Category: Newsletter: Go Flux Yourself

Go Flux Yourself: Navigating the Future of Work (No. 4)

TL;DR: April’s Go Flux Yourself considers the value of values, the importance of physical and mental health, and expresses concern that 90% of the internet’s content will be created by AI in 2025 …

Image created on Midjourney with the prompt “a painting in the style of Matisse that shows the benefits of running”

The future

“There is so much power in understanding what your values are — they can help you make decisions, guide your career, and even live a happier life.”

This wisdom comes from Irina Cozma, a career and executive coach. She wrote these words in a piece titled “How to Find, Define, and Use Your Values” that appeared in Harvard Business Review just over a year ago.

This month, I’ve been reflecting on my personal values and those of Pickup Media Limited. This introspection led me to Cozma’s guidance. Her approach is simple yet profound: start by listing 10 things that are important to you, then narrow it down to three. Once you have your top trio, rank and define them. Try it.

I found it an enlightening exercise. It helped me firm up five values for Pickup Media Limited, which needed refining after almost a decade of a hotchpotch approach to the company’s services and no considered thought about SEO or social selling. (Watch this space!) 

The (work-in-progress) tagline is: “Understanding human-work evolution in an increasingly digital world.” And the business values, which build on my personal values, are (currently) listed as follows:

  1. Seeking and sharing true understanding
  2. Connecting for good
  3. Human-focused
  4. Improving – physical and mental – health
  5. Community-spirited

These might need sharpening up, granted, but you get the idea. Already these are helping to frame how I look at my products and services. More than that, these values allow me to recalibrate, and kind of re-tune my antenna to what’s important to and interests me and, by extension, the business. 

With this in mind, I was pleased to see that the upcoming Mental Health Awareness Week 2024, which takes place from May 13 to 19 in the UK, focuses on body and mind fitness. Indeed, the theme is: “Movement: Moving more for our mental health.”

In the last 13 months, I’ve run more than ever before, clocking over 800 miles. This has coincided with my sobriety. The extra time and focus gained from not drinking have evolved me as a person, and made me much more self-content, confident, and – according to my children – “less moody”. Cheers!

April was an incredible month for runners in the UK. Not only did the London Marathon exceed previous years – 44 Guinness World Records were broken, £67 million was raised for charity (at the time of writing), and over 53,000 people finished the 26.2-mile course – but a couple of weeks earlier, Russ Cook (aka “Hardest geezer”) completed his almost 10,000-mile, 352-day odyssey running the length of Africa. 

The 27-year old from Worthing took up running as an escape from drinking and gambling vices. Four years ago, he broke the record for the quickest marathon while pulling a car. It took him four minutes under 10 hours. Hardest geezer has certainly earned his sobriquet.

Elsewhere, reality TV celebrity Spencer Matthews announced this last week that he will run 30 marathons in 30 days across the Jordanian desert in a bid to break another record. He has spoken about using exercise for good and closing the drinks cabinet. “I’m interested in understanding how far I can push myself,” he told Lorraine Kelly on her eponymous show. “It’s not too long ago that doing any running of any kind would have been difficult.” (For more on this please listen to the latest episode of Upper Bottom.)

It’s incredible what people can do with a little physical movement. Starting is often the most challenging part, which is why initiatives like Couch to 5K are so brilliant.

Perhaps it’s too simplistic to say people are more health-conscious than before the coronavirus crisis. Yet one can’t ignore that over 840,000 applications have been received for the London Marathon 2025 ballot, bettering last year’s record of 578,000. (I’ve thrown my lycra running hat into the ring.)

During the pandemic, I interviewed Andrew Scott, professor of economics at London Business School and author of The 100 Year Life and – this year – The Longevity Imperative. His core message, which has propelled me, is: “Invest in your future self by eating and drinking less, and moving more.” It’s simple, when you put it like that. I suppose it’s like the value of good values. 

From now on, I’ll be approaching my work using these business values. And in May, I’ll be busy speaking, hosting roundtables and panels across the UK. First, in London, I’ll be discussing hot human-work evolution topics at a business school. 

Also in the capital, I’m moderating a closed session for a new client that explores the future of remote work by discussing the strategic transformations necessary for organisations to drive long-term success. This is a subject I’m passionate about – I wrote about my fears around the entrenchment of a two-tier workforce due to the Flexible Working Bill in my April column for UKTN (and I use the same argument in a debate piece in tomorrow’s City AM).

