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Seth Godin’s blog – Re-calibrating

Seth Godin’s blog – Re-calibrating

When an entrepreneur gets funded, it’s often difficult for them to start spending money on assets–the old limits fade slowly. What used to be smart is now dumb. What used to too risky is now the safe thing to do. When someone gets older or is injured, one of the dangers is that they’ll fail to realize that they can’t do the things they used to do in quite the same way. And graduating from college means that you probably can’t maintain the lifestyle you used to have… Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
April 8, 2022
Two free e-learning courses and 50% off ‘The Social Work Finishing School’

Two free e-learning courses and 50% off ‘The Social Work Finishing School’

In recognition of World Social Work Month, I am making two of my e- courses available free of charge: Promoting Employee Wellness (https://bit.ly/promotingemployeewellness) and How to Lead a Team Under Immense Pressure (https://bit.ly/immensepressure). In addition, I am making my The Social Work Finishing School course available at half price. Information about the course is at www.SocialWorkFinishing.School and you can sign up at bit.ly/finishingschool50, using WSWM  as the discount code. (Only valid until 1st April 2022)
Dr Neil Thompson
March 23, 2022
Neil Thompson’s Lessons for Living – Values are not set in stone

Neil Thompson’s Lessons for Living – Values are not set in stone

Values are, of course, a key factor when it comes to working with people. Values shape our (and other people’s) thoughts, feelings and actions. However, we have to be careful not to oversimplify the situation in relation to values; we should not allow them to become fixed and rigid and dogmatically apply them across the board when perhaps a more nuanced approach is called for. For example, there can be clashed between different sets of values that can be difficult to reconcile. Critically reflective practice means that we need to have a flexible approach to our knowledge base – and much the same can be said to apply to our value base. At one unhelpful extreme we have a lack…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 23, 2022
Bullying and incivility at work: An evidence review

Bullying and incivility at work: An evidence review

Interpersonal conflict and uncivil behaviour, such as bullying and harassment, are remarkably common in the workplace. The persistence of such serious incidents highlights that ‘workplace incivility’ is a major HR issue. Incivility at work has negative consequences for employees, teams and organisations. It negatively impacts the attitudes, behaviour and health of staff, notably leading to higher levels of anxiety and depression, reduced self-esteem and performance, and increased absenteeism and turnover. It is vital that employers are equipped to understand where such behaviour stems from and how to prevent it. Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
March 23, 2022
Who gets to imagine the future?

Who gets to imagine the future?

At Joseph Rowntree Foundation we’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the work we want to do over the next year. We’ll be talking more in due course about the overall programme, but today I want to share some reflections on the concept of social imagination, and how we can grow our collective ability to imagine a future that is both environmentally and socially just. Social imagination, or collective imagination, is a nascent field of work, and we are beginning to scope out what role JRF might play alongside others in nurturing and growing this field, as part of the Emerging Futures work I’m heading up. We’re looking for partners and fellow travellers, so if you read this and…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 23, 2022
Two free e-learning courses and 50% off ‘The Social Work Finishing School’

Two free e-learning courses and 50% off ‘The Social Work Finishing School’

In recognition of World Social Work Month, I am making two of my e- courses available free of charge: Promoting Employee Wellness (https://bit.ly/promotingemployeewellness) and How to Lead a Team Under Immense Pressure (https://bit.ly/immensepressure). In addition, I am making my The Social Work Finishing School course available at half price. Information about the course is at www.SocialWorkFinishing.School and you can sign up at bit.ly/finishingschool50, using WSWM  as the discount code. (Only valid until 1st April 2022)
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2022
Neil Thompson’s Lessons for Living – Assess don’t assume

Neil Thompson’s Lessons for Living – Assess don’t assume

In many aspects of the people professions we are called upon to assess situations, weigh them up as part of making a decision as to how to deal with them. This is skilful work that can be helped by having a good working knowledge base around people (about motivation, for example). But what is not helpful is the tendency to rely on untested assumptions. At one extreme, this can amount to relying on stereotypes, crude caricatures that present a heavily distorted picture. But we can also encounter more subtle distortions, mainly based on the assumption that other people see the world the way we do. For example, something we see as simple and straightforward may be quite scary and disconcerting…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2022