Nobody is listening.

Everyone is talking about the "Great Resignation". Workers are resigning in droves, companies have serious problems finding key talent and the ones that are staying are protesting and demanding change.

Everyone has an opinion about this, economists explain that is a wide range of variables (market conditions, consumer power, etc.. ) that led to this moment. Sociologists explain that this crisis has been brewing for years, and how the mechanicist precision that is now demanded to deliver incredibly high quality-of-service standards are killing real human interaction, politicians blame the other side, HR departments explain that is the lack of flexibility and diversity while Marketing argues that the new generations have new values and behaviors that old generations do not understand.

..this is one. big. mess. we are in...

Universities launch new training courses, coaches advise on career changes, consultants work on cultural transformation, onboarding, and employee healthcare initiatives. More and more companies around the world are scrambling and spending fortunes to solve their unfilled positions puzzle, while headhunters and consultants rub their hands.

Everyone has an opinion, but nobody has a clue why this is really happening or how to change this situation.

My take? Nobody is listening.

We are all tempted to jump to conclusions here: Covid has affected the way people work and they don't want to go to the office anymore, but they don't want to work at home alone anymore either. People want more free days -a 4-day workweek!-, but they want also more money. Young people want to work with a purpose, but not in the big corporation that could afford the salaries they seek.. and the list of contradictions and hypotheses can go on and on.

We should listen closely.

Among the hectic noisiness of our busy, messy, hurried life suddenly there was silence.

The streets were in silence. Stadiums were in silence. Concerts were in silence. Our life suddenly become quieter, slower and we had a sudden glimpse of silence. For some was an unconscious experience, for others, the real very tangible silence of the ones that left us during this pandemic.

Silence, even more than words, has the power to change everything.

We got in contact with what our work really meant. By being separated, we go in contact with the love we have for others or the lack of it. We had to spend an unheard amount of time with ourselves and while some of us were waiting for the storm to pass, others really listened to this silence.

And now the noise is coming back, the rush, the travels, the traffic jams, the late hours.. and people are asking themselves: Is this what I′ve been doing all this time? Is this really better? Is this what I want to keep doing?

And a lot (MILLIONS) of times, the answer is repeatedly NO.

We don't need to seek answers from others to understand what is really happening, we just need to listen. Listen to that little voice that you have pushed away with explanations of why you have no time to do sports, to play with your kids, or to see your friends and family as often as you did anymore. That little voice that said "Hey I think it's time to change" and you ignored and labeled as an "idealist, optimist voice" that was not "in tune with reality". You "needed" to do this, no, you HAD to do this, there was no other choice, unless...

The industrial revolution dramatically changed how we work and how we live and interact in our cities. We still live today riding the waves of that unprecedented economical expansion, and until now we thought the only thing we could do was to do that: ride the waves, up and down. Though economical acceleration and recession, through social unrest and ecological disaster. But suddenly, for a brief moment, the waves stopped, and there were dolphins in Venice.

There was calm and we were floating on the sea on our backs looking at our toes and wondering if they have been there all this time.

Now the wind is blowing again, tides are rising, waves are coming back... but maybe we have realized we are tired of surfing old waves, we want something different, maybe we want to get out of the water altogether. We all have seen it is possible, so.. why not?

The gap pay in Spain between a CEO and an employee is 264:1, in Spain 152:1, this means that during a year that an entry employee will earn 12.000 € a CEO of that same company will earn 1.824.000 €

But please, do return to your office and resume your work as always.

Everyone thinks there is a "range" of reasons that originated the "Great Resignation" when it is really one: We really didn't like the life we were living, but always thought it was the only option, and suddenly we realized is not. We stopped and listened.

Our great crisis was not economic, or political, it was a crisis of imagination, we couldn't see ourselves living any other way. It was almost a crisis of faith in our own abilities to design a life we want to live in and settle for one of the options that have been laid in front of us instead.

It is a complex problem in the sense that there is a system in place that had been in place for generations, politics making laws to protect the status quo of companies that protect their profit, so the wheel keeps turning.

We are on the brink of a big break.

So many "traditional" things are in disarray right now, and we keep looking for the answers outside when the world is not but a mirror of our inner selves. A collective mirror where humanity as a whole can look at its creation and at the same time realize what we see around us is a reflection of who we are.

Maybe WE want to change?

Is that so bad? Is that so scary? To start facing REAL change of our long lived - some would even say decay- systems?

Democracy is good, but is it working for us? Could it be improved? Do we like it as it is? Capitalism is good but is it working for us? Could be improved? Do we like it as it is? Education is good but is it working for us? Could it be improved? Do we like it as it is?

.. just listen to these questions...

and listen to ALL the possible answers, not just the ones you like, the ones that others have that you might not like might be enlightening if you just listen.

So many people get away from each other (couples, politicians, business partners, scientists, priests, family) just because they seek to walk with those that do not challenge their worldview, with those who would do something similar, who would walk through the same path. WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER! They scream. But does that mean that we have to be the same to feel "togetherness"? Is alignment the same as followership? Is unity the same as uniformity?

There are those who celebrate the diversity of thought as a powerful thing, those who had decided to embrace conflict instead of avoiding it, those who decided to take a leap of faith in themselves and others, those who said: WE want to change.

