Navigating the Collision of Gen Z, AI, and Disruption: A Call to Lead with Humanity

It’s nearly impossible these days to avoid articles or news stories about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). With all of the encouraging advancements that AI can bring also comes human emotions – many related to fear and anxiety. Some people fear being irrelevant or having their jobs replaced. For example, you’ve always manually entered information; that’s what you know, but now it is automated. Suddenly, you’re potentially feeling a threat and questioning what value you can bring. You might wonder where—and if—you belong.

This is happening in workplaces of all industries and sizes. And it’s not just AI. We see challenges with change across the board.

?? Have you experienced the challenges of change on a PERSONAL level?

?? Have you experienced challenges with change at the team or ORGANIZATIONAL level?

We regularly ask these questions to groups, and nearly everyone responds that they have experienced challenges with change on both the individual and organizational levels. Why is that?

Most change efforts are mediocre at best or fail completely for one critical reason…

They fail to care for the messy human aspects and how we, as a species, show up in the face of change. The reality is that, in the exact moments when we need to break free from our habitual way of doing things, we are fundamentally unable to do so.

The problem is that our world is changing at an exponential rate, and AI is only accelerating the pace of change. Yet, we are biologically hardwired to seek familiarity and comfort – even when our current state isn’t practical or helpful. So, we have an incredible gap growing between what the world demands of us in terms of being able to lean into change and disruption and our innate instincts to do the opposite; we call this the Stuckness Zone. We need to equip ourselves and others to move through the Stuckness Zone and close this gap.

The Generational Collision in the Stuckness Zone

We have been having frequent conversations lately with our clients, specifically on navigating the shifts needed to support more Gen Zers (people born between 1996 and 2012) entering the workforce; after all, they will soon make up 30 percent of our workforce. Yet there is an incredible collision putting many leaders in the midst of the Stuckness Zone.?

Leaders ranging from older Millennials to Baby Boomers frequently double down on their judgments and perceptions about Gen Zers rather than leaning into a new way of thinking and learning new ways to lead. We hear things like:

• I shouldn’t have to recognize them for doing their job.
• They’re bringing too much personal baggage into work; I don’t [want to, know how to] deal with it.
• They’re too demanding and have unrealistic expectations
• They aren’t motivated and don’t want to work hard
• They don’t know how to communicate

It’s also important to recognize that Gen Zers themselves are struggling greatly. They are the first generation to have access to smartphones in their key formative years. Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, refers to this as “phone-based childhood” and argues that the rapid adoption of smartphones and social media combined with a decline in unsupervised outdoor play has led to significant mental health issues in Gen Z (recognizing that Millennials have also been impacted).??

Now add to this the fact that many Gen Zers started entering adulthood during the pandemic and had many of their normal transitions into adulthood thwarted by incredible disruption and turmoil, further contributing to mental health challenges. Given all of this, it’s not surprising that they tend to be awkward when it comes to human interactions on a typical day and even more so when things are challenging. While many Gen Zers need to develop skills for more effectively processing emotions and enhancing their communication skills, they are also highly self-aware and have a lower tolerance for poor behavior and treatment by others.

A recent UKG Global Workforce Study found that Gen Z’s work experience is suffering greatly compared to the employee population as a whole.

• 61% aren’t satisfied with their overall employee experience
• 72% say their mental health has worsened due to poor interactions with people at work
• 71% say they may quit due to negative interactions with managers, co-workers, or customers
• 83% of frontline Gen Z employees report experiencing burnout

So not only do we need to support this growing group of employees in developing the skills required to thrive in a disruptive workplace and world, but we must equip other generations to show up differently to create a psychologically safe, inclusive workplace. Organizations will struggle greatly if they continue to allow leaders of other generations to stand in judgment rather than unlearning and relearning how to lead effectively for these humans.?

