For those of us who believe in connection, conversation, and collaboration, 2024 was both joyful and heartbreaking. There were tantalizing signs that people would come together and create new, joyful possibilities and too many indications that the mechanistic, controlling, and hierarchical orientation is still limiting what is possible.
At the heart of it all is conflict: conflict over how we view the world, conflict in establishing trusting relationships, conflict over what we want the future to look like, and conflict over who determines what the future looks like.
2024: Conflict, Metacognition, Anxiety, and Rage
2024 felt like a classic hero’s journey with an epic battle between the forces of good and evil. Distilled, its fundamental question was: is what we have worth keeping, or do we want to blow the whole thing up?
At its core are our mindsets – the stories we tell ourselves, the experiences we share, the ways we understand each other, and what we believe is possible.
Our capacity for metacognition informs our mindsets. Metacognition is the ability to understand how one thinks about and interprets the world, which determines how we understand how others feel about and interpret the world.
Poor metacognition results in:
- Belief that all conflict can be resolved due to the implicit assumption that everyone interprets experiences in similar ways.
- Others are with you or against you because if conflict is unresolved and we interpret experiences in similar ways, a personal grudge is the only remaining explanation for the lack of resolution.
- Increasing grievances or self-flagellation for setbacks and perceived losses due to unresolved conflict interpreted as personal grudge or attack.
- Inherently self-centered reactions to other people’s behavior due to the inability to see them as isolated and independent from our own behaviors.
Ironically, poor metacognition results in constant conflict, relationship friction, exhaustion, and anxiety. Day in and day out, every experience is understood through the lens of personal triumph or failure – an intense expectation for anyone.
In contrast, good metacognition results in:
- Accepting that not all conflict can be resolved and doesn’t need to be because individuals have different perspectives on and narratives of experiences.
- Knowing conflict can be constructive, does not need to be combative, and is critical to fueling new ideas, innovation, and potential.
- Believing others are doing their best even when that behavior inadvertently harms us, because it is driven more by their internal lens than as a response to our behavior.
- Forgiving - and even laughing at - ourselves, knowing we are all complex, fallible, and emotional. Simple things like the lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise can cause us to do things we normally would not.
- Releasing responsibility for others and understanding that taking on the responsibility of others damages relationships by overstepping boundaries.
2025 Priorities: Accepting, Connecting, and Collaborating
I don’t have much influence over the global or national dialogue, so I am increasingly focused on changing what is around me in 2025 by accepting, connecting, and collaborating.
Accepting
I am frustrated with the outcome and consequences of the U.S. presidential election, but in the end, I did what I could to support the outcome I wanted. Investing my time in counteracting the consequences now is equivalent to trying to take responsibility for others who wanted this outcome. I am releasing that responsibility and insisting those who desire it live with its consequences and be accountable. What I will do is look for opportunities to support, protect, and defend anyone who is harmed by those consequences. I will continue to advocate for the world I want to see – but I won’t do work to elevate or add attention to a future I do not want.
Connecting
Connecting allows us to build trust and find solutions to collective challenges. I don’t believe we have to resolve all of our differences and conflicts; we can choose to connect on the topics in which we align and respect each other’s beliefs in the areas in which we don’t.
Cynthia Fortlage, a former client and now an expert focused on fostering inclusive workplaces, wrote a book titled Acceptance Without Understanding. I think about the concept a lot because, in the end, each one of us is unique in a myriad of mystifying ways that we can never fully understand ourselves, never mind expecting others to understand.
We can accept and support others without understanding why they believe things or make the decisions they do. It does not require us to change in order to believe others and accept their truth. Believing and accepting others does allow us to connect more deeply.
Collaborating
I have been an independent consultant for a few years and have had some wonderful clients and great projects. However, in the end, I am a collaborator, and I miss being in the trenches with people working toward a common goal.
I am exploring opportunities to have a bigger impact at a local and regional level. I have been incredibly fortunate to work with clients around the globe, but it feels like local communities are the ones most negatively impacted by the global scale of technology and, as a result, have weaker cohesion.
I’ve had many ideas about using the architecture of technology platforms to create stronger local economies. Kate Brodock, an industry friend, is doing this by redeveloping a college campus in upstate New York into a small ecosystem. Creative mixed-use community spaces, such as 26 Split Rock Cove in Maine, are popping up everywhere. And local non-profit, government, and community groups need to think differently about how they engage constituents. Time will tell, but these are the types of community-centric organizations that are intriguing.
2025 Predictions
We have been through a lot over the last few years between the pandemic, the on-again, off-again RTO mandates, the generative AI boom, economic disparities, gun violence, continuing racism, the war against women, and a whiplashing and fragmented political environment. It’s a lot.
Here is what I see developing in 2025:
1. Operating Models Will Be Under Attack
- CFOs are becoming primary decision-makers on big initiatives, P.E. companies are hollowing out organizations, and generative AI is threatening to replace enterprise software as we know it. Yet, organizational change initiatives have been modest, tepid, and forced to constantly justify themselves. To stay relevant organizations will be forced to take a harder, holistic look at how they operate.
2. Organizations Must Grapple With Meaning
- While generative AI and technology can optimize and improve many things, it can’t make what it does mean anything to customers. Employees and customers – the individuals who make organizations successful – crave meaning and connection. Gains from adding more technology will dissipate unless organizations create relevancy and meaning, the only things that will increase margins. Rethinking the value of knowledge work will be required.
3. Medium-Sized Organizations Will Thrive
- As the products and services of tech monopolies degrade because of their pursuit of maintaining profit growth, many customers will look for and support smaller organizations that offer differentiated products with higher quality that align with their values.
4. Transformation Leaders Will Be Hard to Find
- Transformational change requires significant investment with a long payback cycle. Organizations have been ambivalent about investing in these programs at strategic levels or protecting them when budgets tighten, but that will shift as margins tighten and competition increases. However, individuals with the skills, experience, and disposition to lead those efforts have little energy left to fight for support – and are jaded by past experiences.
5. RTO Mandates Will All Become Layoffs
- Employees know that the time and cost of commuting exact a heavy personal toll with marginal benefits. They know the executives mandating them are not themselves in the office very often themselves and don’t see the sunk capital investments in office buildings as their issue.
Your Turn: Perspectives From Your Seat
Do my predictions resonate or do you think they are unrealistic?
What impact has the last few years had on your perspective and plans?
Are you thinking about your career differently and what has that meant for you?
What do you think is going to happen at your organization over the next year?
Feel free to share below or via email.
