Welcome to Wave Your Arms. I design and lead executive development programmes for senior leaders. I blog about the future of work and leadership, as well a movies, screenwriting and music. I facilitate and produce thought-leadership events. I write and hope to be enjoyably read. Please explore the BLOG and, if anything strikes a chord, or flicks a switch, feel free to share or connect. If you would like to get in touch, please do reach out at: info@waveyourarms.com, or perhaps follow on @waveyourarms, or on Linked-in.

Some GLUE shared live in Oman

I recently had the honour of speaking at the 7th OSHRM conference in Oman. A short glimpse here of some of the ideas in my book GLUE, some scepticism about the likely impact of AI, and an apology to my local hosts for bringing the rain with me from London. The topic was Building Cohesion in a World of AI. Feel free to share.

🚀 A new GLUE leadership module - now available 💥

Q. In today’s hybrid working world, how do you create powerful collaboration amongst your senior team, while engaging widely and deeply with disparate employees?
A. By cultivating a powerful organisational tool called GLUE.

My breakthrough leadership book GLUE is now available as an impactful learning experience, delivered as keynote presentation, or as a half-day or full day leadership module.  The focus can be tailored to the needs and priorities of different clients, to:

• Discover the “organisational advantage” found in glue-rich environments and connected teams.

• Explore the powerful leadership behaviours that create cohesion, deepen engagement and encourage high-performance.

• Consider the amount of “glue” created within your firm today, and what might be needed to make it more cohesive in the future.

• Cultivate GLUE though harnessing your most valuable people through experimentation, compelling stories and new ways of working.

• Adopt new counterintuitive approaches to leadership, which deepen engagement and improve collaboration.

An early adopting client said; “the feedback this week has been fantastic, it has proven very thought provoking for our leadership team.”

Let me know if you would like to find how you can build GLUE into your next conference, offsite, away day, or leadership development initiative. CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW

My new book GLUE - Transforming Leadership in a hybrid World has just been published by Routledge. GLUE was written for anyone who has a genuine interest in leading others with impact.   You may be on the Executive Management team of your firm.  If you are, then you will find some unusual role-model approaches to emulate and inspire.  You may be new to a leadership role.  If that is you, then the principles described apply, regardless of your years of experience, or the size of your firm.  Glue is for anyone who wants to better harness the skills, energies, and ideas of others.  Whatever your role, function, sector, or seniority, this book sets out a distinctive vision of the firm and shows the profound impact you can make through creating and nurturing glue.

You can find out more - in the GLUE section of the website.

About John Dore

John Dore - Speaker & Facilitator

In 2014 I founded Wave Your Arms Ltd, an executive development consultancy that facilitates inspiring ideas for businesses.  I aim to help leaders create an ‘organisational advantage’ through deepening cohesion within their firms.   I am a programme designer, contributor and speaker for strategy workshops and leadership events for senior audiences worldwide.  I am the author of GLUE: Transforming Leadership in a Hybrid World (Routledge) and winner of the 2024 Business Book of the Year (Leadership). My professional experience includes consulting services, global wealth management, communications, and leadership development. Before founding Wave Your Arms, he was the Global Head of Marketing & Communications for HSBC Private Bank, where he produced and led the ‘Family Enterprise Forum’ and ‘Next Generation’ programmes for high-net-worth clients and their families in the US, Europe and Asia. Previously, he worked in various roles with Barclays, Herbert Smith, Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen.

Since 2019, I have been privileged to be the Director of the Senior Executive Programme at LBS, the School’s flagship open-enrolment programme. I have developed a suite of creative business simulations for executives, including The Organisational AdvantageTM, The Perfect Product, Building Bridges, and The Art of High Performance. I contribute to a number of critical topics for senior audiences, including transformational leadership, disruption and innovation, strategic communications, crisis leadership, and organisational development.

