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A Nervous Moment: Early Reviews of Fractured ….

March 21, 2021 /

Publishing my first book is scary. What if no-one likes it?!

This week was a big week. A small number of people I respect hugely had been given early copies. This week they would send me their comments!

I felt like I was waiting to be picked for PE again! Thankfully they loved it! This is what they said. [If this whets your appetite, you can get a copy of your own here.]

This perceptive and timely book not only diagnoses our societal ills, but offers an easily digestible prescription. Jon Yates has a rare gift for clear expression of complex ideas. I finished this book with my optimism restored, and you will too.’  Iain Dale, author of Why Can’t We All Just Get Along.

‘Incredibly relevant for each and every one of us – as we head into a new decade of challenges and opportunity.’ Dame Louise Casey, author of The Casey Review into Opportunity and Integration.

‘A beautiful and wise book. Beautiful because it makes one want to be a better person who connects with others in society. Wise because through the use of eye-opening real-life stories, it suggests practical ways we can achieve this; how we all can expand the circle of those we deem “People Like Us”.’ Remi Adekoya, author of Biracial Britain: A Different Way of Looking at Race.

‘Deeply wise, meditative, timely and practical. The book fizzles and crackles along and in no time at all you will be at the end, reading about 32 ways to improve your, and everyone else’s lives. Act on #32 and buy this book, right now.’ Sir Anthony Seldon, author and Prime Ministerial biographer.

‘This is the post-pandemic manifesto we need. Vividly written, with a clear diagnosis and specific proposals for overcoming our ills, it is also a challenge to the intellectual status quo.’ David Goodhart, author of Head Hand Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century.

‘At a time when we are more divided than ever, Jon offers a much-needed framework for understanding the forces that divide and … the path to healing our fractured societies. Because of Jon’s lived experience, this is ultimately a hopeful, pragmatic, important book and a must-read for all of us.’ Jacqueline Novogratz, author of Manifesto for a Moral Revolution.

‘Our society is more fractured than any of us would want – so how do we change that? Fluently telling the story of how we got here, Jon Yates not only asks how governments could bridge our divides but shows why we must each step up as citizens too.’  Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future.

‘If you care about social division or worry about the decline of community, this book will make sense of it. As entertaining as it is informative.’ Brendan Cox, international campaigner, activist and author of Jo Cox: More in Common.

‘This is a lively and interesting account of one of the key challenges facing liberal democracies.’ Lord David Willetts, author of The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future – And Why They Should Give It Back.

‘Engaging, punchy, and well-researched. A genuine page-turner – and with inspiring and practical conclusions.’ David Halpern, author of Inside the Nudge Unit and The Hidden Wealth of Nations.

‘This book is a must-read for everyone who is troubled by the current and growing divisions … Written in a very accessible style, supported by compelling examples … I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ Ted Cantle, author of Interculturalism: The New Era of Cohesion and Diversity and Chair of Belong – the Cohesion and Integration Network.

‘How to counter the demise of social solidarity is the single greatest question in western societies today. Fractured makes an enormous contribution to this debate. As a leading practitioner and intellectual, Jon Yates is well-placed to diagnose … and to work out what to do about it.’ Eric Kaufmann, author of WhiteShift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities.

What should the government’s priorities be for children?

March 14, 2021 /

I was asked this week what I thought the government’s priorities should be for under 18s. This was my answer. What would you have said?

(As the son of a vicar and an ex-management consultant, there are – of course – five points all beginning with the same letter.)

  • Supported families: No relationship is more important to a child than with the adult members of their family. In my years running residential camps, I never met a teenager whose relationship with the person bringing them up (whether their mother, their father or their grandparent) didn’t set the tramlines for how they saw themselves and the wider world. When I was at the Department for Education I asked to see what correlated most with a child doing well at school. A good relationship with your family mattered more than almost anything. But no adult, or pair of adults, can bring up a child alone. We all need some support.
  • School attendance: The pandemic has reminded us that being in school matters. It had become fashionable to think of school as solely a cause of anxiety, stress and unhappiness for our children. The last year has been a corrective to this. Especially for our most vulnerable children, school is a vitally important safe place to be. It can be a place where they are noticed, fed, cared for and taught. And yet more than 1 in 10 of our children miss more than 1 in 10 of their lessons. We need to keep our children in school.
  • Skills for a living wage: Are Dutch children cleverer than our children? 9 out of 10 Dutch children achieve the equivalent of A-levels. Here in the UK, just 6 out of 10 do. I think our children are just as bright, capable and curious. What then is going on? The truth is that half our children do broadly fine. Those who take the academic path broadly match their Dutch peers. But we serially let down those who take the technical route. In the Netherlands, these children are given three years to master a trade, passing a technical qualification equivalent to A-levels in difficulty. Here in the UK, our children doing technical courses are given just two years and spend most of that on GCSE level learning. We need to change this urgently.*
  • Strong networks: The truth is that ‘it is not just what you know, but who you know’. The middle-classes (like me) have networks and connections that their children benefit from. They meet Doctors, Lawyers, Construction Managers, Plumbers and all sorts of people doing well-paid jobs. Who you meet and spend time with defines what sort of jobs you believe ‘people like you’ do. It also affects your empathy and understanding of others – critical to our democracy and our society. We must do more to give all of our children a wider set of networks. That is why National Citizen Service is so important and also why I wrote Fractured.
  • Second chance: Sometimes things go wrong. Over 60,000 children are arrested in the UK every year. That’s more than 150 a day. Half of these children don’t end up in court. They are released with a caution or without charge. However, far too many will be back. This moment becomes a step on a journey towards a life in and out of prison. A child being arrested is a tragedy and an opportunity. It is a chance to turn things round for the good of that child, their family and all of us. Few pieces of knowledge are more valuable than knowing the most effective way to make that change happen That’s why in my day-job, the Youth Endowment Fund has just launched a £20m fund to find the best ways to give these children a second chance.

