Charles Handy: re-inventing society

Charles Handy: re-inventing society

A sleepless night several weeks ago led me to turn on the comforting tones of BBC World Service.  Usually in the middle of the night someone is telling me more about Nigeria or Yemen or the Congo than I really want to know, but occasionally something fascinating turns up.  I have heard all kinds of retreads from daily broadcasts - In our Time, Great Lives and so forth. Always worth a second listen.  On this particular night I heard the avuncular tones of Peter Day, business journalist, trailing an interview with an old friend Charles Handy, about his new book ‘The Second Curve’.  

Charles came to JWT to advise us on where the world was going sometime in the early '80s and I – along with many others – was immediately riveted by his insights.  He had graduated from Oxford in the generation that immediately went off to the great international companies as trainees, working their way up the ladder.  In his case it was Shell, Far East.  At some point he came to realise that organisations with their hierarchies, silos and inflexibilities were not for him, so returned to the UK to teach at the London Business School.  From here he wrote many books on organisations, the future of work, management styles and advice on the way people should pan their careers.  Inventor of the phrase, ‘Portfolio Life’ he has always promoted a life of a variety of different activities.

The ’second’ curve of the title refers to the curve that should break free of the statistical normal curve which rises and falls.  The second curve - representing a new career or activity, starts just before the first curve begins its descent, He uses this as the metaphor for all of the solutions he offers to many of the problems of modern life: What to do when we now live so long; what to do when organisations don’t offer a career for life; how to think about more humane management; an improved capitalism; a just society; a better functioning democracy and so on.  His world view, always original, creative, generous and humane, took something of a blow in the age of the superhero CEO and the financial madness that came along with it.  But as a visionary, he was correct in virtually all of his predictions about how organisations would have to change to accommodate a much more flexible workforce and, more to the point, more demanding employees.

The book has many of the ideas with which I am familiar, from his earlier books and from working with him, as well as some new thoughts.  He remains clear sighted, generous in spirit and inspiring - and I plan to publish at least one if not more essays in Market Leader.

Read more from Judie Lannon in our Clubhouse.
 

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