EDITION 828
27 JULY 2020

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday at 10am. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I'd be very grateful if you did.

1. How to identify pointless meetings. In order to have fewer, more purposeful meetings, there are a few types that we all need to stop having - pronto. The worst offenders include: [READ MORE]

2. Want to boost profits? Hire more women! Large companies with no female executive committee members 'missed out on £47 billion last year', research claims. Research by The Pipeline found 15 per cent of major companies had no women in top roles. Companies with no women on highest committees had net profit margin of 1.5% Percentage of women on top teams was 19.8 per cent – 2.7 per cent higher than last year. Daily Mail

3. A thinking style that breeds success. Just about any recipe for success someone might offer usually includes a healthy dose of perseverance, and for good reason. But research suggests that grit, on its own, is not enough. We are more likely to achieve success when we adopt a strategic mindset, the willingness to continually assess - and reassess - how we are pursuing our goals. When we think about how we are thinking, we are giving ourselves an opportunity to work more intelligently, not just harder. How to develop a strategic mindset is covered on 10/10, our government funded leadership development and mentoring programme. [LEARN MORE]

4. Four out of five Britons want to continue working from home. Four out of five people who have been working from home during lockdown want to continue doing so after the pandemic is over, according to a new poll. The study found that 48% of workers had already spoken to their employers about making the temporary arrangements permanent with 57% saying that they are more productive at home. Daily Mail

5. The key to office-free brainstorming. With employees working from home amid the pandemic, it's time to rethink how we generate ideas as a group. With a few tweaks, a remote work setup may help us come up with better ideas than we would in person. With everyone remote, you are free to include participants in other regions and time zones, increasing the potential for diverse thought. And you can use the distance as an advantage by encouraging participants to first develop ideas on their own or in small groups. That may help prevent the kind of groupthink that affects typical brainstorming efforts. Editor

6. MPs says government failings on pandemic are astonishing. A committee of MPs says the government's failure to plan for the economic impact of a pandemic is “astonishing”. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said the economic reaction to Covid-19 was rushed and the impact could be “long-term”. Official data has shown that the UK economy shrank more than first thought between January and March, contracting 2.2% in the joint largest fall since 1979. The Telegraph

7. Study finds that eating chocolate is good for your heart. Eating chocolate at least once a week reduces the risk of heart disease, new research has concluded. After studying 330,000 participants, the team found that eating chocolate more than once a week reduced the risk of developing coronary heart disease by 8%. “Moderate amounts of chocolate seem to protect the coronary arteries but it’s likely that large quantities do not,” warned a researcher. MSN

8. Boris Johnson ready to reveal his anti-obesity measures. Boris Johnson is to unveil his strategy to tackle obesity, including a 12-week plan for people lose weight and cycling being prescribed by GPs. Government data suggests that overweight and obesity related conditions are costing the NHS more than £6bn each year. Public Health England research found that being overweight or obese puts people at greater risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19. The Times

9. England’s face mask law explained. Face coverings are now mandatory in England in enclosed public spaces, as full guidance on the new rules was released less than 12 hours before coming into force. Coverings must be worn in shops, on public transport and when buying food or drink to take away. Children under 11, those with disabilities or certain health conditions are exempt. But major retailers, including Sainsburys, Asda, Co-op and Costa Coffee, have said they have no intention of policing the laws, which carry a penalty of a £100 fine. BBC

10. The bottom line. The minimum salary that will make the average Briton happy is £33,864, according to research using data from the Office for National Statistics and the Happy Planet Index from the New Economics Foundation. The average salary in the UK is £29,009. Evening Standard