Be Kind, take baby steps – this is grief

Shock, awe, frustration, grief… Change hurts at the best of times (let’s be honest) but this is at a new level.

Coronavirus has turned our worlds upside down, hurt loved ones (emotionally, physically and economically) and left us racing around and often feeling inadequate.

We’re grieving, plain and simple. So what do we do?

I’m still in my forties but like most I’ve been through change and grief. The death of my father in my mid teens after a long illness, my mother passing twenty five years later, eleven days after they stopped ‘end of life’ support. (It wasn’t pretty.) Numerous friends, increasingly of a similar age, no longer here.

It’s made me reflect on how I (and friends and colleagues) are feeling right now and how we’ve come through change and grief before. Our in built coping mechanisms and defences will often dictate our response. This is a chasm of ups and downs, not a straight line of progress. But there is an end.

This is shock

You get the phone call at 3.40am. It’s expected, and you had ‘prepared yourself’ but it stings. You thought you were ready but you weren’t. You sob. It’s a primeval reaction. You make lists (ok, that’s my default behaviour).

There are things to do. You need to tell people. You need to support others through their emotion and reaction. There are practical steps – registering the death, arranging the funeral, notifying agencies. Curveballs – why do we need a coroner all of a sudden when someone spent the last fourteen days of their life in hospital? It gets done.

People ask if you’re ok (clearly not but you can’t say that). Ask what they can do to help (you have no idea). Your executive functioning system has gone off on leave. 

You keep adding to your list and working through it. It’s a distraction. It ‘helps’.

You find things to do. Running seminars, delivering value for clients or colleagues. It detaches and distracts you. We don’t know what we don’t know and for those of us who need more certainty it’s crippling.

Be kind to yourself and to others – talk and listen but make space for yourself when you need it. We just need to do the necessary and keep moving as best we can. Aims are good but be gentle. If you think you know what someone needs then just do (offer rather than ask them to choose).

Frustration follows

You get angry. Not at anyone or anything in particular. Things are different. What you took for granted isn’t there anymore – it doesn’t just work. You’re different – sometimes frustrated, sometimes apathetic, sometimes hard nosed and too driven, sometimes careless, often fearful. Things aren’t going how they’re supposed to be going. You resist because it’s all you can do.

You get depressed. Maybe not clinically depressed but certainly low mood, lacking in energy and conviction. You can push people away. You’re tired, so tired.

The list isn’t working anymore. Nothing is working anymore. It doesn’t ‘help’. Everything feels uncertain. We know what we don’t know – that’s painful.

Express what you can in your safe space. Find a listening ear and have someone watching out for you. Don’t be the person who takes on everyone’s grief – even counsellors need and get support.

Hope

You wake up one day and recognise the sunshine, the colours of nature. You have ideas, reflections. You feel something emerging. You’re not 100% but you feel more comfortable around everybody again. 

You start adding structure, saying yes to good opportunities rather than defaulting yes or no based on emotive reaction. You’re testing and exploring. You’re not fighting it anymore.

You know what you know and that feels good. You start to make more impact, targeted, you feel you again.

Allow space to reflect, to bargain with yourself but also to define some goals and expectations. Talk and share, reflect what you are grateful for. Learn what’s going well and challenge what still needs to improve.

Acceptance

Gradually, almost without noticing, you are different. The ‘new normal’ is just normal. You miss them, but you remember. There is context. You reinforce the new, appreciate what’s different whilst still accepting the loss. You move forward, together, with support.

The new world isn’t better (or worse), it just is. And that’s ok. Like green shoots, there are new opportunities. Keep building. 

You don’t know what you know (and you don’t need to). You just do it and it works.

And so it goes…

We weren’t designed to evolve so quickly but we can get through. All change is challenging. We move through an initial numb response to action response to bargaining and then through to acceptance. We need the right combination of emotional support and our own space at the right time. One size doesn’t fit all. 

Don’t do change alone. Don’t be too brave. Don’t worry about feeling inadequate (we almost all do). Reach out and share. We’re all challenged here but together we can all make a difference in our own way.

