Season's greetings as I send off the tax return and shut the office door. It's been another busy year at Thinking Practice. It's been a challenging end to the year outside work, but I've been able to fill 2019 with good, useful, fun work, sometimes all three at once.
I have worked alongside, and observed, a lot of inspiring people putting their shoulders to the wheel for the manifold rewards, often frustrating or frustrated as they are, of making culture, in this culture, invigorating and changing it as they do so. That's the vision I take into every room, even if we're talking business models or structural issues: making culture that opens up rather than closes down possibilities.
Sometimes these people are working at a very local level, or are driven by an urge to make very particular things. Sometimes they are working at national and systems level to improve things. They are often working at full stretch and beyond but are generous in their spirit. They treat people as equals. They don't always win and they don't always get the credit they deserve, but they don't let that deter them.
These kinds of people are not an endangered species, they are not shrinking in number. They are - to use a word I've used a lot this year, and will do again in 2020 - multiplying*. Which is a good job, as there's a lot of work for us all to do.
There's a lot of the people I'm thinking of reading this, so if you think you're one, thank you. Here's to a brave 2020 - I suspect it will be 'quite an adventure'**.
* Early 2020 will see the publication of a chunky report I loved working on this year for the Creative People and Places network, which is called Multiplying Leadership in Creative Communities. A taster was in Arts Professional recently.
** To quote the title of a co-written paper published in June by Baring Foundation.
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