Later in the month, I’ll be at DTX Manchester, leading a session exploring the value of artificial intelligence in the modern workplace. If you will be at Manchester Central on May 22 please come and say hello. With some 90% of all online content likely to be generated by AI next year, according to some experts, being more human in the digital age has never been more critical.

The present

Investing in a Garmin watch has helped my running – I set a personal best in the London Landmarks half-marathon in early April, no small thanks to Garmin coach. The gadget provides a welter of data – including one’s “body battery”. This morning, I began the day on 87% battery. I must catch up on my sleep this evening. But others might not be so lucky.

What to make of the news emanating from South Korea about Samsung? The electronics giant has recently announced that it will make executives work six-day weeks following its worst financial results in a decade. As more progressive companies push ahead with four- or even three-day working weeks and have found productivity improving, this diktat is wrongheaded and, I suspect, will be counterproductive. How will Samsung attract and retain top talent?

Meanwhile, 82% of employees globally are at risk of burnout this year, according to the HR consulting firm Mercer, and only half of employers design work with wellbeing in mind. How can people move more, and improve their mental and physical health, if they are chained to their desks? This isn’t even standing still; it’s going backwards.

Worryingly, different research indicates that people are suffering in silence. In the United States, 43% of workers say they are experiencing burnout, but almost half (47%) are hesitant to discuss burnout issues with their bosses, finds the latest Workforce Monitor survey from the American Staffing Association and Harris Poll. (Notably, 29% of respondents said their ideal schedule was a full return to the office, while 39% wanted a hybrid work model.)

The past

Two years ago, I interviewed Brian Kropp, then group vice president and chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice, about burnout. He argued that overworking can have hazardous consequences. The combination of sloppiness and anxiety triggered by tiredness will likely cause problems at work. “When you feel stressed and worried, the surface area of your brain literally shrinks,” he said. “It is a natural defence mechanism to absorb less information and pain.”

Employers must be mindful and look after their staff, including leaders, Kropp continued. “When we are drowsy, we tell people to use caution when operating a vehicle or dangerous machinery. So when employees are tired, we should not ask them to operate the heavy machinery of our business.”

After extensive research, Kropp concluded that organisations that “show a sense of caring” will triumph. Ultimately, it’s what humans have always done. He cited late American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead’s theory that we have, as a species, worked together to accomplish something bigger for thousands of years. 

The skeletal remains of an early human that showed a healed femur – upper leg – bone highlighted to Mead the inherent compassion we humans possess. The person in this example was allowed to rest and recover from a painful injury and not left for dead.

“The best caring, human organisations have realised employees can’t run at 100% for 100% of the time,” Kropp added. “We have to create time for breaks, moments of rest and recovery. The best organisations are increasingly thinking about ‘pre-covery’, which enables your employees to build up a wealth of reserve before you reach a challenging moment.”

In an increasingly digital and demanding world, employers must remember the fundamental human need for rest, recovery and movement – because when we take care of employees’ physical and mental well-being, we enable them to bring their best selves to work and, collectively, achieve something greater.

Statistics of the month

  • Of the 82% of global employees who are at risk of burnout this year, according to Mercer, factors cited included financial strain (43%), exhaustion (40%), and excessive workload (37%).
  • There were 672,631 UK applications for 2025 London Marathon, with 50.33% from men, 49.03% from women and 0.64% from non-binary applicants.
  • Gartner predicts that “independent workers” will make up around 40% of the global workforce by 2025.

Stay fluxed – and get in touch! Let’s get fluxed together …

Thank you for reading Go Flux Yourself. Subscribe for free to receive this monthly newsletter straight to your inbox.

All feedback is welcome, via oliver@pickup.media. If you enjoyed reading, please consider sharing it via social media or email. Thank you.

And if you are interested in my writing, speaking and strategising services, you can find me on LinkedIn or email me using oliver@pickup.media. 

Go Flux Yourself: Navigating the Future of Work (No. 3)

TL;DR: March’s Go Flux Yourself is full of heart (rather than brains and muscles), discusses the “relationship economy”, off-field Manchester City stories, and tips to prepare the leaders of tomorrow … 

Image created on Midjourney with the prompt “a hyperrealistic pep guardiola with a big heart on his Manchester City shirt handing out lemon shortbread to a female cleaner after a game”

The future

“In the past, jobs were about muscle; now they’re about brains; but in the future, they’ll be about the heart.”