Be kind (including to yourself). Remember you’re grieving. One day it will be ok again.

In memory of my parents and of my friend and colleague Michael Mallows who taught me about change, listening, humanity, system 1 and 2 thinking and so much more besides.

Thoughts on how access to justice and advice might self organise - a panorama on a pandemic

Covid-19 doesn’t differentiate. It’s hurting individuals and organisations in many ways. The change is traumatic but we are resolute and we will find our way through. Just as the virus attacks us, so we can attack the challenges it brings.

Back in 2003/4 I was involved in national ChangeUp hubs. They had plenty of issues despite their successes and we should bear in mind those lessons in bringing together cross sector partnerships for national social benefit.

So what might be needed to make this work to the best of its ability in 2020?

 
What’s needed now?

1. Policy and engagement with government - including regulatory and the rule of law. From remote courts to transparency and safety. Making sure things are done right and principles aren’t evaded. Ensuring policy supports rather than encumbers. 
2. Finance and fundraising - know the numbers and get cash flowing where it’s needed. Where is the urgent need? NCVO, CFG et al are lobbying rescue packages, foundations (and firms) are providing emergency funds. Networks are supporting their members. Let’s ensure organisations in need get what they require (and now is no time to be bashful about your circumstances).
3. Technology and tools - from remote working to collecting information and needs through to providing services (remote service delivery) and facilitating collaboration and action. Whether you call them platforms or websites or software, they’re simply tools you need to get the job done. A lot of this is known (e.g. LiP Network’s Technology and Tools group and resources) so let’s get it out there. Groups are re-purposing at lightning speed.
4. Information and data curation and sharing - this is a good time for transparency. There are key partnerships and key web resources to convene, collate and curate starting with the headline material and linking through to the detail. Evidence is more crucial than ever. Data sharing needs to happen and recent legislation and guidance removes some of the perceived blocks.
5. Resource mobilisation - whether front line and outreach or pro bono or ‘backroom’, what’s our rough map of skills, knowledge and capabilities. How do we best link need to resource? Get it out there where it’s needed. Let’s point at (and focus on) the information and the services that make the biggest difference. Role clarity and commitment will help.
6. Services - understanding needs and meeting them. From points of access (and triage) to user journeys – much already exists. There are daily instances of service delivery innovation – let’s link where the client in need comes in from with the potential innovation and link through Resource Mobilisation.  
7. Sustainability and understanding consequences - the decisions we make in the coming days and weeks will have longer term consequences but as ever we build (try), learn and adapt. The important thing is to think before we act and ensure we review and learn not just stumble blindly on.

And can we bundle these? Well how about:

• Structure – policy, finance and fundraising, sustainability and consequences
• Resources – technology and tools, information and data curation and sharing, resource mobilisation, services

Two groups, one ensuring ‘the ground beneath us’ and the other ‘building the field camp’ that makes progress on issues. Feeding back, transparently, to a core group of all the talents.

Let’s not do this in isolation, ivory towers or tiny groups. Let’s cut down on meetings and get more stuff done.

And where targeted?

1. What do individuals and organisations need - somewhere to go to know what they need and then get the need met.
2. How do we address that - we can self organise but we need to commit, call out what’s not working and fix it (rather than just complain about it). 
3. How do we ensure the future - ensure a true collaboration team is keeping an eye on developments and ensuring the adaptation, whilst bending to meet circumstances and doesn’t break all that we uphold to be most important. 

Just lawyers and advice workers then?

This is beyond purely legal support - it’s also about change and needs strong leadership and coordination without being bureaucratic and time consuming. There are lots of skills and talents on offer. The structures (and mostly the tools and platforms) exist but are we using them right? It’s time to step up and act. Fewer meetings, more reflection, more progress and action. Who’s going to? And why not now?