That’s my list. What’s yours?

Why Funders need to learn from Wile E. Coyote (aka ‘Down with Innovation’)

February 28, 2021 /

With just five words funders can annoy most of the charitable sector:

“We want to fund something innovative.”

Not ‘something good’. Not ‘something proven’. Not ‘something tested’. Not ‘something that almost works and just needs another go’.

No, we want something untried, something untested, something so unusual that no-one has ever tried it before.

Let me be clear. I’m not against innovation. I’m in favour of the wheel, sliced bread, electricity, vaccines. Even the internet has its upsides. 🙂

But a normal investor – in the normal economy – knows that the majority of gains come from delivering something that already exists just a little bit better. Most companies don’t invent a wheel, they help it turn a bit faster.

And yet in the charity space, funders can become overly focused on innovation.

I have founded three social enterprises in my life. Not one of them was truly innovative. We took ideas that were proven and just sought to put them together better, deliver them better, train people better.

Innovation has its place. It is essential when all of the existing great ideas have reached all possible customers. When your product becomes a universal commodity, you have to innovate.

Do we really think this describes the social sector? Is great teaching now a commodity that all children experience? What about great youthwork? Or great social care?

Of course some new ideas are welcome. But what we really need is to find the existing great practice and to spread it … everywhere.

And so to Wile E. Coyote

As a kid, I used to love watching a cartoon called The Roadrunner. In every episode, this tall super-fast bird would sprint around making his joyful ‘meep-meep’ noise. Meanwhile his nemesis – Wile E. Coyote – was busy designing a new, complex and highly innovative way to catch him.

In each episode, Wile E. Coyote would build a new contraption – unlike anything ever used before – to trap the Roadrunner. Like MacGyver’s long-lost cousin, the Coyote would plan to use pullies, mirrors, levers, the sun’s rays and a rock to flatten the Roadrunner. But, at the last moment, something would go wrong. An unexpected cloud would block the sun’s rays and the rock would miss the roadrunner by millimetres.

And yet, when the next episode started, the Coyote would junk the idea that had almost worked. He would start again from scratch with a totally new contraption. Even as a kid I remember thinking: why not just try that old plan again and make it a bit better?

There is a lesson here for all of us giving out funding.

24 rules to live by

February 26, 2021 /

After 40 years, I’ve begged and borrowed a few “rules to live by”. Often mess them up! but here they are … What are yours?

  1. You can always get angry tomorrow.
  2. Everyone is a hero in their own story.
  3. It’s amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care who gets the credit.
  4. Never take yourself seriously.
  5. Don’t sit on a should; if you believe you should, do it.
  6. Everyone is insecure. Everyone.
  7. Don’t wait till you no longer feel afraid. It won’t happen.
  8. It’s almost never about you.
  9. Don’t say something behind someone’s back that you wouldn’t say to their face.
  10. Freedom comes from self-discipline.
  11. Ask advice lots; people like it and you need it.
  12. Don’t point the finger, or you’ll have three fingers pointing back at you.
  13. Don’t avoid conflict. Say what you feel. Say what you need. Then listen and let go of the outcome.
  14. Focus on what you can control (which is much less than you think).
  15. Any feedback you get from a friend is 20% more positive than the reality.
  16. To whom much is given, much is expected.
  17. You have finite will power. Conserve it by building habits.
  18. Love your enemies as an end in itself.
  19. Power corrupts. Surround yourself with people who love you but know how imperfect you are.
  20. Tell the truth then you don’t have to remember what you said.
  21. Be kind to everyone.
  22. Don’t judge someone by their views, consider their actions.
  23. Don’t calm down by fixing the problem. Fix the problem by calming down.
  24. Gratitude is to life what salt is to food. It provides the flavour. Spread it liberally.
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