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Jen Emery

Changing business by changing hearts | Changing hearts by changing business

  • About Jen
    • About Jen
    • Publications and appearances
  • About the book
    • The book
    • Launch Party Photo Gallery
  • Recent Posts
    • An island in an ocean full of change
    • Herrings and peanuts
    • Beautiful and Terrible Things
    • Taking my own medicine
    • How’s business?
    • I do, we do, you do, review …
    • Two Monsters
    • The Tough Question
    • How to Keep Your People Engaged in Times of Uncertainty
    • A celebration, a pause, and a lesson
  • Resources
    • Rethinking Change – Extra Resources
    • Psalm
  • About Jen
    • About Jen
    • Publications and appearances
  • About the book
    • The book
    • Launch Party Photo Gallery
  • Recent Posts
    • An island in an ocean full of change
    • Herrings and peanuts
    • Beautiful and Terrible Things
    • Taking my own medicine
    • How’s business?
    • I do, we do, you do, review …
    • Two Monsters
    • The Tough Question
    • How to Keep Your People Engaged in Times of Uncertainty
    • A celebration, a pause, and a lesson
  • Resources
    • Rethinking Change – Extra Resources
    • Psalm

The book

Or download a sample
Humanising business, Leadership, Personal Reflections, Storytelling

Lessons from a Friend

In the middle of November, on a gentle grey day, just as the old year was starting to tire and fray, one of my dearest friends, Gregor Grant, died.  In…

read more
03 January 2023
Humanising business, Leadership, Personal Reflections, Uncategorised

Great, make one!

You know those pictures that circulate online of baking disasters? One went viral just recently, showing a horse cake that someone had made to mark the Queen’s funeral. Those pictures…

read more
12 October 2022
Humanising business, Leadership, Storytelling, Women

This Ramshackle House

I talk a lot about what it takes on a personal level to be a good and resourceful leader. About the disciplines and practices that we should pay attention to…

read more
06 March 2022
Business writing, Coaching, Humanising business, Personal Reflections, Purpose, Storytelling, Women

What I read on my holidays

When I was a kid, my nickname in my family was Johnny Number 5, after the robot in the 1988 movie Short Circuit who could read a book in seconds. My earliest…

read more
23 January 2022
Business writing, Humanising business, Personal Reflections, Storytelling

China in your hand – five lessons in gratitude

'Don't push too far your dreams are china in your hand....' sang Carol Decker of T'Pau in 1987, and I've been pushing to far ever since. But this year a…

read more
03 January 2022
  • Humanising business,  Leadership,  Personal Reflections,  Storytelling

    Lessons from a Friend

    Jen Emery / 03 January 2023

    In the middle of November, on a gentle grey day, just as the old year was starting to tire and fray, one of my dearest friends, Gregor Grant, died.  In the long weeks since, there have been bouquets of words thrown down by the many people who loved him, lavishing praise on a wonderful artist, musician, lawyer and, above all,…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Close up of a lemon meringue pie

    Rethinking Evolution

    09 March 2021

    Beautiful and Terrible Things

    01 February 2020

    An island in an ocean full of change

    01 March 2021
  • Webb's first Deep Field (NIRCam Image)
    Humanising business,  Leadership,  Personal Reflections,  Uncategorised

    Great, make one!

    Jen Emery / 12 October 2022

    You know those pictures that circulate online of baking disasters? One went viral just recently, showing a horse cake that someone had made to mark the Queen’s funeral. Those pictures always make me sort of laugh-gasp-sob. I think perhaps grip us in the same way that true crime grips us; namely, with that vertiginous sense of ‘oh my goodness, that…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Did you imagine it would be this way forever?

    15 October 2021

    The Soft Underbelly: Why showing your vulnerable side is critical for change leaders

    13 March 2019

    Rethinking Understanding

    22 March 2021
  • Humanising business,  Leadership,  Storytelling,  Women

    This Ramshackle House

    Jen Emery / 06 March 2022

    I talk a lot about what it takes on a personal level to be a good and resourceful leader. About the disciplines and practices that we should pay attention to and build for ourselves to ensure that we remain resourceful and healthy – the importance of rest and sleep and rejuvenation, of reflective practices, of eating well and exercising. Blah…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Rethinking Understanding

    22 March 2021

    Did you imagine it would be this way forever?