An implications map for legal and advice needs right now and in the future

By Dr Simon Davey with Martha de la Roche

As of 30th March 2020, we’re still adapting to the coronavirus crisis and figuring our way through. We’ve been buried in a tide of mixed emotions; shock, denial, sadness and, for some, grief as the situation involves health and literal life and death. But, as we start to lift our heads from the immediate emergency work that has been distracting us from emotions, other feelings will start to come into play.

Change is often a scary concept, but as we recognise that the way we work will probably never be the same again, we need to support ourselves and each other to tackle the daunting 'new normal' ahead.

SUMMARY

Legal needs and advice needs are going to escalate. Individuals and organisations are both going to need help at the same time. Here we propose a ‘timeline’ of concerns:

• Right now – Individuals facing homelessness, domestic violence, and hunger as well as sheer shock. Organisations getting into debt, struggling with workload and facing laying people off. Priorities: Providing emergency support. Coordinating knowledge and learning and making it easy, accessible and timely.

• Soon (three to twelve weeks) – Individuals coping with unemployment, debt, and mental health issues. Organisations facing staff burnout, making hard strategic choices. Priorities: accessing emergency funding with less effort, redesigning services. 

• July onwards – The impact of relationship breakdown on advice needs and court time, longer term debt and struggling for legal representation and resolution. Organisations looking hard at strategic implications. Priorities: drive for sensible mergers, taking advantage of new service delivery models which include technology and data, implementing collaborative systems.

The detail (and some questions) follow below.

THE IMPLICATIONS

Simon: I am not a lawyer but I’ve worked in low income and disadvantaged communities for over 20 years, I grew up in them and my family still largely live in them. I’m also conscious that what used to be called the ‘squeezed middle’ but clearly includes self-employed professionals and staff in what are now ‘low income organisations’, will struggle paying high London (or other) rents or mortgages to keep a basic roof over their head as well as food and other bills.

The following may sound naïve but it’s a starting point for comment. Please don’t judge me too harshly – I’m trying to frame a conversation which I think is going to be increasingly important in the weeks or months ahead. If I’ve got it wrong or missed the obvious then please correct me. If someone has done this a lot better then let’s share it. The following might not be a consideration for today, but it will need to be a consideration soon.

A few thoughts

We’re going to consider three groups here: (i) individuals, (ii) organisations focused on advice, legal and related support, (iii) the organisational ‘advice’ and ‘legal’ sectors.

RIGHT NOW – URGENT

We’re in crisis. We’ve adapted (largely) to remote working, turned our face to face service delivery models on their head where we could, and come together to collaborate and share ideas. We’re in shock and working through it without always acknowledging it. But…

Individuals are experiencing life threatening risks; domestic violence, homelessness and hunger. The immediate fallout of both job loss and furlough will push more people to crisis point and put those already there in more danger. With support organisations (like food banks) closing and the court and tribunal system still figuring out their remote service delivery, people are currently limited in their access to resolutions for their problem. Access to benefits will become a priority for many but given the wait times for money to come through, many will be in desperate measures.

Immediate legal and advice needs:

• Protection against eviction
• Housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness
• Immediate access to benefits

How do we meet them better in the current circumstance?

Organisations are struggling to adapt and support and also with cashflow. Many small charities already live hand to mouth and may be dependent on overdrafts in the coming weeks. Charity funders have stepped up and relaxed grant conditions and I’m hopeful emergency funding will be flowing in days rather than weeks which should go some way to support flexible approaches. The impact of the change, shock and grief is causing overwhelm as we are faced with making ever more and rapid decisions without the amount of thinking time to consider the consequences as we would like. Key immediate challenges:

• There is more need for these organisations than ever before (http://advicetracker.devops.citizensadvice.org.uk/)
• Access to services has been drastically curtailed – no more drop-in services – and replacing face to face advice and representation with remote service delivery is not trivial.
• For legal aid providers and other organisations who provide a pay per case service cashflow will be a huge immediate risk.

Questions:

• With income reduced, how do we keep paying the staff who we need to provide the support?
• Furloughing is not an option for all organisations, but which staff might we furlough?
• What opportunities lie ahead for proportionate pay cuts for those who can afford it?
• How can funders decide get additional cash into bank accounts of their grantees (and possibly recent or previous grantees) that will stave off the crisis?
• How do we find (and offer) headspace to help with the crucial decision making?