I love these words of wisdom from Minouche Shafik, the incumbent President of Colombia University. 

I heard them for the first time a couple of days ago, at LinkedIn’s Talent Connect conference in east London. On stage, delivering the closing keynote, was Aneesh Raman, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama during his time in the White House. Now, he is VP and Workforce Expert at the professional social media platform, which reached one billion members last year.

Raman talked about the need for more, well, heart in the age of artificial intelligence. And he argued, convincingly, that the human role and capabilities in this epoch should be imagined from a place of possibility, not fear.

He promoted the concept of the “relationship economy”, which will supersede the “knowledge economy”. While the latter is fuelled by the Internet, the former will be anchored on expanding human social and emotional capabilities. 

Here, HR professionals have a pivotal role to play. They have the power to bring more humanity to work – paradoxically by using technology – and therefore spread more humanity, or heart, to the physical (and digital) world. At the moment, due to the almighty buzz around AI, “humans seem to have become an afterthought”, Raman posited.

My work wanderings this last month have revolved around AI-augmented jobs, skill-based recruitment, and future roles. I wrote my inaugural column for UKTN on a related topic. The headline was “£1.1bn to upskill the UK for future tech roles is too little too late”, and I didn’t hold back.

“In ordinary circumstances, a figure of £1.1bn – the headline-capturing amount the government announced last week to train ‘over 4,000’ UK students in future technologies – wouldn’t be lamentable,” I started. “Yet, considering total public spending on education was £116bn in 2022-23, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies – down 8% from the 2010-11 figure – it smacks of a weak attempt to win some media coverage and votes in the looming general election.”

I cited an Axios study – published on the exact day Science and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan announced the £1.1bn package to skill-up the UK in future tech roles – that found only 18% of UK workers believe that AI has improved productivity. Of the 17 countries polled, at the other end of the scale were India (67%), Indonesia (65%), and the UAE (62%).

Certainly, AI literacy is a hot topic, with frontrunners arguing leaders need to set the example, and support such learning and education across their organisations. Raman stated that 44% of UK companies are currently helping employees become AI literate – at the top was India, with 52%.

Earlier in March, I attended a Workday roundtable titled “Leveraging AI to Foster Skills and Inclusivity”. I have a vested interest in the future of work, not least because I’m the father of two young children. I explained to the panellists that I think the current school curriculum is unsuitable for tomorrow’s workers and asked how I should best prepare them.

My thinking on this subject has long been based on the so-called 4 Cs of 21st-century learning: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. All four involve the heart Shafik is talking about. And they are why I’m pleased my son plays rugby – team sport is excellent for developing all four Cs. It’s also good for shared winning and losing experiences, which can be clouded in the digital age, and warped by social media – more on this below.

The Workday roundtable panellists shared my concern that today’s schooling is unfit for tomorrow. Yet they offered some useful extracurricular tips. For instance, Michael Houlihan, CEO of Generation UK and Ireland, which recruits, trains, and places unemployed young adults into career-launching jobs, suggested using generative AI tools to engage kids, such as having them interact with characters from their favourite books. This can turn a “spark” of interest into a “raging fire of learning and passion”.

He argued that exposing kids to technology and getting them comfortable with it through play at a young age is essential. Online learning tools and platforms, like Khan Academy, are creating exciting generative AI tools to help teach kids subjects like maths in an engaging, interactive way.

I was heartened by these answers, and Shafik’s quotation supported this movement toward the “relationship economy” – one accessed through technology but with humanity at its beating centre.

The present

I enjoy ghostwriting thought leadership articles for various executives – pinching expert opinions and inhabiting their psyche is like being an actor on the stage – and last week, I spoke with a Dutch consultant about geopolitical tensions. Refreshingly, he would not be led by my rather gloomy narrative. 

He countered that, despite what one might see and hear in the media, humanity is in a relatively safe period. The reason most of us are more prone to doom-mongering is down to social media, which amplifies everything and causes collective anxiety to rocket, he posited. 

While what’s happening in Ukraine and Gaza is horrific, and the climate crisis looms like a black cloud, undoubtedly, there is something in this hypothesis. How pleasing, then, that on Monday, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that will ban social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds. If – and it’s not a given, especially considering who might (re)enter the White House – it becomes law, it will take effect on January 1.

