Latest news with #ChurchillFellowship
Scoop
22-07-2025
- General
- Scoop
Applications Now Open For The 2026 Churchill Fellowships
The search is on for passionate New Zealanders who would relish the chance to travel overseas to explore, learn, and bring back ideas that will make a real difference in Aotearoa. Applications are now open for the 2026 Churchill Fellowships. The Fellowships, awarded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust New Zealand, support people from all backgrounds and industries to undertake international research in their chosen field. With no academic qualifications required to apply, Churchill Fellowships are open to everyday New Zealanders who want to grow their knowledge and turn it into positive change. 'Churchill Fellowships provide a remarkable opportunity for Kiwis to broaden their horizons and bring back insights to benefit New Zealand,' says David Ivory, Chair of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. 'It's about practical learning, real-world impact, and empowering individuals to drive progress in their communities and industries.' Each year, successful applicants design their own Fellowship journey, choosing where to go, what to explore, and how it will benefit New Zealand. From trades and technology to conservation, education, arts, agriculture, and beyond, the possibilities are wide open. Previous recipients include those who have travelled to study Dementia Villages as a model for New Zealand multi-generational living and elder care in the future, and builder Tim Boyd, who travelled to Australia, the UK and North America to learn from projects operating shared workspaces for the creative and skills sector, businesses and product manufacturing. Grace Brown, 2025 recipient, is a neurodivergent woman with a deep passion for New Zealand Sign Language and Deaf culture. Her Fellowship will see her exploring global approaches to inclusive communication and accessibility. Grace says, 'This Fellowship is providing me with an incredible opportunity to help break down communication barriers with technology, so Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and neurodivergent Kiwis can fully connect, learn, and thrive. This will have a lasting impact on Aotearoa's Deaf and neurodivergent communities, which is something I'm extremely passionate about.' Since 1965, more than 900 New Zealanders have received a Churchill Fellowship, creating ripple effects of knowledge, innovation, and leadership across the country. 'We encourage anyone with a big idea and a desire to learn to apply,' says David. 'The experience is often life-changing — not only for the Fellow, but for the people and sectors they serve.' Applications for the 2026 Churchill Fellowships are open now and close on 20 August 2025. To find out more and apply, visit Community Matters. To find out more, visit
Leader Live
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Veteran from Glyn Ceiriog receives Churchill Fellowship
Adrian Leslie, public affairs manager for the Royal British Legion in Wales, has been awarded the fellowship to study 'therapeutic stand-up comedy' programmes supporting veterans in Canada and the United States. During his research, he will meet veterans, comedians, and healthcare professionals to explore how comedy can support veterans coping with trauma and the challenges of transition. Mr Leslie said: "I want to understand how stand-up comedy is being structured as recovery—not just as catharsis, but as a tool for reintegration. "As a performer and a veteran, I know humour can connect, disarm, and heal. "I want to bring these models back to the UK and help build initiatives based on proven models where veterans can find their voice through stand-up comedy." He is one of 118 new Churchill Fellows announced by the Churchill Fellowship charity during its 60th anniversary year. The charity funds UK citizens to spend four to eight weeks abroad meeting global experts in their chosen field, with the aim of turning the insights into action that benefits communities and influences policy at home. Alongside Mr Leslie, this year's Fellows' research will span a range of issues. These include community-owned renewable energy projects, the use of robotic aids in healthcare, and employment barriers for 'neurodivergent' people. They will be drawing on experience and knowledge from 'innovators' in countries such as Sweden, India, Ghana, Peru, Vietnam, and Canada. Julia Weston, chief executive of the Churchill Fellowship, said: "We are delighted to welcome our 2025 Churchill Fellows and to witness the incredible drive and dedication they bring to their work. "As we celebrate 60 years of the Churchill Fellowship, we are proud to play a part in empowering these passionate individuals to become catalysts for meaningful change. "Whether making a difference in a local community or shaping national debate, we look forward to following them on their journeys to create lasting impact across the UK." Churchill Fellows form a community of more than 4,000 individuals, from ages 18 to 80, working on a range of issues across the UK. Their projects have led to the creation of new services, the founding of charities, and advocacy for policy change in areas such as the environment, education, technology, and the arts. The next round of applications for the Churchill Fellowship opens on September 2. Aspiring changemakers are encouraged to apply.
