EDITION 722
16 JULY 2018

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to more than 50,000 subscribers each Monday morning. 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 rally your team in times of crises. As a leader, what you say and how you say it matters - especially when your organisation is facing a challenge. In times like these, motivation isn’t about scaring employees into working harder with threats and blame, but inspiring them to pull together - unified in purpose and determined to succeed. When the pressure is intense, consider the following strategies: [MORE]
    
2. Centuries of speeches placed online. A record of two centuries’ worth of parliamentary debate has been made freely available online. The five-billion-word Hansard transcript of MPs’ contributions to the Commons (verbatim with only repetitions and clear mistakes removed) has been digitised dating back to 1803. David Lloyd George’s defence of his People’s Budget in 1909 is included, as is Churchill’s “We shall fight on the beaches” address of June 1940. The Times
    
3. The English Patient voted Booker of Bookers. A public poll to find the best winner of the Man Booker prize from the last 50 years has chosen Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, which shared the prize in 1992 with Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger. The prize of prizes was dubbed the Golden Booker and was given to Ondaatje last week at the close of the Man Booker 50 Festival in London. The Independent
    
4. A smoke-free generation? The latest official data about smoking in Britain reveals that “young adults are spurning cigarettes”. Last year, 17.8% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they were smokers, down from 25.7% in 2011 – the biggest drop of any age group. Overall, 15.1% of Britons – or about 7.4 million people – were smokers in 2017, compared with 15.8% the year before. The Guardian
    
5. The world in figures. Since 1960, child deaths have plummeted. UN data show that in the 1820 1950s and 60s around 20 million children younger than five died every year. That figure is down to 5.6 million today. We need to know both facts to see that the world is both very much better today than it was in the past (so there’s no need to feel hopeless), yet at the same time still awful (so we cannot afford to be complacent). The figure today still represents 11 children dying every minute. Forbes
    
6. Housing market falls by £26.9bn. The value of Britain's housing market has fallen by £26.9bn, or 0.33%, during 2018. Although there has been growth in the North East and Wales, it has failed to offset falling prices in many other regions. According to data from property site Zoopla, the nation’s homes decreased in value by an average of £927 each between Jan 1 and June 30 this year, and are now worth a collective £8.2 trillion. The Telegraph
    
7. Britons give up traditional gender roles. A new survey by the National Centre for Social Research suggests Britons have abandoned traditional views on gender roles. Almost three-quarters of the public no longer believe that women should be home-makers while men earn money. As recently as 1988, a majority still said women should stay at home while men went out. The Guardian
    
8. NHS surgery waiting lists reach 10-year high. The number of patients waiting for an NHS operation is at a 10-year high in England, new figures show. Some 4.3 million people are on the list, with many waiting longer than the supposed maximum times for their procedure, as former culture minister Matt Hancock became health secretary, replacing the unpopular Jeremy Hunt. Daily Mail
    
9. Statistic of the week. More than 16,000 children had to leave their family homes last year because their mothers were jailed, figures from the Prison Reform Trust reveal; 83% of the women sent to jail in 2017 had committed a non-violent offence. The Independent
    
10. The bottom line.The value in real terms (ie after accounting for inflation) of the prize money won by Wimbledon men’s champion Rod Laver in 1968 is £30,000 – the first year professional tennis players were allowed to play in the Grand Slam tournaments. The women’s champion, Billie Jean King, won £11,000. Both the men’s and women’s champions in this year’s tournament took home £2.25m. BBC