Currently

✍️ Writing: Seven Dials Novel - see Questor, (‘tis new), The Organisational Advantage [Linked-in newsletter, pieces for LBS THINK, HBR Ascend, HR Magazine, INC, etc.]
📚 Reading: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, False Alarm by Bjorn Lomborg, In The Distance by Hernan Diaz, Babel by R F Huang, Adventures in Modern Recording by Trevor Horn, The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu,
👨‍🎤 Listening: Lucy Rose, Aninmal Kingdom, IQ, Wild Besats, ADKOB, A Sudden Burst of Colour, Gathering of Strangers, Champs, Chain Wallet, Crown Lands, Leif Erikson, The War on Drugs, Wild Front, Kawala, Steve Hackett, Big Big Train, The People Versus, Admiral Fallow, Dave Matthews Band.
🎧 Following: Radar by nexxworks, Emergency Awesome, Nerdrotic, UnchartedX, Acquaholic, eSysman Super Yachts
📺 Watching: Foundation (Season 2), Silo (Season 1), The Elon Musk Show, The House of Dragons, The Worst Person in the World, Everything Everywhere At Once, Dune, The Mandalorian, Succession, Oppenheimer, Mission Impossible 7.1
🧐 Enthusing: The Italians, London, Business Books, The Pig, Groundhog Day, Hockney, Progressive Rock, NRL, Science Fiction, NZ Sauvignon, Obelisks, Space X, Cathedrals,
😷 Rediscovering: The Union Club, Home House, Proms, Dining, Live Gigs, Festivals, Eagles, Foo Fighters
✈️ Traveling: Australia, June 2024, Copenhagen, Feb 2023 and 2024, Muscat, Oman, February 2024, Sorrento, June 2023, Florence April 2023, Liguria, June 2022, Rome, November 2021 ,Obelisks, Pasta and All' Antico Vinaio, Tonarello

Working

Currently: I produce the Senior Executive Programme (SEP), LBS’s flagship Exec Ed programme
Stripes: 20+ years live facilitation experience in the UK, Paris, Monaco, Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York, Miami, San Francisco
Corner Office: Former Global CMO of HSBC Private Bank; Programme Director for Barclays UK Headquarters relocation in 2005
IP: The Organisational Advantage (and Survey), The Art of High Performance, The Perfect Product, I teach the WARPS method for Storytelling, GLUE
🎬 Credentials: Screenwriting moments include options for Leicester Square and The Vivid

A little background

When I first started writing a blog called Wave Your Arms in 2007, Apple had not yet released the iPhone and music was bought in strange places called shops. I started the Blog as an enjoyable diversion for me to write about the business of creativity and the many inspiring speakers, presenters and artists I have had the pleasure of working with around the world. Since then, I have travelled to some eye-opening places, worked with some inspirational business leaders, wealthy next-generation entrepreneurs, watched too many films and bemoaned the narrowing range of artists I could still see live, before they died.  On the Blog I also documented some of my own adventures in the ‘La La Land’ of film-making, covering the Cannes Film festival, various screenwriting ventures and a few trips to Hollywood itself.  Please see the Creative pages for more.  In 2014, the online Blog morphed into an offline adventure when I launched Wave Your Arms Ltd as a start-up business; drawing upon a career that has encompassed global experience in HR, Learning, Change, Communications and Marketing.  In the past seven years, I have been working in senior executive development, providing consulting services and working with Faculty and colleagues at London Business School which remains a great place to experience research, ideas, people and their ambitions become fused.   I’ve had the great pleasure of working with innovative businesses, organisations, senior leaders and inspiring thought-leaders and very many terrific people in the UK and internationally. In 2021, I began The Smorgasbord, a listing of (probably) the best business books of this century.

My professional expertise is in the design and delivery of learning experiences for senior leaders - either through formal executive development programmes, or corporate leadership workshops, off-sites, strategy days and meetings. I have a deep interest in the way senior people act and interact in these pseudo-informal settings and business education environments.  Some of this I have learnt through experience (working with hundreds of groups around the world over 20 years), often using psychometric tools and through facilitation and engagement techniques learnt from some of the most engaging speakers, business teachers and academics in the world.

If you would like to get in touch, please do reach out at info@waveyourarms.com, or why not follow on @waveyourarms

John Dore
October 2023

©Wave Your Arms Ltd., registered office: Kent Space, Suite 2026, 8-9, Revenge Road, Chatham, Kent, ME5 8UD.