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Innovation is the constant requirement for the twenty‐first century. This comes first from individuals, but must permeate throughout the organisation. There is a new concept of the organisation itself being a learning, evolving organism. Knowledge must be shared freely to give it fuel for that growth. The status traditionally given to people who know a lot needs to be shifted to people who share a lot. This happens spontaneously in a crisis, when people are willing to try anything. We need to retain this willingness day to day. It takes emotional resilience, as change is difficult, and sometimes even seems threatening. The status quo has to be steadily challenged. Diversity is not something to be merely managed, but to be harvested as an essential ingredient for innovation. Leaders have to be behind the workforce, empowering them. Leading from the front is obsolete.

Knowledge is at the basis of wealth – more so than tangible assets. Being invisible, it is not always recognised as an asset at all, but business success depends on its good management. It is important to distinguish between information, an ingredient of knowledge, and knowledge itself. Knowledge is the result of sifting, reviewing, disseminating, sharing and discussing information. Instead of volumes of data, you get mental models that can be used to advance the business. Mental models can deal with the dynamics of change, as well as the situation frozen at the time of data collection. They can also take into account alternative scenarios. Computers bring mechanistic results far more quickly, but these results are purely rational, without insight, intuition or creativity.

Conflict is generally thought of as an obstruction to progress, but it need not be. There cannot be development if there is only one opinion. The problems come when people are defensive about their views, and feel threatened by opposing ones. Another way is to welcome differing outlooks as fresh blood to an old idea. Then differing opinions cross‐fertilise and lead steadily forwards. However, the tendency to protect one’s ideas from outside influence can be very strong, leading to bitter conflict. In the new, flatter organisation conflict is inevitable. A key leadership task is to create a climate where conflict is managed not avoided. Mediation and/or training in how to transform destructive conflict into constructive conflict is likely to be the development challenge at the start of the new millennium.

When people in the workplace do not act with emotional intelligence the costs can be great. Low morale, bitter conflict, and stress all limit business effectiveness. There is also the financial cost of litigation when people complain of being bullied, intimidated, and exploited. Emotional intelligence also contributes in a positive business enhancing way, improving teamworking, customer service and the managing of diversity. Fortunately this critical personal resource can be improved through appropriate coaching and training.

Self‐development of employees is essential if businesses are to thrive. Technology has brought new techniques, of which e‐learning is one of the more publicised. There has been a great deal of experimentation, some of it more successful than others. One ingredient, motivation, remains essential to the success of any development plan. Personal contact is an important part of this. Now e‐learning is out of its infancy, there has been a move towards blended learning – a mix of different learning methods to optimise the effect of all of them. There is a radical initiative from Sweden, which combines personal coaching with Web‐based training. It takes as its pivotal point the motivation of the employee. Aligning individual goals with organisational objectives is integral to the programme.

Although technology makes communication technically instant and infinite, old‐fashioned one‐to‐one is still best for building relationships. Networking is one of the best ways to expand business. People join forces for bigger schemes than they could manage individually. This has now extended beyond individuals. Two or more companies will join, share and co‐operate for joint ventures. This article describes a corporate leadership project jointly run by a management consultancy, a business school and an outdoor activities provider. Their different approaches, which might have been considered as in competition with each other, were blended to provide something brand new, that could not have happened with any one of the organisations without the others. All three have also been able to expand their own market through new contacts. This type of joint enterprise, a mixture of co‐operation and competition, is called co‐opetition.

In today's climate organisations increasingly need to recognise, harness and manage diversity. Equal opportunities legislation and policy, first developed in the 1970s, came about to redress past wrongs and to ensure equality of opportunity regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation and faith. Managing diversity is founded on the premise that harnessing difference will create a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where their talents are used and organisational goals are met. Diversity and ensuring equality of opportunity can be misunderstood. They are sometimes thought to be a politically correct requirement that does not really work. Equal opportunities policy focuses on being fair, but does not take the extra step of harnessing diversity to enhance business. Good diversity policy not only reduces the negatives, such as bullying, disputes, low morale, and sometimes litigation. It will also bring in extra talent, new perspectives, learning, and limitless opportunities for innovation. A case study with the London Fire Brigade shows a creative approach in diversity workshops.

Claims that satisfied employees are essential to commercial success, and that employability can be traded against job security. Cites empowerment and coaching as staff motivators, and claims that both are necessary for employees to drive the company forward.

People need certain skills and behaviours to be effective at work, but if these are not defined, they can become lost in vague generalisations. Competency frameworks set out what is required, and act as a template to check performance. As times change, the competencies required may also change, and in 2007 the National Trust decided it was time for a thorough overhaul. This paper aims to focus on this development.

The process started with a survey, focus groups, and interviews with senior managers across the Trust. The authors then researched what was happening in other organisations, to find the problems and the successes, in order to design the best and most appropriate new competency framework.

It was found that there was a tension between immediate needs and building for the future, and a need for more collaboration between functions.

Competency frameworks can be criticised as backward looking, concentrating on skills and behaviours that were needed in the past but not in the future.

The paper shows that the new National Trust framework addressed the issues involved, and became a dynamic process rather than a static template.