The Herald Scotland
16-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Act early to boost job outcomes for young disabled people
As of early 2025, the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK has climbed to 14.2%, with nearly 620,000 young people out of work. Almost one million are now not in education, employment, or training, which is the highest figure since 2013. For young disabled people, the risks are even greater. Without urgent action, the UK's stark and persistent 30% disability employment gap will only widen further. The solution? Earlier intervention. Through the Churchill Fellowship, I had the opportunity to explore best practice in the USA and Canada, two countries that prove starting young makes all the difference. In the USA, Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) introduce career support as early as five years old. This early start helps young disabled children view a career as something that is not only their right but something they should be aspiring towards. The results speak for themselves: higher employment rates, better-paid roles, and a significant economic return. For every dollar invested in early transition planning, the return is an estimated five dollars. If the UK wants to bridge its employment gap, it must take inspiration from these international models. Waiting until the final years of education to act is not enough. We need a fundamental and systemic shift in approach. All disabled children should be supported to believe that a job is within reach. This means giving the same opportunities to explore, experience and aim high. Success doesn't start at the school gates on the way out. If we're serious about helping young people thrive, we need consistent, joined-up support long before they leave education. Too often, young disabled people face fragmented systems that simply don't match the support their peers receive. Every disabled student deserves meaningful work experience, not just token placements in low-skilled roles. Scotland, and the UK as a whole, must foster ambition from an early age, no matter a child's circumstances. Failing to act now means failing an entire generation. It also means missing a huge economic opportunity. The UK simply cannot afford to get this wrong. Ashley Ryan is director of Enable Works, one of the largest employment support teams in the UK. Her team supports more than 7,000 people who have learning disabilities or barriers to work to develop their employment skills and achieve well paid, sustainable careers. Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@
The Herald Scotland
16-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Early intervention transforms job outcomes for young disabled people
As of early 2025, the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK has climbed to 14.2%, with nearly 620,000 young people out of work. Almost one million are now not in education, employment, or training, which is the highest figure since 2013. For young disabled people, the risks are even greater. Without urgent action, the UK's stark and persistent 30% disability employment gap will only widen further. The solution? Earlier intervention. Through the Churchill Fellowship, I had the opportunity to explore best practice in the USA and Canada, two countries that prove starting young makes all the difference. In the USA, Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) introduce career support as early as five years old. This early start helps young disabled children view a career as something that is not only their right but something they should be aspiring towards. The results speak for themselves: higher employment rates, better-paid roles, and a significant economic return. For every dollar invested in early transition planning, the return is an estimated five dollars. If the UK wants to bridge its employment gap, it must take inspiration from these international models. Waiting until the final years of education to act is not enough. We need a fundamental and systemic shift in approach. All disabled children should be supported to believe that a job is within reach. This means giving the same opportunities to explore, experience and aim high. Success doesn't start at the school gates on the way out. If we're serious about helping young people thrive, we need consistent, joined-up support long before they leave education. Too often, young disabled people face fragmented systems that simply don't match the support their peers receive. Every disabled student deserves meaningful work experience, not just token placements in low-skilled roles. Scotland, and the UK as a whole, must foster ambition from an early age, no matter a child's circumstances. Failing to act now means failing an entire generation. It also means missing a huge economic opportunity. The UK simply cannot afford to get this wrong. Ashley Ryan is director of Enable Works, one of the largest employment support teams in the UK. Her team supports more than 7,000 people who have learning disabilities or barriers to work to develop their employment skills and achieve well paid, sustainable careers. Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@
The Advertiser
03-06-2025
- General
- The Advertiser
Why a good leader must banish their biases and baggage
Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