But after all this time, where do we start? How do we change everything that there is to be changed? I believe that -in the midst of this resignation crisis- we are doing something right, we are starting to change what is at our hands, instead of just waiting for others to change. Saying YES to what we do want and NO to what we don′t is a powerful thing to do.

Do you think that "The Big Resignation" is a recruiting problem? Then you have not been paying attention.

Companies are the fabric of modern society, they make goods for us to buy -whether we need those goods or not- and then they provide us with a job to earn enough money to spend on those goods and services, and keep updating them when they become obsolete. This creates economic growth -at an ecological and social price- which also generates income for the government which is used to provide fundamental services while ensuring the continuous growth of the economy.

Companies are not just our jobs, our schools and universities are molded in their image, providing a constant stream of new labor. Our medical services are dependant on their ability to provide medicines and health advances, and our modern electronic dependence is constantly fed by them.

When we talk about a crisis of mass resignations, we are not talking about companies having a recruiting problem. We are talking about us, being fed up with this hamster wheel that we lived all our lives in. We stopped running for a while and now we don't want to start running again, we want to get off.

When I write this, I′m not writing about a socialist revolution, but a consciousness leap.

In August alone, 4 million people resigned from their jobs in the United States. To put it in perspective, imagine ALL the working population from Madrid and Catalu?a combined, resigning within a month. Can you imagine these two huge regions with not a single employee wanting to return to their offices? This is not a dream, it's happening as we speak.

When millions of people are quitting their jobs, it's not a targeted segment of personas saying "I don't want to work for x company" but a huge amount of humans saying "I don't want to play this game anymore". A "side effect" of the recent worldwide lockdown is that lots and lots of people realized there are other ways to play, to reach their dreams, to live their lives, and if you want them back, you better listen.

Is your company creative enough to re-imagine a different future? Is it bold enough to make their imagination a reality? We will not overcome the BIG resignation with small ideas. This is not about emotional salary or retention programs, it goes way beyond.

Do you want to make a company where people want to work? Sit down and listen. No, don't send a consultant to listen, a marketing expert, a sociologist, an HR professional, or Madonna. You must do this. Sit down and listen.

If you listen closely you will realize that lots and lots of people were not looking for a "job to do" they were looking for a "workplace" for a "position" in the most literal way possible. A place to be, and get paid. The ones that were looking to work on something they loved are already working on it or building a company to work on it.

Are you ready to change? Because if you are, there are millions of people out there who want to do something meaningful with their lives, but at the same time realized their job is not an "occupation" to have until retirement. It's an important part of their life, a part that could have a deep meaning but even when it has it, a part that is not more important than their family, health, friends, or freedom.

Change is never a straightforward road. There are so many systems so ingrained in our society that it may take for another global disaster event to even start considering changing them. But change will come, change is coming. Whether it is a crisis of consciousness, the rise of AI, global warming, the inversion of the magnetic poles, or an upcoming meteorite. The days of our rigid structured society are ending. What do you think the V.U.C.A. anachronism you keep hearing and talking about means?

We are a strange species, we need structures, but love adventures, we seek stability, but dream of change, we want more of the things we don't need and need more of the things we don't have.

Wouldn′t you love to work in a meaningful, well-paid, flexible job that allows you to balance your personal and professional life while growing as a professional and as a person overall? We would all do.

Then why are these working environments so hard to find? Where did we get it all wrong?

The scarcity of the past required huge willpower and effort, which in turn created the abundance the developed countries now enjoy. But abundance breeds complacency, fear, accumulation, and we all know how Rome -and all other empires by that means- ended. Not too well.

We are living with a scarcity mindset in an (almost) post-scarcity world. Where we have modern capitalist societies experimenting with things such as a universal paycheck.

We created our companies with this scarcity mindset (we need to get more before another comes and take it from us) and while it is the mindset that took society out of the dark ages previous generations endured, it has created great havoc on our psychological and physical health, not to talk about our environment and world in general.

But we are not discussing new ideas or society concepts here. We are talking about a new reality we all experienced.

There is a great quote that says:

"The mind, once stretched to a?new idea, never goes back to its original dimension." Oliver Wendell Holmes.?

Our minds have been stretched, we lived a different reality and now it is impossible to unsee the things that we discovered during that time.

If that is so, what do we do now?

Let me walk you through a thought experiment.

If you could forget everything you know about how to run and organize a company. Everything you know about capitalism and economics. Everything you know about recruiting and retention, everything you know about neurosciences, learnability, innovation, etc.

If you could forget all that, and start your company from scratch, what would you do differently? What would the office look like today with what you know and have experienced before, during, and after the pandemic? Would you even have offices? What would the structure be like? Would it be fixed? Would it change from week to week? What would the paychecks look like? What about the roles? Would there be bosses? Who would they be? What does a model leader in this organization look like? What would the time schedule look like? Would it be 8 hours a day? Would it be 5 days a week?

Now think of your company today, does it resemble in any way anything you imagined?

Our crisis is not economic, it's an imagination crisis. We are failing at listening and reimagining our workplaces. Our companies are getting outdated fast, and they are not the places where our people want to spend most of their life anymore.

We need profit, results, experience, talent... but for all of that, we need humans, with their contradictions, needs and wants, with their passions and fears.. whole humans, who are tired to get paid to endure places they would rather never come back to.

If you listen, you will hear the deafening screams for change.

Are you and your organization ready for them?