Humanise: Why Human-Centred Leadership is the Key to the 21st Century

CHAPTER 1 The future and the future of leadership

A water taxi ride from Marco Polo airport across the lagoon into Venice is one of life's great experiences. A few minutes after landing on a flight from London I was sitting in the stern of a motorboat skimming across the sparkling water. While my watch advanced an hour, time unravelled in this historic crossroads of people and culture. As we approached the legendary Hotel Danieli, housed in a regal fourteenth-century palazzo, gondolas bobbed in the water, the gondoliers resplendent in their simple striped shirts. Tourists filled Piazza San Marco, ignoring the glare of the midday sun in order to spend a few moments being blinded by beauty.

As I strolled the quiet empty streets that night my thoughts turned again to the relentlessness of change. Venice helps us maintain perspective when we consider the transitions, trends and shifts confronting our world. Venice may be sinking, but slowly. The sea may be rising, but slowly. The passenger ships deliver new loads of tourists by their thousands each day, leaving the city to silence and local life each night.

Venice reminds us that people adapt in the midst of change. We generally get on with living, muddle through and find a way forward through all that shifts, often with considerably more resilience than we tend to recognise.

While Venetians face a remorselessly rising sea level, what do you face? What are the sea changes in your world that will change the way you go about your ...