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Thursday 28 September 2017

plus+ presentations: adding value to the City


As part of further developing the relationships St Stephen Walbrook has with the business community in the City of London, we have begun a new series of events to explore the place of faith in the world of business.

This new ongoing series of events is entitled ‘plus+ presentations’, as the series is one part of the way in which St Stephen seeks to add value to the City.

The inaugural plus+ presentation was given by Douglas Board, founder of Maslow’s Attic, on 21 September. Douglas, who is a senior visiting fellow at Cass and also writes on management, faith, society and humour, as well as careers, share practical, intellectual and spiritual reflections on flourishing at work in a presentation entitled ‘In an open plan office, can anyone hear you scream?’

Douglas began by referencing a sense of loneliness versus connectivity as characteristic of digital age and workplaces. Managers have become attuned to giving pseudo-recognition but there are not often "authentic" connections between people as work. There is a sense of "investing in people" but the reality is usually different. This is often due to leaders lacking emotional intelligence. Loneliness in the workplace is a poverty of recognition. Genuine/authentic connections are needed, not the round-robin "well done" one-liner emails etc. Is there a role for church here? Listening, supporting? Outside of the politics of workplace and away from familiarity at home? He suggested the example of authentic listening as developed by Samaritans, as pioneered at St stephen Walbrook. Douglas talked about our "real" hierarchy of needs, not with individual/self at the peak - but relationships with each other: (Peak) Recognition (Mid Tier) Respect (Foundation Tier) Unconditional Love. What can we do to overcome the issues he addressed? More face to face contact, less reliance on email. More time to get to know people. Create space to talk.
The format for ‘plus+ presentations’ is:

  • 6.15pm: Evening Prayer (optional)
  • 6.30pm: plus+ presentation
  • 7.00pm: Drinks reception & networking
  • 7.30pm: Close

Going forward, we plan to run the plus+ presentations on the third Thursday of each month, although the remaining 2017 dates will be 19th October; 9th November:


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Peteris Vasks - Lord, Open Our Eyes.

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