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Part consultancy, part thinktank, part social enterprise, Halcyon helps you prepare for and respond to personal, organisational and societal change.

Halcyon's forthcoming 52:52:52 campaign on Twitter will help you address 52 issues with 52 responses over 52 weeks.

To be a catalyst is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking that they control it, wish to influence its direction - Theodore Zeldin

2013

What's Changing? - Cybersecurity

Submitted by Halcyon In Business on 4 July 2018
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Please see below selected recent cybersecurity-related change. 

     

    See also: Future of Cybersecurity

     

    July 2018

     

    June 2018

    What's Changing? - Society

    Submitted by Halcyon Imagines on 9 June 2018
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    Please see below recent society-related change.

     

    June 2018

    • Without succumbing to politically-motivated "Big Society" mantras, we can nevertheless realise that there is a huge untapped potential in civil society and the individuals within it. If we listened more to the surviving members of the "make do and mend" generation that got through the 1930s, WWII and its bleak aftermath, might we learn again not just self-sufficiency, but also a way of pulling together towards a common purpose? But what should that common purpose be anyway?  The fat years (for some) of recent times seemed to lead to increasing isolation from one another, as we retreated inside both our traditional brick and our new digital fortresses, so who is now going to articulate a non-utopian shared vision of what "getting better" should mean for society as a whole?

     

    January 2018

    • What would it take to build a more just society? In contemporary debates about justice, identity is frequently front and centre, but the 20th-century American philosopher John Rawls thought that looking past identity was the key to more equality. In his book A Theory of Justice (1971), Rawls argued that if we could build a society from behind a ‘veil of ignorance’ that kept us from knowing anything about our identity, we would make choices resulting in a fairer society than we now have – one in which all would benefit from greater freedom and ‘fair equality of opportunity’.

     

    See also:

    2018

    January 2018

     

    2017

     

    July 2017

    Battling modern slavery - Raconteur
    Buying time promotes happiness - PNAS
    Future Workplace Special Report Published in The Times
    How will you drive talent strategy in the digital age?
    How work changed to make us all passionate quitters | Aeon Essays
    Independent work: Choice, necessity, and the gig economy | McKinsey & Company
    India is a migration superpower. Here's why | World Economic Forum
    Jinfo Blog: Jinfo for knowledge management
    Policymaking must become more empathetic rather than continuing its current overreliance on economic measures - LSE
    Preparing for a new era of work | McKinsey & Company
    Superfluid Labor Markets — Tapping Into Skilled Talent Anywhere and Everywhere - EYQ
    The cost of universal basic income might be lower than you think | World Economic Forum
    The Era of Ownership Is Ending - Futurism
    The World's Broken Workplace | Gallup
    These are the most peaceful countries in the world | World Economic Forum
    This is how a universal basic income can end financial exclusion | World Economic Forum
    Universal basic income could work in Southeast Asia — but only if it goes to women | Responsible Business
    You might not believe it, but the world just got a bit more peaceful | World Economic Forum
    Navigating through new forms of work | Deloitte University Press
    Navigating the future of work | Deloitte University Press
    The changing nature of careers in the 21st century | Deloitte University Press
    Tom Friedman interview: Jobs, learning, and the future of work | Deloitte University Press
    Workforce of the future - The competing forces shaping 2030:PwC

     

    August 2017

     

    Inadequate sleep costs employers $7 billion a year: How to look after your employees' wellbeing - Deloitte
    The cost of universal basic income might be lower than you think | World Economic Forum
    The future of jobs: is decent work for all a pipe dream? | Tim Jackson | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian
    The rise of philanthropic investing - Raconteur

     

    September 2017

     

    'Inspirational' robots to begin replacing teachers within 10 years
    British Social Attitudes: Record number of Brits with no religion
    The 'internet of things' is sending us back to the Middle Ages
    Why economic growth doesn't mean social progress | World Economic Forum

     

    October 2017

     