It’s somewhat out of character for former presidential candidate DeSantis. Indeed, during a 2022 rally in protest of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Roe versus Wade abortion ruling, Democratic State Senator Tina Polsky announced to the crowd of about 250 at the Esplanade in Downtown Fort Lauderdale that DeSantis couldn’t care less about – especially his wife and daughters. “He’s heartless,” she said.

Perhaps DeSantis has a heart, after all. But will other states – and countries – follow suit? With Father Christmas having gifted my eldest child a Nintendo Switch last Christmas, but a few years off finding a smartphone under the tree, I sincerely hope so. 

Social media platforms are toxic for society and corroding young minds – and older ones. I’ve removed all social media apps – bar LinkedIn, which is useful for work – from my phone, and gone to the extreme of using a grayscale setting so that the display is less appealing (if you are thinking of doing this, be warned that it is a nightmare to locate Lime bike parking bays in central London). 

Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s manager, is someone else who has a heart. And I’m not writing that just because I’m a (long-standing) fan of the club (I was in Istanbul last June, cheering on at the triumphant Champions League final). 

At the start of the month, I was fortunate to be invited by City’s technology partner, Qualtrics, to the Etihad Stadium for a tour and a roundtable on how the club uses data to improve the customer experience ahead of the Champions League match against FC Copenhagen.

There were some lovely snippets of information. In a stint in the US before joining City in 2016, Guardiola scanned American sports for tips. City’s circular changing room, for example, is lifted from the NFL. The words snaking around the ceiling read: “Some are born here, some are drawn here, and all call it home.” That sense of togetherness is central to the club’s success. But the manager plays his part, on and off the pitch – and in the backroom. It was revealed that after every home game, the Spaniard seeks out changing room cleaner, Deb, and says thanks with a lemon shortbread. Nice touch.

City’s customer experience team are trying to win hearts and minds. Thanks to its partnership with Qualtrics, the club uses data to understand its fans and improve their experience. The department is bringing data from various sources into one place to create a “single source of truth” and a 360-degree view of fans. This includes operational data from their CRM and experience data from surveys, social media, call centre interactions, and so on. 

On match days, the team uses real-time data and feedback to identify and resolve issues like long queues. Post-match surveys help assess what’s working well versus what needs improvement across different fan segments. It serves as another example of how the muscle and brain of AI can combine with the human heart to provide a superior experience.

The past

Ian Lees was the 64-year-old tour guide at the Etihad who told me about Pep’s lemon shortbread pressie for the cleaner. Ian has been at the club since 1976, was a first-team coach for a while, and was a font of knowledge – no AI will ever be able to replace passionate people like Ian. 

He had so many incredible stories, but two stand out that show how peculiar – and sentimental, or superstitious – humans can be. John Stones, the rangy centre-back turned unlikely libero, apparently is a size 9 shoe, yet he wears size 8 football boots. Meanwhile, right-back and captain Kyle Walker’s winning goal in a game aged 14 had such an impact on him that he wears the same – and unwashed – shinpads today, 19 years later. 

We all have quirks. That’s what makes us human. As I approach one year of sobriety – April 1 (no joke) will make it 12 months without booze – I shudder to recall some of the heartless and mindless things I’ve done in the past. Yet, reflecting on those drunk-fuelled missteps – and near-death experiences, as explored in a recent Upper Bottom podcast episode) – means the 2.0 version of me will be a better human.

Statistics of the month

  • Over half (55%) of IT leaders feel pressure from their organisation’s leadership to implement new AI technology, according to Asana’s Work Innovation Lab. Yet, a quarter regret investing in AI too quickly, showing that business pressure means AI implementation isn’t as thoughtful as it could be.
  • One in ten (10%) employees have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment at work in the UK, but nearly half (49%) of these did not report it, finds Personio.
  • Gartner research indicates only 46% of employees feel supported trying to grow their careers at their organisation.

Stay fluxed – and get in touch! Let’s get fluxed together …

Thank you for reading Go Flux Yourself. Subscribe for free to receive this monthly newsletter straight to your inbox.

All feedback is welcome, via oliver@pickup.media. If you enjoyed reading, please consider sharing it via social media or email. Thank you.

And if you are interested in my writing, speaking and strategising services, you can find me on LinkedIn or email me using oliver@pickup.media. 

