I've just done the timewarp ... just a jump to the right (media interviews for Tomorrow's Global Talent, encouraged by the interest in our reframing of the talent agenda) ... And a jump to the left (attending the launch of 'advancing opportunity' at the Smith Institute) ... Let's do the timewarp again.

And I did: because way back when I did an MA in Industrial Relations at Warwick (yep, folk did that way back when) and later I had the great fortune/'once in a lifetime experience' to co-ordinate the 'Jobs & Industry Campaign' with and for John Smith.   So the event had a double timewarp whammy.

This was, as far as I know, a timewarp with neither transvestites nor Transylvanians, but you can never be certain: as Caroline Waters says in Tomorrow's Global Talent, 'it's the difference that makes the difference'.

(For those of you not getting these references, you must be one of the few souls on the planet not to have experienced the delights of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the hapless travails of Brad and Janet - but there's always time)

But what this timewarp did have - and in abundance - was data: oodles and oodles of glorious statistics, and comparative data.  I used to love stats like these, and I'm really grateful to Duncan Gallie for sharing his slides - here.

So here are some stand out factoids, based on this data analysis:

- quality of work matters: EU sets ' better jobs' as strategic objective in March 2000

- employees expectations on use of initiative and skills have risen, linked to rising education levels, especially among women;

- low levels of control/task discretion is linked to higher psychological stress and worse physical health;

- in UK (according to the British Skills Survey) there has been an almost 50% increase in jobs requiring vocational training for over two years, and 3 in 10 jobs required degree or higher qualifications in 2006, about a 15% increase since 1992: but i) this rising trend has levelled off and ii) employers are demanding higher standards still

- British employees have much less control over their jobs than in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, although we are close to the EU-15 average: and in most of Europe task discretion has risen, whilst falling in the UK:

So in Britain, job skills are rising - but employee discretion is falling.  And this can't be explained by occupational structure, its down to 'inclusive employment policies' elsewhere which have promoted the work quality agenda.

Also at the event I was delighted to find that an understanding of tacit skills has grown stronger - I wrote about this in the '80s - the argument, contrary to labour theorists who argue that the division of labour and new systems strip employees of all discretion, that people at work are vested with great knowledge and capability, without which work could not get done.

What then does this all mean for what we are saying in Tomorrow's Global Talent? 

Firstly, we frame our work in the triple context of sustainability.  This provides a very different frame of reference for understanding the quality of work - less about the intrinsic nature of the task, more about what talent is 'for'.

Secondly, the relative absence of institutions may provide a further challenge to embedding sustainability capabilities and outcomes in the UK workplace - but conversely, sustainability could be the fire of inspiration and purpose that wakes up the slumbering lion of UK employer/employee relations.

Thirdly, it can be argued, quite strongly actually, that embedding the sustainability dimension in the workplace might be the rocket booster in the UK to improved physical and mental wellbeing, bi-passing our cultural and institutional inertia.

Fourthly, as I keep on saying, the great challenge for the UK will be coming to terms with the realisation that we need a second industrial revolution - green, not black and brown - with a similar focus on the world class engineering and design skills, but creating value through the wider definition of talent we offer, to produce the new products and processes of tomorrow's green economy.

Fifthly, if sustainability taps into all that is tacit, what a mighty capability might be unleashed - our dream of the UK as a centre of sustainable excellence could perhaps be made real.

This is first and foremost all a challenge of culture, mindset, strategy and leadership - which must frame the actions of motivations of individuals and institutions.  We are still far away from seeing this challenge, much less rising to it.

It is interesting to finish by remembering that Schumacher published a book called 'Good Work' a while back - it drew on similar traditions as the Smith Institute's  'advancing opportunity', for example job design in the coal industry, of course integrated eastern philosophy and sensibility.

The timewarp closes in on itself: Tomorrow's Global Talent's focus on sustainability has echoes of Schumacher's powerful insights and deep humanity. 

Not so much timewarp - more Back to the Future!  It's good work, if you can get it...