“The pain of blocked budding is greater than the pain of blossoming.”
Sir Ken Robinson.

We will remember 2009 as a year that saw the powerhouses of Wall Street on their knees, and one which exposed more than ever the interconnected dependence of the global economies.  

After the avalanche of bad economic and financial news, where free-falling stock market prices served as the visual reminders of how bad things were getting, the close of summer seems to have brought a much appreciated lull (at least for the time being) in the turbulent economic reports that permeated the first half of 2009. News of recovery is cautiously and slowly trickling through. In contrast, the cloud of uncertainty that quickly spread its shadow over the human aspect of the crisis continues.

During a recent conference in Amsterdam, where the creative industry gathered to discuss ways to weather this storm, Sir Ken Robinson, an expert on creativity and education, described the situation as a human resource crisis taking place parallel to the much publicised financial and economic crisis; a crisis that has already been going on for some time, originating with education systems world-wide that systematically educate our children out of their creativity. Robinson also observes that we are in the middle of nothing less than a revolution – a technological revolution that is profoundly changing the face of the earth and a digital culture that is re-organising human relations on par with 20th century industrial revolution. Therefore, we need to fundamentally rethink our system of human resources and despite the technological nature of this ‘revolution’

Robinson’s advice is to make more of the people inside organisations.
One of the consequences resulting from the financial and economic crisis is the space now available to re-evaluate the working principles of the economy in all its aspects, including labour relations. Not long ago maximising stakeholders’ profit was the central driving force around which most companies and businesses were configured.

 1 2 3 Next >