisations
Organisations are not islands in society. The decisions leaders make and the behaviours people display can have profound impacts. Picture a stone being dropped into a calm pool, causing a ripple effect that grows ever larger: this is the effect a company can have within its community. Responsible businesses and purpose-led leaders recognise this and…
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Creating cultures of inclusive leadership
When it comes to creating inclusive organisations, leadership really matters. According to 2020 research published in the Harvard Business Review, what leaders say and do makes up to a 70% difference as to whether someone reports feeling included at work. And individuals that feel included are more engaged, motivated and productive – enabling people to…
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The real cost of not engaging with your people
By Oriana Knopf The great thing about the topic of employee disengagement gaining traction again – most recently rebranded as ‘quiet quitting’ – is that it puts the focus back on the support that employees and leaders really want – and need. In 2013, Gallup estimated that employees who are actively disengaged cost the US…
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Finding flow in a hybrid world
Work is a thing you do, not a place you go. That phrase has become more meaningful to many of us over the past couple of years, as those with location-agnostic roles (jobs that can be done from anywhere with a decent Wi-Fi connection) have moved from office-based working to home-working… and back again. Most…
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The power of being yourself at work
Do you feel like you can be yourself at work? Considering that over the course of our lifetime, the average person spends 84,365 hours working, it’s an important question to ponder. If you’re unable to show up as your authentic self, that’s 9.6 years you spend pretending to be someone you’re not. Not only is…
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How to face the future with confidence
If there’s one thing many of us have been in short supply of over the last couple of years, it’s confidence. The world we live in has been so volatile and so uncertain – a pandemic, a war on European soil, an unstable British government and now a probable looming recession – that looking to…
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Should I stay or should I go now?
By Anthony Fitton So, the great resignation continues… and with it the great regret – with many returning to old roles and others moving on too quickly. Then there are those who remain but are feeling a bit stuck. Either way, there’s a big cost to businesses: recruitment and onboarding, loss of productivity and of…
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How a focus on human strengths can boost productivity
In the UK we work hard… very hard. According to a study by the TUC, we work the longest hours in Europe: 42 hours per week compared to Germany’s 40 hours, France’s 39 and Denmark’s 37.7. That all adds up to two extra weeks of work a year. But despite logging that additional time, we…
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What does human leadership really look like?
By Holly Holm-Powell “The shift from survive to thrive depends on an organisation becoming, and remaining, distinctly human at its core. This isn’t just a different way of thinking and acting. It’s a different way of being.”Deloitte, 2021 Over the past couple of years, our leaders and managers have really had to step up and…
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Why you can’t have performance without wellbeing
For the last two years, we have been living through a health crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has brought home to many of us just how fragile and precious our physical health – and the health of our loved ones – is. It has also taken its toll on our mental health, whether through anxiety about…
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Reaching Peak Flow: Are Your Teams Safe to Stretch?
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” That quote, attributed to automotive business magnate Henry Ford, perfectly sums up why taking risks, trying new things and stretching ourselves is so important for a high-performing workplace. After all, without people feeling comfortable to think differently, how can organisations achieve innovation? It’s also…
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How to Build Meaningful Human Connections
Meaningful Human Connection is about tapping into what’s most authentic and real about us humans, what connects us, and what makes us different. The first few works and sentences of each new interaction matter the most to set the foundation for that connection, and in so many situations this always starts with ‘how are you?’…
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Facing Change Positively
We live in a fast-paced and ever evolving world. With advancements in technology and globalisation it is critical, now more than ever, to be agile and change rapidly and effectively. When we think about the world of work 10 years ago, there has been unprecedented levels of change. Organisations which haven’t kept up with these…
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Resilience and Positive Wellbeing in Times of Great Uncertainty
A blog from Anna Maasland, Bailey & French Consultant In the past few days (and weeks) I have seen many working from home articles discussing how to make it meaningful and keep human connections. We are all going through unprecedented times and having to be innovative and work in ways that are alien to us.…
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Seeing Clearly: Why Teams Can’t Flow Without Clarity
We work in teams because we are striving to reach a common goal, a goal that is too complex, challenging or large to be achieved alone. To achieve that goal, we need to know where we are going and what is expected of us in getting there. This is why clarity is so critical: we…
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Everyone Has A Role to Play: Unique Contribution & Team Flow
A unit of a team has more power than the individuals within it. Yet every single person within the team needs to feel they are making their own contribution and understand why they are on the team and what they are bringing to the party. We all need to think and feel: “this is my…
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3 Ways to Support Teams and Avoid a ‘Digital Burnout’
The use of technology has become an unavoidable part of everyday life. We have become reliant on it for much of our day-to-day functioning, with a reliance that continues to grow alongside the rapid developments which we are still experiencing to this day. Technology can fundamentally be seen as an enabler. It enables ease of…
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Why Having a Growth Mindset is Vital to Succeed as a Team?
To be able to flourish and thrive as individuals, teams and organisations, we need to move past traditional methods and look at things in a new way – a more humanising way. We need to stop thinking about performance culture as annual appraisals. We need to explore embedding a culture of continuous feedback. Most of…
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How are you growing your career?
Next up in our series of articles exploring the application of strengths, we look at growth and learning: How would you rate the statement: “I have the opportunity to grow and develop in my role”? This leads us to the even more important question of what ‘growth’ and ‘development’ mean to us. Traditionally, and perhaps…