Smarter Skills for a Messy World
Smarter Skills for a Messy World is a practical, human look at what leadership really requires when work is complex, political, hybrid and constantly changing. As systems become noisier and certainty harder to come by, the skills that matter most are often the ones organisations still label as “soft”: emotional intelligence, judgement, sense-making, curiosity, and the ability to create clarity when there isn’t any. This session reframes those skills as essential leadership infrastructure – the capabilities that keep work moving, teams functioning, and people engaged when conditions aren’t neat or stable.
Drawing on real organisational examples and insights from The Squeezed Middle (published March 2026), this session goes beyond theory to explore the everyday leadership work happening in the middle of organisations. It’s designed for HR, L&D, leaders and managers who are tired of abstract models and want something grounded in reality. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of the human skills modern work demands – and practical ways to recognise, develop and support them in their own organisations.
Three Tangible Learnings
- Soft skills aren’t soft. Emotional intelligence, judgement and sense-making are what make strategy work.
- The middle is where complexity lives. Middle managers carry the emotional, political and operational weight of change.
- Smarter skills can be built. Adaptability, resilience and human leadership aren’t personality traits. They’re capabilities that can be developed intentionally.
The New Work Paradigm – A Manifesto for Organisational Transformation
For years, organisations have been trying to adapt to change by tweaking policies, introducing new technologies, or redesigning offices. But the reality is that the world of work hasn’t just changed around the edges – the underlying paradigm has shifted.
Hybrid working, digital collaboration, AI, changing employee expectations, and new ideas about flexibility have fundamentally altered how work happens and what people expect from it. Yet many organisations are still trying to run modern workplaces using assumptions designed for a very different era.
This session explores what the new work paradigm really looks like and what it demands of organisations today. Drawing on insights from his research into his books Making Hybrid Working Work (2025), and The Squeezed Middle (2026) and emerging thinking about the future of work, Gary Cookson outlines how organisations must rethink the relationship between technology, leadership and culture.
Rather than treating AI, culture, or hybrid working as standalone issues, the session argues that it is part of a deeper organisational transformation. Leaders and HR and L&D professionals must move beyond location debates and focus on designing organisations that are flexible, inclusive, human-centred and capable of thriving in a more complex world.
This is not a conversation about returning to the office or staying remote. It’s about redesigning work itself.
Three Tangible Learnings
- Understand the shift from “hybrid working” to a broader transformation in how work is organised.
- Explore how technology, leadership and culture must evolve together to support the new world of work.
- Identify practical ways HR and organisational leaders can begin redesigning work for flexibility, inclusion and long-term resilience.
