By Emma Ford and Linda Butler
And what we’re going to explore together at Confluence 2026
There’s a piece of research from Oxford University that we find ourselves returning to regularly in conversations with leaders and organisations. It found that happy workers are 13% more productive.
It’s a striking figure, not just because of the percentage itself, but because of what it represents. Despite growing evidence linking wellbeing, engagement and culture to organisational performance, many businesses still struggle to give these conversations the time and attention they deserve.
That gap, between what we know and what we consistently prioritise, is part of what Confluence 2026 is designed to explore.
Over the years, we’ve worked with organisations of all sizes, and one thing has become increasingly clear. Most leaders genuinely care about their people. They want healthy cultures, motivated teams and environments where people can do their best work. Yet in reality, the pressures of day-to-day business often pull attention elsewhere. Operational demands take over, deadlines move closer, recruitment becomes urgent, and suddenly the conversations about communication, trust, team dynamics and culture become something to revisit “when things calm down”.
The difficulty is that those things rarely do calm down on their own.
In many organisations, the people challenges are not caused by a lack of care or ambition. More often, they come from a lack of space to stop and think clearly. Teams continue moving forward at pace without really reflecting on how they are working together, what is helping them perform well, or where tensions and frustrations may quietly be building beneath the surface.
That’s something we see particularly often in SMEs and growing organisations. The businesses we work with are ambitious. They want to grow sustainably, retain good people and build stronger leadership capability. They care deeply about creating environments where people feel valued and supported. But many leaders rarely get the opportunity to step back from the operational demands of the business long enough to ask the more reflective questions.
What does our team actually need right now?
What conversations are we avoiding?
Where has communication started to drift?
What kind of culture are we creating through the way we lead, communicate and make decisions every day?
These are not simple questions, and they rarely get answered in the middle of a busy working week. They require time, openness and often the opportunity to learn alongside others facing similar challenges themselves.
That thinking sits at the heart of Confluence.
Confluence 2026 is not designed as a traditional conference where people sit listening to presentations all day before returning to work unchanged the next morning. Instead, it is built around shared experiences, activities, conversation and reflection.
At the end of the day, we will return to one central question:
What is the competitive advantage of a happy team?
Not as a slogan or a piece of corporate language, but as a genuine question worth exploring seriously.
Because happy people are not separate from organisational performance. In many cases, they are the reason it exists. They are the people who stay committed when work becomes difficult, who collaborate effectively under pressure, who raise concerns early, who support others and who continue bringing energy and ideas into the organisation rather than quietly withdrawing from it.
Creating environments where people can work well together, trust each other and perform at their best is not a “soft” part of leadership. It is one of the most important and valuable parts.
That is what Confluence 2026 is really about, and why we are looking forward to bringing people together next Monday.
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Confluence 2026: Happy People = Competitive Advantage
Monday 1 June 2026
9.00am – 5.00pm
Macdonald Alveston Manor Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon
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