Go Flux Yourself: Navigating the Future of Work (No. 2)

TL;DR: February’s Go Flux Yourself discusses FOBO – the fear of becoming obsolete – tarot readings, why communication (and not relying on AI) matters more than ever, and leaping out of one’s comfort zone …

Image created on Midjourney with the prompt “the page of swords taking a leap outside of his comfort zone in the style of an Edgar Degas painting”

The future

“It always feels too soon to leap. But you have to. Because that’s the moment between you and remarkable.”

So wrote American author, entrepreneur and former dot-com business executive Seth Godin in his prescient 2015 book, Leap First: Creating work that matters. It’s a fitting quotation. Not least because today is February 29 – a remarkable date only possible in a leap year. 

It’s appropriate also because most of us must jump out of our comfort zones – whether voluntarily or shoved – and try new things for work and pleasure in this digital age. We want to be heard, to be valued. Moreover, there is a collective FOBO – fear of being obsolete (as discussed with suitable levity on the Resistance is Futile podcast this week).

As someone primarily known as a writer, I have felt FOBO in the last 15 months, since the advent of generative artificial intelligence. So much so that when I was sitting in a cafe, waiting for my car to be serviced in November – a year after OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT – I couldn’t help but approach, with nervous excitement, the tarot card reader on the next table, whose 10.30am booking hadn’t appeared. 

I asked: “What’s coming next in my career?”

She pulled six cards from the deck in her hands, although two fell out of the pack, which was significant, I was informed. One of the fumbled cards was The Two of Wands. “This is about staying within our comfort zone and looking out to see what’s coming next,” the reader said. “It suggests you must start planning, discovering who you are and what you really want, and focusing on that.”

The other slipped card was The Page of Swords. “This one – intrinsically linked to the Two of Wands – says that you need to work in something that requires many different communication skills. But this is also something about trying something new, particularly regarding communication, learning new skills, and getting more in touch with the times.”

Energised by 20 minutes with the tarot reader, I’ve leapt outside my comfort zone and re-focused on expressing my true(r) self, having established this newsletter, and a (sobriety) podcast. (I’ve also set up a new thought-leadership company, but more of that next month!) I’m loving the journey. Taking the leap has forced me to confront what makes me tick, what I enjoy, and how to be more authentic professionally and personally. Already, the change has been, to quote Godin, “remarkable”.

And yet, I fear an increasing reliance on AI tools is blunting our communication skills and, worse, our sense of curiosity and adventure. Are we becoming dumbed down and lazy? And, by extension, are the threads that make up the fabric of society – language, communication, community – fraying to the point of being irreparable?

At the end of last month, in the first Go Flux Yourself, I wrote how Mustafa Suleyman, former co-founder of DeepMind, discussed job destruction triggered by AI advancement. He predicted that in 30 years, we will be approaching “zero cost for basic goods”, and society will have moved beyond the need for universal basic income and towards “universal basic provision”. How will we stay relevant and curious if we want for nothing? 

Before we reach that point, LinkedIn data published earlier this month found that soft skills comprise four of UK employers’ top five most in-demand skills, with communication ranked number one. Further, the skills needed for jobs will change by “at least 65%” by the decade’s end. 

Wow. Ready to take your leap?

The present

Grammarly’s 2024 State of Business Communication Report, published last week, exposed the problem of communication – or rather miscommunication – for businesses. Getting this wrong affects the organisation’s culture and its chances of success today and tomorrow. 

Indeed, the report showed that effective communication increases productivity by 64%, boosts customer satisfaction by 51%, and raises employee confidence by 49% – that last one is especially interesting, and it’s worth noting that March 1 is Employee Appreciation Day, which was started in 1995. While I’m sure hardly any companies will appreciate their employees any more than usual, building confidence through better communication is business critical.

There is much work to do here. The Grammarly study found that in the past 12 months, workers have seen a rise in communication frequency (78%) and variety of communication channels (73%). Additionally: “Over half of professionals (55%) spend excessive time crafting messages or deciphering others’ communications, while 54% find managing numerous work communications challenging, and for 53%, this is all compounded by anxiety over misinterpreting written messages.”

Is AI helping or hindering communication?

I love this cartoon by Tom Fishburne, the California-based “Marketoonist”, who neatly summarises the dilemma.

Also this month, we marvelled at OpenAI’s early demonstrations of Sora (Japanese for “sky”, apparently), which converts text to video. FOBO was ratcheted up another notch.

