Community: how a table changed a culture

A conversation with Martin Houghton-Brown from St John’s Ambulance

I’ve got a couple of podcasts coming that really try to give colour to the book that I’ve written. In Fortitude I talk about how true resilience, fortitude, is found through a combination of control, identity and community. Today’s podcast illustrates the themes of identity and community beautifully. It’s a wonderful discussion that I think has got an immense amount of richness to it. I chat to the boss of St John’s Ambulance Martin Houghton-Brown (Martin on Twitter). I was struck with the power of the lessons about connection and identity – we often find ourselves throwing these terms around casually but Martin’s testimony brings it vividly to life.

Pre-order Fortitude and get a workplace culture course for free (before 8th July 2022)

The book is about resilience – how we get it wrong, and where it really lies. There are a lot of mistakes made about resilience and increasingly our teams are getting fed up hearing us talk about it. Fortitude explores where resilience really lives.

The early reviews on the book are sensational.

Steven Bartlett said:

‘This is a truly refreshing, captivating and important book that shifted my perception on a topic I thought I knew! A must read.’

Gary Lineker said:

‘A book that confirms what I’ve always believed, that we can’t be resilient on our own. In fact resilience is about all of us being stronger than any of us.’

Oliver Burkeman said:

‘An important and well-timed book. A fascinating and important pushback against the narrow, joy-eroding version of ‘resilience’ that would leave us to sink or swim alone, Fortitude is an indispensable guide to a more energising, human, and effective approach to working and thriving in a post-pandemic world’

Noreena Hertz, author of The Lonely Century said:

 ‘A thought provoking exploration of what it takes to get through tough times and a compelling endorsement of the power of others to hold us up’.

Nadiya Hussain said:

‘A much needed book that unfolds the surprising secrets of resilience. Something I never knew i needed to read but I’m so glad I did, it’s opened up a whole angle of thinking’

Alastair Campbell said:

‘A fascinating analysis of resilience – what it is, what is isn’t and why, when we develop it together, it becomes something better and more important, fortitude. It seems that resilience is a team game.’

Photo by Jorge De Jorge on Unsplash

Photo by Jorge De Jorge on Unsplash