Back to School, But Not Back to the Office? is a contributed article from Douglas Emslie.
September means one thing for millions of young people: back to school. They’ll learn from teachers, but they’ll learn just as much from being around other people — watching, listening, making mistakes, building friendships and developing confidence.
Yet, when they leave education and enter the workplace, increasingly we seem to think they can learn differently. I think we need to be blunt about this. Business leaders and particularly those of us in the face-to-face events industry are not doing enough to develop the next generation.
For more than 30 years, I’ve watched people grow from graduates into CEOs. Most of what made them good leaders wasn’t learned on a training course. It was learned by being there. Sitting in meetings, watching a difficult negotiation, listening to how someone handled an unhappy customer and having a coffee afterwards and asking, “Why did you do it that way?”
You can’t schedule those moments on Teams, and here’s the irony: Our industry exists because we believe face to face works. We tell customers that nothing replaces meeting in person and yet we’re not giving our own young people enough opportunity to learn face to face. I’m not arguing for a return to five days a week, nine to five, in the office as the world has changed, and flexibility is one of the positives to come from the pandemic, but somewhere between the old office culture and today’s working from home model, we’ve forgotten one of the most important purposes of the workplace: learning by observation.
I’m now closer to the end of my career than the beginning. Looking back, I realise how much I learned simply by being around experienced people. Nobody formally taught me how to lead. I watched, I listened, I made mistakes and I was given opportunities. The next generation deserves the same opportunity.
The challenge is that the people they most need to learn from are often our middle managers. They have the experience to coach and mentor, but they’re also the generation under perhaps the greatest pressure. They’re juggling young families, caring responsibilities and often longer commutes after moving further from city centres. It’s entirely understandable why many have embraced working from home. The answer isn’t to criticise them or demand everyone returns to the office full time. We need to design work more intelligently around the reality of people’s lives.
Create purposeful days when teams come together. Use that time for coaching, collaboration and customer meetings rather than sitting on video calls. Give managers the flexibility they need but also recognise the critical role they play in developing the people coming behind them. This isn’t about office attendance, it’s about purposeful presence, and this challenge goes beyond employees.
One of the reasons I’m involved in Manta Media is that I believe we need to do more to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs too. Great entrepreneurs need capital, but they also need access to people who have built businesses before, people they can learn from, challenge and call when things inevitably go wrong. The same principle applies whether you’re developing a 23-year-old employee, a future CEO or an entrepreneur building their first business. Experience needs to be passed on.
There’s another reason this matters, and it’s one my generation hasn’t always been very good at talking about: mental health. I’ve been fortunate personally not to suffer from mental health problems, but like many families, mine has experienced the tragic consequences of mental illness. I therefore understand how real and important this issue is.
Through my involvement with the Green Hub, a charity supporting teenagers and young people with mental health challenges, I’ve seen the pressures facing the next generation. We have created the most digitally connected generation in history, yet too many young people feel isolated and disconnected. Professor Scott Galloway has spoken powerfully about the challenges facing young people in particular— loneliness, lack of purpose, fewer friendships and fewer positive role models. Work won’t solve the mental health crisis, but getting young people together matters. Friendships matter, mentors matter, role models matter and belonging matters.
A great workplace offers more than a salary; it provides confidence, relationships, purpose and community. We shouldn’t underestimate how important those things are, particularly at the beginning of a career, and as we are in the events industry, we have an even greater opportunity. Take younger colleagues to events and introduce them to customers and let them sit in meetings they don’t strictly need to attend. Let them watch negotiations and see problems being solved on the show floor. Don’t just tell them how the industry works but let them experience it.
As millions of young people go back to school this September, perhaps every leadership team should ask itself one simple question: If our next generation isn’t spending enough time around experienced people, where exactly are they supposed to learn how to become our next generation of leaders?
AI will undoubtedly transform our businesses. I’m excited about its potential, but I’m more concerned that we’re failing to develop the humans who will lead those businesses in the future. This September, we’re sending millions of children back to school because we know people learn best together. Perhaps it’s time we remembered that lesson in the workplace too.
