The best ideas rarely come from a single discipline. They emerge when we connect the dots between people, technology, leadership and the world around us.
For more than 25 years I’ve helped leaders at some of the world’s largest and best-known organisations make sense of change—and help others do the same.
These articles are where I try to make sense of things by connecting ideas across disciplines, and explore the questions that don’t fit neatly into meetings or PowerPoint presentations.
Experience
My career has taken me across technology, professional services, automotive, transport, logistics and telecommunications, helping organisations navigate growth, transformation and change in the United Kingdom, and around the world.
Looking back, a thread running through much of that career has been what happens when organisations, technology and people change at the same time. At Virgin Trains, that meant working with some of the earliest forms of corporate social media and digital customer communication. Later roles with organisations including Carlsberg, Jaguar Land Rover, Amazon and Deloitte took me deeper into employee engagement, internal communication, leadership and organisational change.
Today, some of the same questions are showing up again in my work on AI and professional judgement: what changes, what remains human, and how people make good decisions when the environment around them is shifting.
Along the way I’ve completed an MBA, served as a Non-Executive Director of the Institute of Internal Communication, and been elected a Fellow of both the Institute of Internal Communication (FIIC) and the Institute of Leadership (FInstLM).
I’ve also worked with organisations including National Grid and the International Red Cross, helping leaders make sense of complexity, build trust and communicate with clarity.
I previously ran the communications consultancy Hiyu. Hiyu is no longer operating as a separate business; my current writing, research and independent work are published here at rich-baker.com
What I work on
My work and writing explore communication, organisational change, leadership and the increasingly complicated relationship between people and AI. I’m particularly interested in professional judgement: what experienced people notice, how they make decisions under uncertainty, and what happens to those capabilities as AI becomes part of everyday work.
Research
Alongside my writing, I lead a founder-led research programme exploring professional judgement in the age of generative AI.
Corporate communications is the first research domain because it provides a rich setting for examining uncertainty, stakeholder impact, accountability and the limits of automation.
The current study is being conducted through Given Time™, an AI-assisted qualitative research experience I conceived and developed to support thoughtful, participant-led reflection.
The research is exploratory. It is intended to surface real experiences, differences and contradictions — not to prove a predetermined argument about AI.
Speaking and collaboration
I’m open to selected speaking engagements, research collaborations, advisory work and partnerships around communication, organisational change, professional judgement and AI. If you have something in mind, get in touch.
Contact
If something you’ve read sparked a thought, challenged your perspective, or you’d like to continue the conversation, I’d love to hear from you.
Whether it’s a question, a speaking opportunity, a collaboration, or an idea worth exploring together, get in touch.