James D Weekley

I started my working life a mile underground in southern Africa chasing veins of gold. It was the logical choice for a degree-qualified mining geologist. But quite different from the south London streets in which I grew up. Apart from the colourful language perhaps.

Since then, I’ve worked in retail, waste, food, renewable energy, construction, oil & gas, not-for-profit, security, prisons, consulting, telecoms, investment banking and today, information & analytics.

Some of these organisations have been global. Some with hundreds of thousands of employees. One was housed in a single room hidden away behind the Palace of Westminster in London. One was based in Portakabins. I’ve seen all sorts.

Quite by accident, a few years into my working life, I found that I was good at explaining complex issues in a way that the media, local communities and colleagues could understand. Before I really knew what was happening, I found myself working in corporate communications.

With time, I became increasingly fascinated with the human condition and how it plays out at work. I delved deeply into psychology, human behaviour and language. I then started to apply these learnings at work and developed employee communication and engagement approaches before the discipline even had a name. Today, internal communication is recognised as a primary enabler of organisational performance.

I’ve led people, led teams and led more projects than I can recall, helping many large organizations through market defining mergers, major crises and massive upheaval.

Some of us choose corporate life. Others, like me, just kind of end up here. In either case, it’s not always plain sailing. I have found that it’s not what you do at work that’s hard. It’s how you do it. Which means working with people who just see the world differently than you do. It sounds easy when I write it. But it isn’t.

In my first book, WORKABILITY, I have brought together a collection of stories to bring new perspectives to common challenges we all face at work. Aiming to share ideas that you can use today. Despite my rich and varied experiences, I have never considered myself the finished article in terms of my skills at work. And I still don’t.