Briefing

Annual ritual in a column is disturbing evidence of its longevity, but once again the Institute of Personnel and Development proves its capacity for zeitgeisty jargon generation. Delegates at its recent conference heard how “spiritual intelligence” is destined to be the last buzz phrase of the millennium. Individuals with high SQ (as it is known) will be needed to counter to the alarming tendency of executives to hold “fixed assumptions that stunt their ability to think laterally.” To which the appropriate response must surely be: “Amen.”