The sector has come together as never before, collaborating and sharing, but we need focus, targeted responses and we need transparency, openness and freedom from ego. This is a societal issue, not about an individual or organisation. For now we are all the same. The rule of law (already critical) and the role of regulation and compliance become more crucial.

We need to:

• Identify our leaders and rally behind them, give them all the collective, data, evidence, support and backing they need to advocate for us all.
• Pool our learning, knowledge, expertise and experience in any way that can be pooled.
• Communication, communication, communication: we need to tell people what’s going on, who’s doing what, where they can find information and how they can contribute.

Questions:

• How do we prioritise and coordinate the knowledge and learning (what’s working, what’s not)? One example is the LiP Network (www.lipnetwork.org.uk/topics). What are the other highlights?
• How and where can we make it easy, accessible and timely – more clarity and one pagers (with reference to further detail) and less extended webinars and tips repeating what’s already been said? [Yes, I realise this blog post could be snappier]
• How do we psychologically switch to sharing our learnings openly (and parking our egos) so that others can learn from our experiences outside organisational or self interests?
• How do we get behind the real leaders (they’ll be the people getting on with it not the self appointed evangelists)?

SOON – THREE TO TWELVE WEEKS

We’ve largely locked down aside from infrequent shopping and daily exercise. We’ll adapt to that for the most part in a few weeks but more pain is coming. The new normal will be nothing like we’ve ever known or been prepared for.

Individuals will be coming to terms with unemployment (or for the self-employed ‘no paid work’) – expect a lot of figuring out the scope and limits of furlough. Debt will increase (and scams are already proliferating) as people borrow to eat, heat and keep the roof over their head – not all landlords or ‘lenders’ are decent, honest people, they will be demanding cash or causing damage. Benefits issues will come to a head - but as the 5 week wait for Universal credit elapses for the initial applicants, there will be at least limited support for the most vulnerable (though the system will struggle to cope with increased numbers). Support will be needed for the undoubted increase of people experiencing domestic violence. Mental health issues will proliferate – we need to support those who aren’t coping (some of them may be the strongest and smartest people you know).

Questions:

• How do we deal with challenges of complex employment issues as the number of cases overwhelm us?
• How do we help people into new work opportunities and volunteering to help with mental health?
• How do we provide public education and awareness about debt?
• How can we support (and lobby) for better debt management and better debt resolution?
• How do we get domestic violence victims out of danger fast and securely?

Organisations will be faced with hard choices and need to make tough decisions. The patchwork of tools, resources, and people that provided a sticking plaster to our immediate issues will start to peel off. It’s becoming clear that continuing to try to provide services as usual ‘but digitally’ isn’t providing an effective option for organisations or users. 

This is really crunch time. Do we appeal to funders to keep us going, and see us through to the other end or do we re-evaluate what we do, how we do it and who we do it with? Can we allow ourselves to break away from what we see as the destruction of the frontline to focus on what our organisations will need to be in a society that has been similarly devastated?

Questions:

• How do we stay focused on our mission and the essentials?
• How can we re-prioritise work?
• How can we re-design services, iterate and learn?
• How can we access funding that will keep us going and help us prepare without overly bureaucratic application forms and a long time before we get the cash?
• How do we ensure that all the hard working staff don’t burnout and crash?

The sector (and its funders and supporters and regulators) will need to come together and rationalise. What will be the focus and priority areas and problems facing us six to twelve months down the line? We may need to rely on our funders and leaders to make the decisions we collectively cannot make; which models of service delivery are valid and which are not, which systems are we investing in and which we are not, which organisations will be working together on joint projects and who else will be brought in to ensure services are provided in a sensible holistic way. Recognise we’re not all that different, articulate our value like never before and reduce replication. 

