That odd late-summer energy, where everything feels like it’s waiting for something. Cooler air. Colleagues to return. Deadlines to reappear in your inbox like mushrooms after rain. It’s not quite the calm before the storm, more the pause where you realise the storm is the work.

But in the gaps, the good stuff happens. Chapters get reshuffled and start to make more sense. Side projects move from vague idea to actual thing. And outside your window, the city throws a rainbow-drenched street party in celebration and defiance.

Today also marks four years since my accident. The physical scar has faded, and so has the sharpness of the memory. What’s left is something quieter: a growing understanding that loving my body isn’t about how it looks, but knowing — deeply — that it is good, just as it is.

Quietly productive. Occasionally reflective. Very August.

This week at work

With Jon away, I’ve been holding the fort — though it’s been more sleepy outpost than raging battlefield. We got our first round of feedback from the publishers, and while writing the next batch of chapters, had a lightbulb moment: the narrative works better in a different order. Cue much cutting, pasting, and swearing at my laptop.

Caught up with two employee experience vendors this week. We stay vendor-neutral at Lithos, but I like knowing what’s out there — especially as the market’s evolving at speed. Blink and there’s a new acronym.

Plus big leaps forward on The Secret Side Project. Getting tantalisingly close to something I can actually share, and I cannot wait.

Also this week

Amsterdam Pride took over the city this weekend — and my neighbourhood especially — with its usual mix of celebration, protest and glitter. The Canal Parade floated along the Prinsengracht, just metres from my home, inflatables aloft, sound systems booming and buzzing with joy and dance.

There’s something properly magical about how the city transforms for Pride: rainbow flags on balconies, bars, bridges… and this year, even the sky played along, with the rain clearing just in time for the parade.

The theme was Love, and around 80 floats represented everyone from LGBTQ+ refugees to queer judges. It all felt less corporate than previous years — and all the better for it.

With LGBTQ+ rights under threat in so many places (and the Netherlands hardly immune to the shift), it’s worth remembering that Pride is still a political act. I’m glad to live in a city that doesn’t just celebrate queer joy, but continues to defend the right to live it, 25 years after leading the world on equal marriage

Consuming

👩🏻‍💻 Internetting

I’ve been rabbit-holing into how to make your brand findable in an AI-driven world — and these two pieces offer some of the clearest thinking I’ve seen.

Jo Eyre lays out the emerging discipline of AI Optimisation (AIO): not gaming the algorithm, but making sure your organisation shows up when someone asks ChatGPT a question. Think SEO, but for large language models. It’s about clarity, credibility, and showing up in sources AI trusts — and it puts comms firmly in the driving seat.

Nick Gold, meanwhile, reminds us that reputation isn’t just something you manage — it’s something you live. In an age of AI synthesis, fake reviews and always-on scrutiny, consistency between what you say and what you do is what gets noticed — by people and by machines.

Tl;dr: If you’re not on the page, you’re not in the answer. And the page is built from trust.

📺 Watching

Caught the new Superman film at the cinema. It’s enjoyably silly in all the right ways: big set pieces, earnest speeches, and the kind of comic-book logic where gravity and plausibility take a back seat. Not everything lands, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s capes, chaos, and a decent time at the movies.

📚 Reading

Somehow I didn’t have the mental bandwidth this week

🎧 Listening

Saw the legendary Brazilian psych-rock band Os Mutantes at Tolhuistuin and still can’t quite believe it. Pioneers of the Tropicália movement in the 60s, they mashed up fuzz guitars, samba, and sheer surrealism long before it was cool. Weird, wild, and utterly joyous. What a treat to see them live after all these years.

Coverage

When Natasha Plowman invited me on her podcast Cutting Through, I jumped at the chance — mostly for a long-overdue natter. But in this half hour, we talk about how everything old is new again, just with added complexity and risk.

I also joined Egyptian leadership expert Fady Ramzy for a second LinkedIn Live. I’d planned to talk about what internal comms can learn from marketing, but we ended up digging into what audiences really need — and what CEOs could learn from McDonald’s obsession with selling more milkshakes. You can watch it back here.

Finally, I’ve joined Strategic’s global columnist network, where I’ll be sharing thoughts on communication leadership and cutting through the digital hype.

Travel

Another blissful week at home. Next week sees my annual trip to Helsinki for friends, music and saunas.

This week in photos