Thankfully, I was reminded that most AI is far from perfect – like the automatic camera operator used for a football match at Caledonian Thistle during the pandemic-induced lockdown. The “in-built, AI, ball-tracking technology” seemed a good idea, but was repeatedly confused by the linesman’s bald head. It offered an amusing twist on spot the ball.

Granted, that was over three years ago, and the use cases of genuinely helpful AI are growing, if still narrow in scope. For example, this fascinating new article by James O’Malley, highlights how Transport for London has been experimenting with integrating AI into Willesden Green tube station. The system was trained to identify 77 different use cases, broken down into these categories: hazards, unattended items, person(s) on the track, unauthorised access, stranded customers and safeguarding.

Clearly, better communication between man and machine is essential as we journey ahead.

The past

“My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel … I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry.”

On this day 84 years ago, Hattie McDaniel spoke these words after being named best supporting actress at the 12th Academy Awards in 1940. She was the first black actor to win – or be nominated – for an Oscar. 

The 44-year-old won for her portrayal of Mammy, a house servant, in Gone With the Wind. She accepted her gold statuette on stage at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel – a “no-Blacks” hotel (she was afforded a special pass). However, McDaniel, whose acting career included 74 maid roles, according to The Hollywood Reporter, was denied entry to the after-party at another “no-Blacks” club. A bittersweet experience in the extreme.

We might look back and be appalled by old social norms. Certainly, the pace of progress in certain areas is lamentably slow – after McDaniel, no other Black woman won an Oscar again for 50 years until Whoopi Goldberg was named best supporting actress for her role in Ghost. Still, it is important to track progress by considering history and context.

How long will it be before we have “no-AI” videoconferencing calls? And would that be classed as progress?

I’ve been thinking about the darker corners of my past recently. Earlier this month, I started a podcast, Upper Bottom, that takes a balanced (not worthy, and hopefully lighthearted) look at sobriety. Almost exactly a year ago, I called Alcoholics Anonymous and explained that while nothing tragically wrong had happened, I wanted to reset my relationship with booze. “Ah, you are what we call an ‘upper bottom’,” said the call handler. “You haven’t reached rock bottom but want to change your ways with alcohol.”

Spurred by the tarot reading, and fortified by the ongoing sobriety – April 1 (no joke) will make it a year without a drop – I’m grateful for the opportunity to polish my communication skills, learn new skills (if you want me to produce and host a podcast I would be delighted to collaborate), and build a community via Upper Bottom.

My voice is being heard, literally, and I’m speaking the truth on a human level. In 2024, that matters.

Statistics of the month

  • On the subject of slow progress, only 18% of high-growth companies in the UK have a woman founder, according to a report just published by a UK government taskforce.
  • Nearly seven in 10 UK Gen Zeders are rejecting full-time employment – many as a result of AI and layoff fears, finds Fiverr.
  • And new research by Uniquely Health shows that less than half (49%) of the nation is confident they would be classed as “healthy” by a doctor. Time to make the most of the extra day this year and leap to some exercise?

Stay fluxed – and get in touch! Let’s get fluxed together …

Thank you for reading Go Flux Yourself. Subscribe for free to receive this monthly newsletter straight to your inbox.

All feedback is welcome, via oliver@pickup.media. If you enjoyed reading, please consider sharing it via social media or email. Thank you.

And if you are interested in my writing, speaking and strategising services, you can find me on LinkedIn or email me using oliver@pickup.media. 

Go Flux Yourself: Navigating the Future of Work (No. 1)

TL;DR: This month’s Go Flux Yourself includes thinking like badgers, rogue chatbots, American presidents snogging, productivity problems, return-to-office mandates, and AI leaders admitting they don’t know “what happens next” – but not in that order … 

Image created on Midjourney with the prompt “a Henri Bonnard-style painting set in the New Forest in England with badgers, remote workers, Joe Biden and Donald Trump kissing, and lonely males looking at their smartphones”

About this newsletter

A warm welcome to the first edition of a rude-sounding-yet-useful newsletter for business leaders striving to make sense of today and be better prepared for tomorrow.

Below is a summary of what I hope to offer with Go Flux Yourself (with luck, a memorably naughty pun on “flux”, meaning continuous change, in case it requires an explanation).

“Master change and disruption with Oliver Pickup’s monthly future-of-work newsletter: insights and stories on transformation, curated by an award-winning, future-of-work specialist.”