    Globalisation: what people think - Raconteur

     

    November 2017

     

    Companies That Lead on Societal Impact Reap Financial Benefits - BCG
    IGP's Social Prosperity Network publishes the UK's first report on Universal Basic Services | UCL Institute for Global Prosperity - UCL - London's Global University
    Refugees are not the creators of the crisis. They are the victims | World Economic Forum
    Robots will drive us to rethink how work is distributed - FT
    The 2017 Best for the World Honorees 846 Companies Leading the Way to a Shared and Durable Prosperity for All - BCorp
    The progressive case for immigration - Free exchange
    The rise of inequality: Can it be reversed? | LinkedIn
    To fix income inequality, we need more than UBI—we need Universal Basic Assets — Quartz
    What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages | McKinsey & Company
    Women in the Workplace 2017 | McKinsey & Company

     

    December 2017

     

    10 Trends Shaping Migration - European Commission
    AI isn't just taking away our privacy—it's take away free choice, too — Quartz
    Inequality is a threat to our democracies - FT
    What does your country think about globalization? | World Economic Forum
    What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages: Jobs lost, jobs gained | McKinsey & Company
     

    2016

    October

     

    September

     

    August

     

    July

     

    May-June 

     

    April

     

     

    On Leonard Cohen

    Submitted by Halcyon In Kal… on 16 November 2017
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    "So come, my friends, be not afraid.
    We are so lightly here.
    It is in love that we are made;
    In love we disappear."

    Happy posthumous birthday, Lenny.

    You tried, in your way, to be free. Thank you. Now go join that great gig in the sky. So I wrote a year ago, when Lenny left us. However, the legend lives on - listen for example to How the Light Gets In.

    'We Love Leonard Cohen' celebrated his 81st Birthday, and then, for his 82nd and final birthday, Leonard gave us a present. "You Want It Darker" is the title track to last album, his 14th studio album in his 49-year recording career. (See also Leonard Cohen Makes it Darker.)

    "Leonard Cohen offers the possibility of living with grace, dignity, and integrity, without submitting to illusions, without succumbing to indifference, and without indulging in denial of our own failures and flaws, in a world that is too often corrupt and malevolent" - Allan Showalter

    What Happened? - Responsibility
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    Halcyon In Business 17 October 2016

     

    Please see below pre-2016 intelligence about responsibility. This is a synthesis of major recent developments at corporates, business schools, thinktanks, media, commentators, and other key influencers.

     

     

    December 2015

     

    • In 'Social Saints, Fiscal Fiends', The Economist argued that the CEO school of corporate responsibility has something going for it. Such bosses are right to argue that a business’s main contribution to society is to provide jobs and income. They are also right to argue for tax harmonisation: America has only itself to blame if firms revolt against its high corporate-tax rate. But they should recognise that there is a big difference between moving to a place like Ireland because it has made a more sensible trade-off between collecting taxes and promoting business, and indulging in contortions such as the “Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich”, whose only aim is to avoid paying taxes anywhere. They also need to recognise that there is a big difference between worrying that government is inefficient and pretending that it is irrelevant, and thus that contributing to its upkeep is unnecessary.

     

     

    • A company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity is inevitably tied to its brand perception. Speaking at Marketing’s PR Asia 2015 conference, the director of communications & government affairs for Kimberly-Clark presented a case study on how a company can go beyond corporate "green-washing" to implement truly effective CSR policies that enhance corporate reputations. The company partnered with various NGOs to increase local participation for its CSR initiatives. This helped to forge a new, profitable and more sustainable business future for both Kimberly-Clark and the communities that it has adopted as part of its CSR drive.

     

     

    • However, VW was also a global leader in CSR. Its annual report was packed full of lovingly described projects it backed and charities it supported. It was a “thought leader” on dozens of different weighty issues, and a “change agent” for improving society. Globally, it was ranked as the 11th best company in the world for its corporate social responsibility work.

     

     

     

     

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