    15 October 2021

    Herrings and peanuts

    19 February 2020
  • A bundle of all of the books discussed in this blog
    Business writing,  Coaching,  Humanising business,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose,  Storytelling,  Women

    What I read on my holidays

    Jen Emery / 23 January 2022

    When I was a kid, my nickname in my family was Johnny Number 5, after the robot in the 1988 movie Short Circuit who could read a book in seconds. My earliest memories are of the revolving door, beeswaxed floor and orange plastic chairs of my local library. My idea of the best possible day out was when I could persuade my dad…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Lessons from a Friend

    03 January 2023

    Herrings and peanuts

    19 February 2020

    China in your hand – five lessons in gratitude

    03 January 2022
  • Business writing,  Humanising business,  Personal Reflections,  Storytelling

    China in your hand – five lessons in gratitude

    Jen Emery / 03 January 2022

    'Don't push too far your dreams are china in your hand....' sang Carol Decker of T'Pau in 1987, and I've been pushing to far ever since. But this year a very different sort of china in my hand has deepened my gratitude practice and helped me to understand how a bit of grounding in the present is exactly what our…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Close up of a lemon meringue pie

    Rethinking Evolution

    09 March 2021

    Lessons from a Friend

    03 January 2023

    Rethinking Understanding

    22 March 2021
  • Business writing,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Storytelling

    Did you imagine it would be this way forever?

    Jen Emery / 15 October 2021

    I’ve confessed before that for someone who is making a career out of helping organisations to change, I don’t half make heavy weather of it sometimes in my own life. I love the present hard, while taxing it with all my anxiety around the future to come. I’m like my littlest boy who loves holidays so much that he starts…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Herrings and peanuts

    19 February 2020

    Ordinary Gorgons

    09 March 2020

    And they all lived happily ever after: Why change leaders need to ditch process in favour of telling a good story

    13 March 2019
  • Business writing,  Coaching,  Humanising business,  Leadership

    Sometimes I don’t even know the question

    Jen Emery / 27 September 2021

    We all know the experience of being around someone who doesn’t ask any questions. In some social circumstances, it can be an introvert’s dream scenario – I have lost count of the number of drinks parties, dinners, wedding receptions I’ve been to where I’ve been able to hide in plain sight – just ask a couple of questions of the…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    An island in an ocean full of change

    01 March 2021

    Purpose over Process: How Your Gantt Chart Causes Damage During Periods of Change

    13 March 2019
    Close up of a lemon meringue pie

    Rethinking Evolution

    09 March 2021
  • Business writing,  Confidence,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose,  Uncategorised

    Leaving things half done

    Jen Emery / 07 August 2021

    Where I grew up, you worked hard. You cleared your plate. A hard day was a good day. Sick days were for wimps, lay-ins for layabouts. If you were banging your head against a brick wall and it wasn’t working, you just needed to bang a wee bit harder, a wee bit longer. I am about to leave a job…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Finding My Voice On The Page As a Female Business Author

    01 April 2019

    Herrings and peanuts

    19 February 2020

    On Irish radio with Bobby Kerry

    25 March 2019
  • Child with face painted as zombie and t-shirt saying 'revive me'
    Business writing,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Uncategorised

    Rethinking Energy

    Jen Emery / 26 April 2021

    Of all of the themes in the book that I’ve had cause to think longest and hardest about this past year, it’s the theme of energy.Everywhere I turn, I encounter leaders who are overwhelmed and exhausted. In the UK at least, this seems even more acute as things start to feel objectively a little better – I suspect because we’re…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    China in your hand – five lessons in gratitude

    03 January 2022

    Did you imagine it would be this way forever?

    15 October 2021

    Purpose over Process: How Your Gantt Chart Causes Damage During Periods of Change

    13 March 2019
  • Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose,  Storytelling

    Rethinking Simplicity

    Jen Emery / 25 March 2021 / No Comments

    Blue anemones in a glass vase. A clear diary. A perfect story. A clear decision made. Do you find yourself craving simplicity in what feels like an airless and cluttered world? Does your brain feel foggy? This week's blog is a cri de coeur for simplicity. Simplicity of message, simplicity of information, simplicity in structure, in decision-making, and in getting…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Herrings and peanuts

    19 February 2020

    And they all lived happily ever after: Why change leaders need to ditch process in favour of telling a good story

    13 March 2019

    Rethinking Understanding

    22 March 2021
  • Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Storytelling

    Rethinking Understanding

    Jen Emery / 22 March 2021

    Almost all of us have surely, over the past year, been sucked into the impossible game of ‘pandemic trumps’. Whose wifi is worst? Whose pet the most disruptive? Is it better to be locked down in the city or in the countryside? Alone or with small children? Who has looked enviously while perched on the end of their bed with…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    How’s business?

    27 August 2019
    Photo of three of my children sitting at the dining table, drawing pictures while blindfolded

    Rethinking Belonging

    04 March 2021
    Close up of a lemon meringue pie

    Rethinking Evolution

    09 March 2021
  • Agility,  Business writing,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose,  Storytelling

    Rethinking Agility

    Jen Emery / 16 March 2021 / No Comments

    My fifteen year old son is a goalkeeper. During lockdown, his training has been via zoom calls and has involved setting up ludicrous obstacle courses across the living room, so that he can practise changing direction in a fraction of a second, or leaping from a standing start onto a high box. He is working on his agility – the…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Close up of a lemon meringue pie

    Rethinking Evolution

    09 March 2021

    Did you imagine it would be this way forever?

