Intrinsic Labs

My last post of 2023 is dedicated to… Goddess Time. Throughout my life, I have found her a difficult Mistress to contend with. I’ve always been pretty decent at navigating her Hour Hand - setting a long-term Direction for my life and work. I have been decent, too, at the Minute Hand - nurturing Potential, in myself and others I work with. It’s the Second Hand where I have struggled: in being fully alive and present to the second by second joy that life can bring. So I was happy that when I saw this sign at Woodford Underground Station, I didn’t panic. Last year I would have probably paced relentlessly along the station platform, racked with the uncertainty over when exactly the next train would arrive. This time I felt more relaxed and sanguine, listening to Karthik Muralidharan on a podcast and appreciating the crisp December air. Not perfect by any means, but decent progress. 2023 has been a wonderful year in so many ways. I’ve loved working with a range of exciting new organisations, from the NHS to the Barbican Centre to JKS Restaurants to the BCorp Movement. And continuing to support wonderful groups like Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Innovation Foundation & One World Network of Schools I’ve particularly enjoyed the process of writing the draft of my second book “Inflection” with and for you, live on LinkedIn. It’s made for a better book and me a better writer. I’m excited about this early 2024 baby coming into the world. And I’m excited to write the draft of my third book “Inheritable” with you in 2024, too. A final, gentle suggestion if you are making 2023 Reflections & 2024 Resolutions: Ask which hands of Goddess Time you’re already adept at steering. And which hands in 2024 you want to more deeply master. Thank you for all your help in 2023. Onwards and upwards Simon Hampel Nir Eyal Nes Yilmaz Arani Ananda Tom Sleigh Sunaina Sethi Cynthia Hansen Amy Major Brian Sims Richard Perry Babalola Abdur-Rasheed Rashmir Balasubramaniam #personaldevelopment #leadershipdevelopment #time

“Young Leaders need to accept the world as it is. Not the way they think it should be.” That was perspective offered - or, rather, asserted - by a Senior leader I was recently talking to. I’m sorry, but I completely disagree. I think my generation of Leaders - and the generation before - has a lot to answer for. We’ve created mental models of success, careers and work that feel deeply dehumanised. And which leave little room for those following in our career footsteps to feel any sense of meaning and purpose, let alone know how to express their individuality and authenticity. My own 25 year career journey has been a struggle to define these questions for myself, and evolve my career accordingly. But at times it has felt a lonely journey. That’s why I was so excited to address the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford’s 330 strong MBA Cohort. The “Futureproofing Career and Life Success” programme I have designed and teach, is doubling in capacity this year, to 120 young leaders! The focus is on helping Oxford MBA students really harness their Inflection Year at Said, to define what success means for them: the career and life direction they really want to take, how to nurture their own potential towards it, and how to stay motivated and learning as they do so. It was such a privilege to pilot the programme last year with the 2023 cohort and now see it scale up in 2024. I’m hugely grateful to Amy Major, Tom Parnell & the School’s leadership for giving us license to innovate in this way. Yes, those coming into Leadership need to accept the existing rules. But they also need to feel encouraged and supported to rewrite these very rules for their generation. It’s the only way that we’ll truly build a better working world - and a better world overall - for us all. Diana Chao Aakarsh S. Karan Narayan Emanuel Grolman Sarantis Papadopoulos Michael McKenna Hanisha Kumar Vignesh Venkateswaran Aditi Angiras #leadership #leadershipdevelopment Karen Hinxman Sam Tidswell-Norrish Kerry Fennell Myeashea Alexander Emma Cappiello

How can we bring back the humanity in how we lead people? On Monday I am running part of an exciting leadership programme with James Townsend & the Reach Academy Feltham Foundation. It’s for the Deputy CEOs and senior leaders of over a dozen school Multi-Academy Trusts in South West England. The question I want to ask is: How can we futureproof the success of their MATs - and themselves as Leaders - in a fundamentally different way? A way that achieves the desired outcomes but still respects their autonomy and those of their teams . That trusts their fundamental judgment as professionals (of course with some basic safeguards). That allows them to take intentional risks and enables us to learn and grow from the feedback. Jessica Grose’s recent op-Ed in the The New York Times makes for sobering reading. She takes a US perspective but the trends are all too real all over the world. Too often as Leaders we have gotten seduced by instrumental - paint by numbers - approaches to Leadership. We have created inflexible, one size fits all structures, targets and compliance that encourage not to think much. Or think at all. The paradox that in the short term, results can sometimes improve. But they rarely sustain. And what we create is an enormous recruitment and retention crisis that follows, which will haunt future generations. I think teaching’s path is a cautionary tale of what happens when we undermine professional autonomy - and most of all the core humanity of what it means to be a true professional. Which is so much about trust, respect, autonomy and judgement. Enough about cautionary tales! I’m deeply excited about Monday! John McIntosh Ed Vainker Louisa Mitchell Jess Talbot FRSA Mohsen Ojja Peter Hughes Susan John Transcend #teaching Matthew Lim Philip Harrison Henry Faber Walter Kerr Dame Alison Peacock DL, DLitt Vikas Pota STIR Education Rima Bist Jim Knight Henry de Zoete Brenna Dorrance Russell Hobby CBE