I’m a London-based technology and business communicator – I write, speak, strategise, moderate, listen, and learn – and you can find more about me and my work at www.oliverpickup.com.

At the end of every month, I serve up insights, statistics, quotations and observations from the fascinating and ever-changing future-of-work space in which I operate. 

Every month, the Go Flux Yourself newsletter will have three sections:

  • The future – forward-looking, regarding challenges and opportunities.
  • The present – relevant news, eye-catching examples. glimpses of upcoming challenges and opportunities.
  • The past – lessons from yesterday that might help leaders tomorrow.

The most important thing is to get fluxed, and change. “He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator,” wrote Francis Bacon almost 400 years ago (in 1625).

The future

“No one knows what happens next.” Especially badgers.

The above, rather alarmingly, is the sign/motto above Sam Altman’s desk (without the bit about badgers – more on them later), as revealed in a panel session, Technology in a Turbulent World, at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in snowy Davos. 

It reeks of faux justification and diminished responsibility for possible humanity-damaging mistakes made by the co-founder and CEO of Microsoft-backed OpenAI, arguably the world’s most important company in 2024.

Fellow panellist Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce, stated: “We don’t want to see an AI Hiroshima.” Indeed, “no one knows what happens next” echoes Facebook’s original – and poorly aged – mantra of “move fast and break things” that was adopted by Silicon Valley and the wider technology community. But at what cost? Can the capitalists curb their rapaciousness? Well, what’s to stop them, really? They can stomp on the paper tigers that currently stand against them. (I’m going to be writing and speaking about this more in February.)

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, clarified his feelings at WEF and argued that every breakthrough in generative AI increases the threat of unintended consequences. “Powerful tech companies are already pursuing profits with a reckless disregard for human rights, personal privacy, and social impact,” said the Portuguese. But he strikes the same tone when talking about climate change, and his comments, again, are falling on seemingly deaf ears. Or at least greed for green – the paper kind – outweighs concerns for humanity.

A few days earlier, on January 9, Scott Galloway, professor at New York University Stern School of Business, and Inflection AI’s co-founder Mustafa Suleyman (former co-founder of DeepMind), asked: “Can AI be contained?”

Galloway pointed out that given there are over 70 elections around the globe in 2024 – the most in history – there is likely to be a “lollapalooza of misinformation”. And that was before the deepfake of Joe Biden snogging Donald Trump, which was on the front page of the Financial Times Weekend’s magazine on January 27 (see below). 

The provocative American entrepreneur and educator also pointed out that AI will likely increase loneliness, with “searches for AI girlfriends off the charts”. How depressing. But the recent example of a Belgian man – married with two children – killing himself as his beloved chatbot convinced him to end his life for the sake of the planet is evidence enough. 

In a similar vein, delivery firm DPD disabled part of its AI-powered online chatbot after it went rogue a couple of weeks ago. A customer struggling to track down his parcel decided to entertain himself with the chatbot facility. It told the user a joke, when prompted, served up profane replies, and created a haiku calling itself a “useless chatbot that can’t help you”. What would Alan Turing think? 

Anyway, Galloway also noted how the brightest young minds are not attracted to government roles, and it’s a massive challenge (not least when top talent can earn much, much more at tech firms). (As an aside, I interviewed Prof G a couple of years ago for a piece on higher education, and he called me “full of sh1t”. Charming.)

Meanwhile, Suleyman discussed job destruction due to AI advancement. He predicted that in 30 years, we will be approaching “zero cost for basic goods”, and society will have moved beyond the need for universal basic income and towards “universal basic provision”. 

How this Star Trek economy is funded is open to debate, and no one has a convincing solution, yet. (Although Jeremy Hunt, who was on the panel in Davos with Altman, Benioff, et al, might not be consulted. The chancellor revealed that his first question to ChatGPT was “is Jeremy Hunt a good chancellor?” The egoist queried the reply – “Jeremy Hunt is not chancellor” – without, even now, realising that ChatGPT’s training data stopped before his appointment.)

Further, the absence of trust in government – as per the latest Edelman Trust Barometer (which has the general population in the UK (39) and the US (46) well below half, and both down on the 2023 figures) – and increasing power of the tech giants could mean that the latter will act more like nation-states. And with that social contract effectively ripped up, and safety not assured, chaos could reign. Suleyman talked about the “plummeting cost of power”, and posited conflict can be expected if actual nation-states can no longer look after their citizens, digitally or physically. The theme of prioritising trust is a big one for me in 2024, and in January a lot of my writing and speaking has been founded upon this topic.

