Don't Compromise!

If you’ve been anywhere near a shopping centre or a TV channel with adverts recently, one thing will be clear. Yep, it’s that time of year again. Or at least it will be soon enough for us to be bombarded with ‘promotional messages’. These aren’t the only messages we get, of course: already the blogs are alive with dire warnings about banning camera phones from the Christmas party (“Sticking a mobile phone camera lens under a toilet door …” – what kind of parties are employment lawyers going to, we wonder), disciplinary procedures following fighting or sexual harassment,  and lost productivity?)

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A couple of musical – or music-themed – moments for you today. (I think the background Christmas carols are getting to me.) For more useful, provocative or just plain life-enhancing snippets from around the web, see our full Crackers list.

Let Me Entertain You:  you may have read our earlier Q&A session with Peter Cook, author of Sex, Leadership and Rock’n’Roll. If you’d like to hear more about how his ideas can influence business leaders’ thinking, tune in to Radio 4 at 20.30 on 17 Dec, catch the repeat on 20 Dec at 21.30, or catch it on iPlayer for the following seven days.

Sweet Georgia Brown med traktorkomp: our favourite YouTube clip of recent times, and an exercise lesson in how to improvise your way out of an unexpected human resources crisis. (But do bear in mind that, although tractors don’t drink, smoke, run off with other musicians’ wives or throw tantrums, you can’t rely on them to make valuable creative contributions in their own right.)

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Many of us have moments in our lives that turn out to be pivotal – moments that arrive out of the blue and change its course. Few are probably as dramatic as that experienced by John Smeaton, the now legendary Glaswegian airport baggage handler, whose pivotal moment arrived in the form of terrorist’s burning jeep loaded with explosives. Though he has subsequently played down his role, his reactions made him an instant hero figure. He’s been the subject of a Wall Street Journal cover article, awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal, received a standing ovation at the Labour Party Conference, and now writes a column for The Scottish Sun that – echoing his TV interview on the day of the terrorist attack – is called ‘’The Column That Sets Aboot Ye’. But John Smeaton MP? Sadly for John, it wasn’t to be. Our MPs may lack heroism in our eyes, but is heroism what we’re really looking for?

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