Questions:

• How do we decide who is best placed to do what?
• How do we keep sharing whilst keeping the ‘marathon pace’ on supporting those in need?
• How do we support those who are making the hard choices?
• How does regulation and compliance need to adapt to keep the show on the road?

MEDIUM TERM – LATE JUNE ONWARDS

This is a pandemic and the future is unpredictable but we’re already finding that some of what we thought mattered really doesn’t – pointless meetings and conferences disappear. We’re realising that in an emergency, the cause is greater than the organisation. It’s not just about us competing for survival. It’s about us helping others survive.

Individuals will have gone through homeless, hunger, unemployment, debt (and in some cases domestic violence). Hopefully jobs will start to become available as services, retail and manufacturing reopen. Money will start to flow (hopefully with government support) but debt is pervasive (I don’t see banks slashing interest rates) and will dominate. That will further increase pressure on paying mortgage and rents. The need for legal, mediation and advice services will be huge. There aren’t currently enough services to deal with this (or legal representatives) so litigants in person will increase, even assuming the courts can manage the scale of backlog. A big assumption.

Questions:

• How do we scale mediation and debt advice/management for what’s coming?
• How do we monitor actual legal need and advice need over the next few weeks (Spring into Summer)? Citizens Advice query mapping could be useful here.
• How can local economies, supporting local people in local jobs, be sustained?

Organisations will have survived (or mothballed or closed for ever). We will find our sector much weakened and facing another huge increase in demand for its services, not unlike the aftermath of LASPO. Now, as then, it will be important for organisations to pull together, collaborate, even merge to ensure continuity of services. There will be a huge reliance on a shared knowledge base of who’s doing what, what works and what doesn’t and a lot of focus on planning and implementing new service delivery models for the future. This (if not sooner) will be the time to think more about strategic change, how money and effort really contribute to impact (a logic model or theory of change approach) and whether we need two organisations doing similar things a slightly different way. We will need to use technology and data even better and be more effective than ever.

Questions:

• How can we think more clearly about how our income and effort translate to change and impact?
• What can we do better with data and technology (beyond remote meetings)?
• How can we better appreciate that costs of some online services reduce admin and improve effectiveness?
• How can we keep sharing and work in society’s interests and not just competition?
• How can we keep supporting those organisations that truly need it and are taking longer to recover?
• How can we build on the newfound acceptance of change and keep driving forward?

The sector will be forever transformed. And it will need to continue to change and adapt. There will be more focus on sector wide systems that can be used to draw different surviving services together – funders will need to be on the ball in terms of “choosing” and investing in these services and systems and ensuring they can be used from the frontline up to national public service systems.

This will be the time for pulling together our learnings and evidence on the contribution our services have made to be clearer about our value and impact and use it to lobby for the additional centralised support we will so desperately need.

Questions:

• How can we propose and deliver intelligent mergers without ego and drama?
• How can we be clearer about our value and impact? Not just to funders but to government, corporates and society.
• How can we provide the services we truly need in 2020, not the ones some have been hanging on to since 1995, without compromising principles and value?
• How can we work together, equitably? There will be losers (some execs and managers who will need to re-purpose) and that needs to be OK.

IN CONCLUSION

So these are thoughts. They’re questions more than answers and certainly not right answers but hopefully they are a step towards getting there. Scenario planning, logic models (inputs to impact), risk/consequence scanning and getting on with it have never been more important – not immediately but soon. Strategy and real life implementation and change support. Don’t panic, there are people to help. The future is scary but hopeful. We will get through this and it will be different.

And a final point. If you’re stuck, reach out. What are your challenges and needs? We might be able to help and if we can’t we’re sure others can.

Getting through this and moving forward - learning and sharing in a time of coronavirus

The sun is shining and the world is moving on but these are definitely odd times. It’s heartening to see how quickly we’re adapting and keeping all the important things going. The pace of change has never been greater and contributions are coming together to resolve issues and share options.

So after the initial foray to get everyone ‘remote working’ and out of the office, we’re definitely in a ‘learning and sharing phase’. The way we deliver services as well as how we work together is adapting rapidly. The decisions we make now might not be perfect but they will inform a forward view and as long as we can consider the consequences of what we are doing now, we should be well placed for the future.

