29th September 2022
Meet Inspirathon speaker – Perry Timms
Meet the Inspirathon 2022 speaker, Perry Timms. Sign up free for the Inspirathon
Perry Timms is the founder and Chief Energy Officer of PTHR – a niche consultancy, with the mission to create better business for a better world. In its 10th year of operating, PTHR is a Certified BCorporation, a Gold-Standard 4-day Working Week organisation, an accredited Living Wage employer and a Climate-Positive enterprise. Perry is a Fellow of the RSA and Chartered member of the CIPD and is a 5x member of HR Magazine’s HR Most Influential list making the top 10 in 2018, 2019 & 2021 and ranked Number 1 Most Influential Thinker in HR for 2022. He is a 2x author and Guest Professor at 4 Business Schools
Why do you do what you do?
I’ve had a terrific experience of work since the age of 18. It saddens me that so many people are disillusioned with their working lives. We spend over 200,000 hours of our life asleep, 20,000 hours at school, and 90,0000 hours of our lives at work. So I do what I do so that people can find themselves and flourish through their work; as no-one should have to suffer during those 90,000 hours.
Describe your talk in 100 words
We’re at a turning point. The economic systems of the world and models of commercial success are built on extraction, consumption and harm in pursuit of gain, profit and downright avarice. We’re taught to be grateful for capitalism, yet when we look really hard at the financial systems and measures of success, they’re biased, flawed and wildly inaccurate in assessing value. Our systems are damaging and ignore swathes of creative, diligent and artful impact from human beings. It’s time to change that. And in researching alternative economic models, it can be done and has to be done.
What problems will your talk solve for our audience and why is it needed?
We know we need more balance in our working lives. We know we deserve to have fairer, more equitable distribution of wealth. And yet profit (or operating within budget) prevails as the major symbol of success. The reason we have intractable problems with overwork, dissatisfaction with life, and threats to our living standards is not what we’re led to believe. It’s because high-worth people control the game and will not give up control whilst we’re all obsessed with financial success only. We cannot create fairer chances, choices and rewards for our work in the current system, controlled by a privileged few. How we value businesses is the start of this change; to force a rethink and move from profit to prosperity for all.
What valuable insights, strategies, tools or techniques will our audience walk away with?
I’ll show how we can recalibrate our machinery to bring a more holistic approach to value. You can still make a profit, but not at any cost (to humans, other lifeforms, the planet and our very future existence). And I’ll demonstrate how HR professionals can bring more balance to the way we show, deliver and create value that goes way beyond the numbers.
What do you think will be the major differentiator of the workplace of the future, as opposed to the way we work today?
Equity, activism, advances in science and rapid technological change will shape the workplace of the future. Those in control now, can feel the cracks in the system tearing at their power base, And they are resisting the coming change and squeezing ever higher. But they’re ignoring the natural consequence of a system that’s had its day. And a renaissance is dawning of high-touch, caring, human ways to do work, learn, and create value that is fairer and more sustainable.