The ground isn't neutral

Every week I sit down to write this newsletter and I try really hard to put something useful and uplifting out into the world. This week I'm finding that harder than usual.

I can't create world peace. I can't stop what's happening out there right now. All I can do is keep putting positivity out there and sharing what I know, what I've learned, what nearly thirty years of working in and around organisations has taught me. That's what this newsletter is. That's what my YouTube channel is. But blimey, does it feel hard at the moment.

I suspect you might be feeling something similar. So before we get into anything else, I just want to say: you're not alone. We're all in it together, somehow, somewhere, some way.

Any way.

This week I've been working on a new video, looking at a topic that I've been putting off addressing properly for a while. I've genuinely been lucky, over the years, to work alongside some brilliant HR colleagues, people who pushed back on power and understood what it meant to create conditions where everyone could do their best work.

But I can't keep making content without acknowledging what so many of my Youtube viewers are telling me. Week after week: HR didn't help. HR told me I was the problem. HR went silent. I raised something serious and nothing happened, except that suddenly I was being managed out.

That's not a few isolated experiences. That's a pattern.

That pattern points somewhere uncomfortable. HR, as a function, was not designed primarily to protect employees. It was designed to protect the organisation from legal and reputational risk. The tension between those two things, employee wellbeing and organisational risk management, is real, and in many workplaces it is never honestly named. When people don't know that tension exists, they walk into meetings expecting neutral ground. They share more than they should. They trust a process that was never set up to be trustworthy in the way they imagined. And then they feel betrayed and alone.

Of course, the flip side of that is that it's difficult for the HR professionals too. They might only hear one side of a story so it's hard to genuinely get to the bottom of what's happening and, of course, they might well be working in a dysfunctional system too.

Perhaps I'm naive but I keep coming back to something. In my mind, the wellbeing of an organisation and the wellbeing of its people are not separate things. You cannot have a thriving organisation full of frightened, silenced, surviving-not-thriving people. It doesn't work.

Day of the Week 📆

I've been learning about the god of unrestrained enjoyment and Slovenia's Kurentovanje festival, one of the oldest carnival traditions in Europe. Enormous costumed figures called Kurents stomp through the streets to chase away winter. I like the idea that you can frighten the cold away by making enough noise and dressing magnificently.

What am I reading? 📚

I've retreated into children's books and I'm re-reading Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea.

What am I watching? 👀

This Harrison Ford speech on receiving a Life Achievement Award. On finding a life and career in story-telling. Watch here

What am I listening to?👂

"Across one special week in November 2025 musicians, including Arctic Monkeys, Olivia Rodrigo and many more, came together to create a new record in support of War Child’s work to protect, educate, and stand up for the rights of children living through conflict around the world."

Released today.

Joy-giving things 😍

And continuing this week's accidental wizard theme, on Saturday I went to see The Wizard of Oz at the cinema, where I had the enormous pleasure of meeting Dorothy Gale and the real Toto. The last time I saw it on the big screen was at the old Godiva Cinema in Coventry in about 1974. I was terrified!

Heavy week, but the world still has this in it.

I wish you all, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, a safe and peaceful weekend.

Lucy

ChangeOut is created by Lucy Caldicott. You can find more about my work at ChangeOut.org.

If you’re looking to have a 1:1 chat about culture, leadership, purpose, equity, or a facilitated team discussion about any of those things, get in touch. You can also find me on Instagram, and LinkedIn.

🎬🎬🎬 YouTube 🎬🎬🎬

If you like what you read and you'd like to show your appreciation in cash, you can do that here. I'd be very grateful!