Be More Cat

I have just been walking in Cornwall Park where the karaka berries are ripe and dropping. Karaka berries are toxic to dogs (and many other animals but not birds). Unfortunately dogs are not naturally suspicious of food that drops from the sky and will readily eat these poisonous berries. My cats however are naturally suspicious and discerning about what they put in their mouths - one of mine takes months to warm up to a new treat.

In 2025, we need to be more like cats than dogs.

We need to develop appropriate suspicion and skepticism about what the world is offering us. Just as the environment drops toxic berries into dogs paths, our society, workplaces and the social world around us create norms and pressures that are not always good for us. These forces often build gradually, and if we are not alert we may slip into consuming the metaphorical karaka berries simply because its what everyone else is doing.

As we begin 2025, here are some of the forces I am seeing:

Unrealistic Workloads

Many sectors (such as healthcare) are facing skill shortages, there simply aren’t enough professionals to meet demand. Here in New Zealand we have also seen a high number of redundancies, and many organisations are under financial pressure, reducing staff numbers further. As a result more and more of the people I talk to are facing increasing workloads that quickly become unrealistic. This is felt at all levels of an organisation. In the latest edition of DDI’s global leadership forecast they found that only 70% of leaders felt they had sufficient time to execute their responsibilities with the depth and diligence required. 71% also reported an increase in their stress levels since stepping into their current role.? Of course this impacts how much support they can provide to their teams and challenges continuity as they often express a desire to leave in search of a less stressful position.?

Technological Change

This has been a trend for years, being flexible and keeping current with the speed of technological developments in our fields is an added challenge in any role. Automation is often presented as something that can save us time or effort, yet what I am noticing is an increased relentlessness in pace and pressure. Rather than saving us time, it has created extra pressure to do more, be more efficient and be more available. For example now that LLM’s (Large Language Models) can create content for us, there is a pressure to create more content as because it is quick and automated. It is similar to the trends observed with the introduction of modern household appliances which actually increased the standards and frequency of housework. In the words of Ruth Shwartz Cowan who has written about this "People use tools to do work, but tools also define and constrain the ways in which it is possible and likely that people will behave." (p. 9) Ruth Shwartz Cowan

Happiness Mandates

Social media has changed who we are able to compare ourselves with, and the level of depth into which we glimpse other people's lives.? This has had a big impact how how we expect ourselves to be. Society is increasingly obsessed with success, happiness, well-being and resilience. Any discomfort or pain needs to be treated, and any well-being issue needs to be shared on social media and then fixed. There is a pressure to be always at our best and able to perform that centres well-being issues in individuals rather than in societal and workplace conditions.

Disconnection

It feels like Covid lockdowns were a bit of a line that we crossed, it pushed almost everything online. Hybrid or fully home based work has become the norm, gig work or portfolio careers are on the rise. For those that do still go into the office increased commuting times in our big cities impacts on available free time, influencing the desire and ability to connect with friends after hours. Isolation and loneliness are on the rise. The workplace used to be a source of meaningful connection and an opportunity to make friends. It is now simply a place to get tasks done, with relationship no longer considered important in many workplaces. This is often due to the stress involved in coping with unrealistic workloads. ? This sits in tension with the growing trend to value collaboration and consultation in the workplace.

Polarisation

One of the aspects I used to enjoy about Spotify (a music streaming app) was that it was a great way to discover new and different music. Sometime last year they changed their algorithms so that now when I search for a new playlist I get a lot of ‘made for you’ playlists. These are basically just compilations of songs I have already listened to. I have to actively search for playlists created by others to find songs that I haven’t already heard. We are increasingly exposed to ‘like-minded’ feeds.? As an understandable reaction to vitriol and insult which is common online we are reducing our exposure to diverse thinking and ideas that may lie out of our comfort zone. Because publicly shared opinion tends to be extreme, it can feel that everyone is reduced to simplistic poles and that there is no longer a middle ground or space to engage and hear from one another.

Outdated Thinking

Was anyone else told by their math teacher not to rely on their calculator because you won’t always have one in your pocket? What we were taught at school and even at university is outdated. How we organise and structure workplaces and our management techniques no longer suit the current conditions, or what our staff need. But there is very little being offered in terms of quality training and personalised development to address the gaps between what leaders can do and know and what employees currently need from their workplaces and leaders.