The Collision of Our Declining Emotional Wellbeing and the Workplace

It’s also important to recognize that Gen Zers are not the only ones who are struggling, and it’s impacting business outcomes. Take a look at this summary from SHRM:

And it goes beyond feeling stressed and anxious. Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report found that 1 in 5 employees feels lonely at work. This situation has become so concerning that the U.S. Surgeon General has published an advisory report on our loneliness epidemic and how critical social connection is to transforming our well-being.

A recent Harvard Business Review article suggests that we should actively and deliberately put loneliness on the agenda and equip leaders to navigate this space more effectively. The authors are quick to remind us that loneliness is NOT solved by in-person work, more team-based work, or by blaming people (usually younger employees) for simply being “needy.” It takes a more comprehensive approach; this includes reexamining workflows and practices to allow more space for authentic human connections, removing tolerance for behaviors that work against people feeling connected and valued, and upskilling leaders to be courageous, human leaders.

Additionally, having a clear sense of purpose has been found to have a protective effect on our experience of stress and burnout, so having a clear organizational purpose, operationalized core values, and supporting individual employees in clarifying their purpose and values and how they align with the organization’s can be hugely beneficial to buck these trends.

The Collision of AI with our HUMANNESS

We are often asked how we see AI potentially helping or hindering efforts to build and nurture more human, effective workplaces. By no means are we AI experts. But we’ve seen that, when leveraged well, AI can free up people from more mundane and monotonous tasks that take up time and effort so they can tend to the things that only humans can do. At the same time, the increased use of AI and other automation tools can further contribute to our sense of eroding connection and belonging; it can amplify the loneliness epidemic.

And when AI elicits a threat?response—where our sense of value is questioned, or we no longer know what gifts we can bring to an organization—we must lean in even more with the skills only humans can bring.?

Machines don’t feel. Machines can’t form meaningful relationships. We will continue to find ourselves deeper and deeper in the Stuckness Zone until we upgrade our mindsets and build the skills of human care and connection.

Caring for the Collision: Get Started Now

Here are some steps you can take now to guide your journey to be more future-ready and thrive amid this disruptive collision course:

• Revisit Your Scheduling Norms. Having people in back-to-back meetings or tasks with little room for human interaction further erodes social connection and a sense of belonging. Instead, try experimenting with more buffer time between meetings and build meaningful social connections during remote, hybrid, or in-person meetings.
• Double-Down on Actively Living Your Purpose and Values. Your organization’s purpose and values can’t simply be window dressing; they must be a consistent lived experience. We call this Building a Lighthouse; when you create deliberate practices to keep your purpose and values at the forefront each and every day, it cuts through the fog and provides clarity for how to move forward.
• Nurture Team Connectedness. Forget token team-building. Find meaningful ways to bring your teams together so they know each other on a deeper level and have shared language and tools to leverage. Some effective starting points are doing a Team WHY.os Workshop, a Team Working Genius Workshop, the Showing Up workshops, or our more robust Developing a Leadership Mindset program.
• Level-Up Your Leadership Effectiveness. How we lead in today’s disruptive, lonely world fundamentally needs to look differently than it did a few years ago. Traditional, old-school leadership practices no longer cut it – especially with socially conscious, culturally savvy Gen Zers and Millennials making up a significant portion of the workforce. Make sure your development efforts take an inside-out approach to upgrade mindsets so leaders can move through the Stuckness Zone, then equip them with the skills to lead with courageous vulnerability.
• Pre-order Lifting Up by Jen Marr. We are honored to partner with our dear friend and bring her incredible, research-based work to our clients. Jen’s latest book is available for presale and will be out in spring 2025. It’s a new playbook for a new era that serves as a guide for the skills needed for deeper human connection, relationships, and the ability to build resilient, adaptable teams.?

Contact us if you’d like to bring workshops to your leaders and teams to equip them with the human skills of care and support and level up their ability to navigate change and disruption.

Stay HUMAN. Stay connected. Stay safe. Show Up as a Leader.