Hope? .....at #CIPDACE

And breathe.......seas of people already here, and now recovering from Trans Pennine Expresses best/worst efforts. Having said that journey from York was immeasurabley improved with great conversations with Jo Ward.

These swirled around work and being human...about using judgement, and how that is related to experience.

And onto a packed opening key note. Lots of stimulation from Peter Cheese as ever. Signs of profession progress, but is there progress in the workplace? Are we seeing the same issues or uncovering something that was always there but deeper.

Fantastic insights from panel discussion. Is work more meaningful? What about employee voice? What about execs shifting friction and grievances to the to solve? What about the roles of leaders to create cultures where people thrive?

Are we preaching to the choir/converted? How equipped is the profession? How much baggage is there that's in the way? Does the profession love HR ownership and process too much?

Do our organisations want to listen? Can we create the golden thread that links what is important to business leaders to what they create as leaders - the environment for their people to grow, thrive and make a difference.

Do organisations want difference? I'm not just referencing inclusion, I'm talking about different thoughts, ideas. Some of which may grate, but have the potential to take the organisation forward. I would ask how many business leaders want to listen. How much baggage of belief and experience do they have?

Perhaps this is just about time. Time moving on, our profession moving on. Maybe in 20 years our kids will take for granted what we are striving for now? Maybe what we are striving for will be the new normal?

Maybe our own Pandora's box of historic and current practical and cultural horror will be diminished. Maybe because at the bottom of that box there is always Hope.