If “no one knows what happens next”, leaders must educate themselves to broaden their scope of understanding and be proactive to get fluxed. The words of 18th-century English historian Edward Gibbons come to mind: “The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator.”

Certainly, I’ve been busy educating myself, and have completed courses in generative AI, public speaking and podcasting, to help me achieve my 2024 goal of being more human in an increasingly digital age. This time next month, I’ll be able to share news about a (sobriety) podcast and also a thought-leadership business I’m launching in February.

The present

A couple of weeks ago, judge Robert Richter dealt a blow to those in the financial services industry – and possibly beyond – hoping to work fully remotely. He ruled against a senior man­ager at the Fin­an­cial Con­duct Author­ity who wanted to work from home full-time, find­ing the office was a bet­ter envir­on­ment for “rapid dis­cus­sion” and “non-verbal com­mu­nic­a­tion”.

The landmark case will have been closely watched by other employers considering return-to-office mandates. The judge found that the financial watchdog was within its rights to deny Elizabeth Wilson’s request, stating there were “weak­nesses with remote work­ing”. Poor Elizabeth; like badgers, all she wants is to be at home without disruption.

Judge Richter wrote in judgement: “It is the exper­i­ence of many who work using tech­no­logy that it is not well suited to the fast-paced inter­play of exchanges which occur in, for example, plan­ning meet­ings or train­ing events when rapid dis­cus­sion can occur on top­ics.

He also poin­ted to “a lim­it­a­tion to the abil­ity to observe and respond to non-verbal com­mu­nic­a­tion which may arise out­side of the con­text of formal events but which non­ethe­less forms an import­ant part of work­ing with other indi­vidu­als”.

It will be interesting to see how this ruling impacts the financial services industry especially. It feels like a big blow to those operating in this area, and solidifies the notion that firms are rigidly not keeping up with the times. Will this trigger an exodus of top talent?

Leaders believe that productivity lies at the heart of the workplace debate – but should it? The old maxim that “a happy worker makes a productive worker” springs to mind. One comes before the other. With this in mind, I enjoyed participating in a roundtable hosted by Slack and Be the Business, atop the Gherkin in the city of London, that discussed how better communication delivers the most significant wins regarding productivity for small- to medium-sized businesses in the UK. 

The session coincided with new research examining how SMBs can overcome stagnation in 2024. Of the many interesting findings, these were the most compelling for me: Poor management was the top internal barrier to growth, highlighted by over four in ten (45%). This was followed by: Poor communication and lack of collaboration (38%); Lack of motivation (36%); and Employee burnout (33%).

Clearly, whether working in the office or not, communication and collaboration go hand in hand, and these have to improve – for everyone’s sake, with the UK languishing at the bottom of the G7 productivity rankings. 

As the roundtable chair, CEO of Be the Business Anthony Impey, noted, a 1% increase in the UK’s productivity will boost the economy by £95 billion over five years.

The past

Here come the badgers, finally. 

This month, I enjoyed a weekend spa retreat in the New Forest, close to Lymington, where – ironically – the aforementioned Gibbons served as a member of parliament in the 1780s. I stayed five miles due north in Brockenhurst and enjoyed strolling in the countryside, marvelling at deer and wild horses. I was fascinated to learn the (alleged) etymology of Brockenhurst stems from the Celtic for “badger’s home” with the black-and-white nocturnal creatures having been common residents for centuries. 

I was informed that the badgers have, over the years, built an underground tunnel that stretches from Brockenhurst to Lymington. Human attempts to block the way, and collapse the tunnel, have come to nought. The badgers are resilient and inventive, they will always dig around obstacles, and make new tunnels. It struck me that we should all be more like badgers.

Statistics of the month

  • Only 8% of European businesses have adopted AI, whereas the number is over 50% in the United States, according to Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General of DIGITALEUROPE.
  • Cisco’s 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study shows more than one-quarter of organisations have banned the use of generative AI, highlighting the growing privacy concerns and the trust challenges facing organisations over their use of AI.
  • O.C. Tanner’s 2024 Global Culture Report revealed that less than half of UK leaders (47%) consider their employees when deciding to enact business-wide changes. And just 44% seek employee opinions as changes are rolled out.

Stay fluxed – and get in touch! Let’s get fluxed together …

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