    15 October 2021

    China in your hand – five lessons in gratitude

    03 January 2022
  • Close up of small boy looking smug!
    Business writing,  Confidence,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose,  Storytelling,  Women

    Rethinking Confidence

    Jen Emery / 12 March 2021

    Some days I don’t have the first idea what I’m doing. I eat cake for breakfast and shout at the children, and my hair looks crap. Some days I look at the length of my to do list, the unanswered emails, the state of my kitchen, and realise I am profoundly unqualified for the role of Living My Own Life....

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Close up of a lemon meringue pie

    Rethinking Evolution

    09 March 2021

    Did you imagine it would be this way forever?

    15 October 2021
    Child with face painted as zombie and t-shirt saying 'revive me'

    Rethinking Energy

    26 April 2021
  • Close up of a lemon meringue pie
    Business writing,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose,  Storytelling

    Rethinking Evolution

    Jen Emery / 09 March 2021

    I have two daughters, aged 12 and 10, who like to define themselves as pretty much polar opposites of each other (though in truth, they are perhaps more similar than either of them cares to admit.) One of the differences between them is that one loves to bake, and the other loves to cook. Baking Daughter loves to flick through…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Finding My Voice On The Page As a Female Business Author

    01 April 2019

    Sometimes I don’t even know the question

    27 September 2021

    How’s business?

    27 August 2019
  • Photo of three of my children sitting at the dining table, drawing pictures while blindfolded
    Business writing,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose,  Storytelling

    Rethinking Belonging

    Jen Emery / 04 March 2021

    For the first time in my life, I saw the truth … that Love, Meaning and Connection are the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire –Viktor Frankl The first big theme that my book focuses on as a source of both risk and opportunity during change is the idea of Belonging.  The chapter in my book that…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    An island in an ocean full of change

    01 March 2021
    Close up of small boy looking smug!

    Rethinking Confidence

    12 March 2021

    Sometimes I don’t even know the question

    27 September 2021
  • Business writing,  Humanising business,  Leadership,  Organisational change,  Personal Reflections,  Purpose

    An island in an ocean full of change

    Jen Emery / 01 March 2021

    There’s a George Ezra song, Pretty Shining People, that was released in March 2019, the same month my book was published, and, of course, several months before we had even heard of Covid 19. In the song, Ezra has his character sing: Man, help me out. I fear I’m on an island on an ocean full of change.Can’t bring myself…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Rethinking Simplicity

    25 March 2021

    Lessons from a Friend

    03 January 2023

    Purpose over Process: How Your Gantt Chart Causes Damage During Periods of Change

    13 March 2019
  • Personal Reflections,  Women

    Ordinary Gorgons

    Jen Emery / 09 March 2020

    A personal reflection on two women from my past who inspire my future for IWD 2020 At Arup, one of the things we’ve been doing to mark International Women’s Day this year is to share our stories of women who have inspired us. The stories people have shared are exciting and inspiring – groundbreaking engineers, pioneering academics, incredible designers, challenging authors, brilliant…

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Close up of small boy looking smug!

    Rethinking Confidence

    12 March 2021

    Rethinking Agility

    16 March 2021

    Sometimes I don’t even know the question

    27 September 2021
  • Business writing

    Finding My Voice On The Page As a Female Business Author

    Jen Emery / 01 April 2019

    I finally found my loud, clear voice as a female leader in the summer of 2018, when I was all alone in a tiny holiday cottage on a remote bluff in Cornwall, watching the rain lashing its way along the coast.

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    An island in an ocean full of change

    01 March 2021
    Child with face painted as zombie and t-shirt saying 'revive me'

    Rethinking Energy

    26 April 2021

    On Irish radio with Bobby Kerry

    25 March 2019
  • Organisational change,  Purpose

    Purpose over Process: How Your Gantt Chart Causes Damage During Periods of Change

    Jen Emery / 13 March 2019

    Change is coming, everyone in your organisation can feel it and there’s a general undercurrent of unease. We are not creatures who like uncertainty. We’re programmed such that our brains feel better when we can see patterns and predict the future. We like to sense-make.

    Read More

    You May Also Like

    Child with face painted as zombie and t-shirt saying 'revive me'

    Rethinking Energy

    26 April 2021

    Rethinking Understanding

    22 March 2021

    How’s business?

    27 August 2019
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  • Lessons from a Friend
  • Great, make one!
  • This Ramshackle House
  • What I read on my holidays
  • China in your hand – five lessons in gratitude

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