Common Purpose Blog

Following the UK’s comprehensive spending review last week, this is a crucial time for the country to consider how it can do more with less. For example, the NHS can simply no longer afford itself. Old models, old mindsets and old systems simply can’t continue to operate efficiently, with significantly less resource. The UK would [...]

Fifty senior human resources, talent,  learning and development specialists met last week at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace & Reconciliation. This was an appropriate setting given that the theme of discussion was on the need for organisations to reconcile the meaning of the organisation with the personal needs of employees. The debate raised far more [...]

Lyndal Stuart is the Media and Communications Manager for Common Purpose and is currently a participant in Common Purpose’s International Navigator course for emerging leaders. She writes here on the insights of her line manager, Oliver Mack, who has shared his thoughts on employee engagement with Knowledge Peers. So I sat there opposite my boss [...]

Twenty years ago Nelson Mandela took his first steps to freedom from the Victor Verster Prison in Cape Town after 27 years of incarceration. Today, South Africa is celebrating this historical moment and the legacy of its first black and democratically elected president, his role in ending apartheid, and the immense change this meant for [...]

As the 40th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting takes place in Switzerland this week, there will be a lot to read, see, hear and analyse, so at Common Purpose we’re sharing our World Economic Forum digest. There are 2,500 leaders across sectors and from countries around the world in Davos tackling some of the biggest [...]

This week, TIME magazine announced its Person of the Year. The current affairs bible developed the notion of a ‘Man of the Year’ in response to an anticipated slow news week back in 1927, in the prelude to an era that shaped the scholarship of this year’s winner. This year…at a time when news cycles [...]

My house has been a bit of a hotel lately. For the last month there has been a constant flow of friends and family visiting. It has been fun. I like people staying over because it gives me a chance to catch up with people. As happens our conversations covered mutual friends, family members, life, [...]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrk2ggU836o&rel=0] We all have a unique way we look at the world, but does our viewpoint restrict our belief in our ability to make a difference? Take a look at this story in the Washington Post about famous classical violinist Joshua Bell, who spent a morning busking on the Washington D.C. Metro. It’s from a [...]

There are some great leadership blogs that are not only engaging to read but useful leadership resources. Here are Common Purpose’s leadership blog recommendations: Blogging on Leadership Center for Leader Development CEO Blog — Time Leadership Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog Dispatches from the New World of Work Extreme Leadership Great Leadership Leadership Turn Leadership, [...]

What is the cost of not developing your staff in tough economic times? It seems that a lot of employers do not want to find out. A recent survey by the Institute of Directors found that most employers are either maintaining or increasing training budgets during the recession. The IoD poll of 937 directors found [...]