2025: A YEAR OF RESISTANCE

These are the karaka berries of our workplace, conditions that become normalised and accepted due to their ubiquitousness. Resisting these pressures requires purposefulness, intentionality, and a continual reconnection with who we want to be.2025 needs to be a year of resistance, a chance to pause and reflect on what we need to be flourishing humans, and to stand up for those conditions. There are 7 core qualities that counteract the 6 trends above. These are what we must cultivate if we are to create workplaces where humans can flourish and find joy and delight in their work.

Courage

Resisting the pressures of our workplace or society requires courage. We need strength to stand up against workplace practices that are not good for us. It requires some bravery to go against the trends of overwork, increased productivity, high performance and efficiency that are commonplace. Courage is not a feeling that you need to wait for; rather it can be developed as an attitude of willingness accompanied by the skills to manage self-doubt, fear, resistance, inner turmoil, and outer opposition so that you can act in line with your values.?

Discernment

New possibilities seem to arise everyday, it is tempting to either get swept away in the novelty or to reject every new thing and become a dinosaur (I certainly have days in each of these attitudes!). ? This is where discernment is essential, we need people who can view new possibilities and make decisions wisely and ethically with attention to what is good for us as humans.? As Tatiana Bachrikova stated recently "Not everything needs to be automated and dehumanised." Strong critical thinking and good decision making are skills that our reliance on the internet for information doesn’t allow to develop fully. Yet they are precisely the skills we need as we manage what technology can do for us, rather than letting it dictate who we are.?

Full Humanity

We are human and that is a good thing, something to be valued rather than managed or fixed. Humans are meant to experience a diverse range of emotions, to have fluctuations in their well-being and in many ways our capacity to feel emotional pain is a hallmark of our humanity. Rather than pursing happiness obsessively? we might be better to pursue emotional maturity. This would entail an acceptance of and an ability to hold and express emotions in all their hues and an ability to deeply value our humanness and hold it compassionately.?

Relationship

We are social creatures, most of us require relationships and connections to flourish fully. This doesn’t just happen, but takes effort. Workplace cultures that support meaningful connection enables better collaboration. Having friends in the workplaces also promotes well-being and protects against burnout.? In a world of virtual or superficial connectivity taking the time to make genuine connections is valuable.? I am encouraged to have come across several people recently resisting disconnection by creating events designed to support connection.?

Risk

My friend just sent me a light hearted reel that poked fun at Gen X for being the last generation to run free and unsupervised with limited safety restraints (for example trampoline nets!).? So as a member of Gen X I may have a skewed view on risk. ? In a world that feels increasingly uncertain, and at times unsafe it is natural to long for security and safety. However we need to be able to embrace risk if we are to grow. There is a risk that this wont go right, there is a risk that we will be uncomfortable, a risk that we might have our ideas and worldview challenged. But being able to take risks is how we learn, innovate and develop resilience.

Creativity

We need to start thinking differently about work. We are beyond the need for mere flexibility or agility. This is no longer about pivoting to keep up with changes, it is about having the creativity for radical redesign. We are at our most creative when we feel safe, our needs are met and we are not stressed by unrealistic job demands. We must discover ways of structuring organisations and workplaces that prioritise human flourishing, recognising that this is key to long-term flourishing and success.

Kindness Above all, in a world filled with pressures and challenges, kindness remains the quality that makes all the others easier to cultivate. We must practice being kind to ourselves and to those around us, as we navigate 2025, let’s be more like cats, aware of our needs, sceptical and intentional about what we accept into our lives. Let’s resist the pressure to normalise toxicity in our workplaces. Let’s choose courage, and kindness instead.

Stay kind,Christina

I am creating a movement of kindness that transforms workplaces so that people can show up as themselves and delight in their work. I provide:

?? Development Coaching for visionary idealists, who long to stand boldly for change in their organisations and communities.

??In person workshops for teams that want to create a culture of kindness.

?? Well-being support/therapy for those who struggle with workplace stress and burnout.

?? A free coffee to those who want to meet up and have a yarn about transforming the world through kindness.

You can contact me at [email protected]