I’m conscious that the UK is very well served by Advice Now - https://www.advicenow.org.uk/ - and Citizens Advice - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ - for the needs of individuals so I’ll focus my attention on ‘resources which support staff, volunteers and organisations to be effective and sensibly compliant’.

I think there are nine areas to focus on:  

1. Tools – what to use and (simple) why/when. Simple recommendations and signposts to pros and cons and helpsheets. We won’t have time to learn the details of this so recommendations of a simple ‘suite of tools’ is valuable. Catalyst have a good collection of advice here https://www.thecatalyst.org.uk/support
2. Information management and information security (including data protection). We still need to protect data and apply common sense compliance. The ICO are tweeting some useful resources here but a lot is common sense. Keep it simple, keep it as organised as possible, protect data and documents with passwords and use secure sharing.
3. Leadership – including recognising the challenges. I attended a great TNL Digital Fund webinar on this subject yesterday. Key aspects included: providing direction, clarity in absence of hard facts, making decisions, managing expectations, being compassionate and how to show strength as well as being vulnerable. This will be a testing time for many so know you’re not alone and reach out to peers.
4. Effectiveness and productivity – how can we work better and what does effectiveness mean when you’re homeschooling two small children and the cat is walking over your keyboard? We need to be clear what we need to get done, recognise our barriers, know who can help and reach out, recognise we are making progress and reassure ourselves that work will get done, it just might not get done perfectly between an arbitrary 0945 and 1015 in the morning like the schedule said. Also, now is a good time to apply the 80/20 rule. What’s the 20% of your activity that results in 80% of your impact (and that’s about people as well as numbers).
5. Mental health and well-being – this is a marathon not a sprint. Many are working crazy hours adapting, developing new mechanisms and dealing with urgent stuff. Others are in a phase of grief and adapting more slowly. This isn’t the time to give up chocolate or running (assuming we’re still allowed our daily run) It’s a time to take care of ourselves and each other – there are excellent resources out there. You can’t be maximum effective if you’re crashing in well being. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/coronavirus-and-your-wellbeing
6. Communications – including not having unnecessary virtual meetings and not bombarding people with instant messaging. There’s a difference between checking in and what becomes borderline harassing people. Let’s use daily check ins well. Let’s ‘meet’ when we need to and let’s also harness the power of Skype, Zoom, Teams et al for virtual social get togethers after work (or indeed alcohol free during the day). Skype-vino, G and T(eams) and Zoom Café are working for me (and saves the train journey back home from the pub). Whilst you’re still sober, you may need to make managing up a thing.
7. Sharing – how do we share stuff? Twitter? Collating and curating on webpages? There’s so much good stuff I’m coming across but where to put it. A shout out here to the LiP Network - http://www.lipnetwork.org.uk/topics - for collating a lot of this stuff across the access to justice space.
8. Rule of Law – important stuff which is outside my expertise but I recognise Public Law Project, the Legal Education Foundation, Bingham Centre and many others are crucial here. Also US based Twitterati. https://binghamcentre.biicl.org/publications/rule-of-law-monitoring-of-legislation-coronavirus-bill
9. Regulation – legal advice is regulated and we need to stay on top of that especially as it seems to be evolving by the day.

So to make this happen I think we need:

a)      Inputs from trusted sources whilst also taking feedback from wider sources – gathering e.g. via Twitter or following Medium blogs and soliciting emails.

b)      Collate a list of resources (stuff e.g. recommendations, learning, feedback) for each area.

c)       Collate a list of who’s doing what in each area – with so many groups already ‘leading’ on things we should amplify rather than duplicate.

d)      Publish in a single place – convene it (I think the LiP Network would be a great start for this)

e)      Propagate via social media and our other networks and channels

In terms of getting groups together to take action, I was very impressed by the Digital Fund’s (and CAST’s) format of Zoom webinar plus open link Google Doc (background paper, crowdsourced ideas, questions and write up). It seems to work and supports groups up to 30 or 40 without causing chaos.

