It’s your solemn duty to lighten the mood

So now I know that the economic downturn has arrived, not because of the banking crisis and media gloom, but because many of my clients have suddenly become very serious.

A category sales director for a huge company in the fast-moving consumer goods industry was sitting across from me just the other day, and with furrowed brow told me how her people needed to come up with fresh ideas to help them through the tough times. It was time for the fun to stop, she said. People needed to be “sweating over new thinking”.
 

Language does not simply reflect what is going on in organisational life: it also influences what people think and what they do

Linda Holbeche, director of the Holbeche Partnership and visiting professor of HRM/OD at Cass Business School