Travel Matters June 2017

GREAT IDEAS | 13 12 | GREAT IDEAS www.travelctm.co.uk www.travelctm.co.uk How to survive and thrive in a fully connected world is the theme of a new book, which provides fascinating insights for any hard- pressed executive How to maintain a healthy balance in our modern working lives is becoming increasingly challenging as we are drowning in data and deadlines. Author Julia Hobsbawm endorses the idea of stilling the shrill voices of tech to connect us better. Her new book, Fully Connected*, while establishing that humans and machines are in fully connected overdrive and starting to become entwined as never before, also puts the case for Social Health as a new blueprint for modern connectedness. Hobsbawm’s definition of Social Health is connecting the right knowledge with the right people at the right time. “Social Health is who, what and when you know. Those with Social Health balance face-to-face and technology, and know where to find the off switch.” She draws on the latest thinking in health and behavioural economics, social psychology, neuroscience, management and social network analysis to inspire a new generation of managers, policymakers and anyone wanting to navigate through the rough seas of overload. At the heart of her book is the need to manage the spread and containment of modern connectedness. “Putting the right kind of behaviour around what we do on networks, using our knowledge, and acting fast enough or slow enough, makes a big difference, “ she says. “We are connected by social ties, by travel, by politics, by ritual and custom, by fear and by love. We are fully connected. What next?” What next according to The World Economic Forum is that by 2020, there will be 50 billion connected devices in circulation. How healthy or desirable is this, really, asks Hobsbawm. She believes that humanity is beginning to choke on the fumes of excess because we lack a coping strategy or tangible tactics for the overload we are experiencing. A digital detox or temporary disconnection is a novel idea but not a solution. ”Our lives today are full of cognitive dissonance, all based around some of the tensions which happen when you put human beings, with their natural limits, in a computerised social world that is literally programmed to be without limit and never switched off. “Unlike computers, we do not have limitless storage, nor do we have unlimited time: we still only have 168 hours in the week, a number that has not changed fundamentally since the Sumerian calendar first began to express time in terms of cycles.” She notes that universities are being built without lecture theatres to cater for the shorter attention spans of Generation Z born in a post-internet world truly device-in-hand. Similarly, cinemas struggle to adhere to a ‘mobiles off’ rule. “There is not nearly enough measurement or monitoring of the impact of the fully connected world because, until recently, we have been in love with, and in thrall to, its very existence and blind to its social consequences,” says Hobsbawm. THE AGE OF OVERLOAD A new operating system is required, around good connectedness; where communication doesn’t play second fiddle to machines. Hobsbawm advocates a series of practices, principles, exercises and habits which are both physical and mental, six in total. 1. Look at the patterns in your diary and decide which ones work better to help cleanse your palate of the overstuffed commitments that only cause bloat, blockage and overload 2. Disconnect on a regular basis from your over-connected life and keep in sync with your psyche, body and mind 3. Surround yourself with people who think differently from you; avoid like- mindedness. Notice what’s on the periphery, the edges, the borders and the links inbetween 4. Look at the pattern, shape and place of where and how you work to ensure that you design your own honeycomb and work productively. It may mean changing your journey, your chair, and your job 5. Create your own ‘personal boardroom’ of six who you can call on for advice, critical friendship, intelligence and mentoring and who are orbiting around in some way 6. Instead of facing all the news, views, media platforms on a daily basis which can come crashing over you at any overwhelming moment, create a knowledge dashboard of six core types of information: news and views; audio & visual; read long & short; experience live; zeitgeist; and specialist subject. These make navigating the age of overload that little bit more manageable, that bit more connected. “Maybe even – with a bit of luck – fully connected.” * Fully Connected by Julia Hobsbawm is published Bloomsbury. China takes the leading place in global business travel spend of the five major world markets and only India matches it in growth rates of 11%, but from a small base of just US$29,629bn in spend Source: GBTA BTI Outlook – Annual Global Report & Forecast Global growth forecast figures from IMF, presented by economist Jim Power at ITM Conference 2017. CHINA Total business travel spending US$291.276bn 11.4% annual growth in business travel spending Global growth forecast: 6.6% in 2017 to 6.2% in 2018 GERMANY Total business travel spending US$63,534bn 9.8% annual growth in business travel spending Global growth forecast: 1.6% in 2017 to 1.5% in 2018 JAPAN Total business travel spending US$62,101bn 1.0% annual growth in business travel spending Global growth forecast: 1.2% in 2017 to 0.6% in 2018 USA Total business travel spending US$289,837bn 2.2% annual growth in business travel spending Global growth forecast: 2.3% in 2017 to 2.5% in 2018 UK Total business travel spending US$47,138bn 8.3% annual growth in business travel spending Global growth forecast: 2.0% in 2017 to 1.5% in 2018 HEY BIG SPENDERS