The other Google Doc ideas I’m seeing is people putting themselves forward as offering advice and support but perhaps also a two column list – ‘What is your issue?’ And ‘Here’s a potential solution’. We could start it rolling and then we’ve collated the issues (and some of the solutions) as we went.

The natural leaders are stepping up and organising this so let’s get behind them and support them. This is not a time to reinvent the wheel or fly your own flag for ego’s sake.

And perhaps in a few weeks time, we’ll have a bit of headspace but meanwhile we’ll have:

• Tried new things and learned what worked for us
• Been clearer about our actual barriers and challenges
• Thought through consequences as we did it
• Move people on a change journey faster than they ever thought possible        

I’m hoping this gives us all a bit more strategic drive (iteratively in pursuit of a clear direction), the commitment to be bold and the desire to embrace change. In the end this is just change. It might be Covid-19 inspired or led change but it’s just change.

The world will be different in three to six months time but however challenging right now is, the world might also be better. Stay safe, stay home, take care and have hope in the future. We can, and will, get through this.

Thank you to Roger Smith, Martha de la Roche of the Litigant in Person Network and Nicola Tulk from Nesta for input, thoughts and ideas, and to CAST and TNL Digital Fund for inspiring some of the themes.

Book club recommendations

If you're stuck inside or have a bit more alone time on your hands, you might have to invest some more time in reading and learning. Here are our top 20ish recommendations to see through the next few weeks and months. I read all of them cover to cover and they've all had an impact on me. They might be useful for the time ahead and they're all available on Kindle:

1. Switch by Chip and Dan Heath - excellent book on change and simple models for getting complex things done.
2. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown - how to be brave (and real) when you need to lead. The art and science of vulnerability in leadership.
3. Fast Times by McKinsey - business oriented but gets to the heart of transformation and digital with clear principles and no BS.
4. Range by David Epstein - how generalists triumph in a specialised world. Why your general skills and breadth might be more important than specialisms.
5. Hello World by Hannah Fry - how to be human in the age of the machine. Excellent intro to the benefits and challenges of algorithms and data.
6. Pre-suasion by Robert Cialdini - how to influence and persuade and some of it is counter intuitive but really works.
7. Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath - grounded ideas and examples about how to make better decisions and why that matters.
8. Pig Wrestling by Pete Lindsay - interesting parable led story on problem solving and creating change
9. The Startup Way by Eric Ries - lean and innovation explained and done properly. Debunks myths about making it up as you go along and offers great examples about why it works and doesn’t. 
10. Level Up Your PMO by Lisa Nash - how to make your projects work together and the value of coordinating project management 
11. Radical Candor by Kim Scott - why it helps to be honest (in a respectful way) and the advantages of not ducking important conversations 
12. How to Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb - harnessing the power of behavioural science, practically, to be more effective, happier and less worn out
13. Ethicability by Roger Steare - how to decide what’s right and find the courage to do it. Short and incredibly powerful.
14. The Small Big by Steve Martin - great tips on how small changes can cause big wins and disproportionate influence 
15. How We Learn by Benedict Carey - how to be a more effective learner ( and trainer, teacher)
16. Happiness by Design - if you’re feeling a bit stuck, this offers tips (and strategies) for becoming happier. Design thinking meets strategy and happiness.
17. Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone - if only they taught this stuff in schools. How to give and receive feedback so it works effectively and how to manage when it doesn’t. Should be required reading for all leaders.
18. Brick by Brick by David Robertson - how Lego saved themselves from catastrophe and rewrote the rules of innovation 
19. Playing to Win by AG Lafley - excellent strategic model and how strategy really works.
20. I Had a Black Dog by Matthew Johnstone - if you experience the black dog, this might help.
21. Your Brain at Work by David Rock - why you do what you do and how to improve your impact.
22. The Power of Habit - game changing book on habit formation and breaking in three simple steps.
23. Start With Why by Simon Sinek - how to lead and where to start. Don’t do strategy without it.