This episode examines the surge of AI-justified layoffs and argues that managerial short-termism—not technology alone—is driving premature workforce cuts that erode demand and organizational capacity. Drawing on history and economic theory, it proposes a pragmatic policy path: graduated reductions in the standard workweek, income protections, and employer incentives to preserve employment and translate AI gains into broadly shared prosperity.

Compassion at work is not a mere soft skill or a nice-to-have quality; it is a critical capability that directly influences employee well-being, engagement, and overall organizational performance. The video outlines compassion as a three-step process: noticing when someone is struggling, feeling with them empathetically, and taking meaningful action to help. When any of these steps fail, employees experience burnout, teams become fragile, and performance deteriorates. Despite evidence that well-being drives results, many workplaces still prioritize speed and stoicism over support, which leads to compounded stress, disengagement, and turnover. Highlights 💡 Compassion at work is a critical capability involving noticing, feeling, and acting to support others. ⏳ Many workplaces reward speed and stoicism, ignoring the importance of well-being. 🛠 Compassion must be intentionally designed into workplace systems, not left to chance. 👥 Leadership plays a vital role in signaling and modeling compassionate behaviors. 🔒 Psychological safety encourages honest check-ins and confidential support channels. 🔄 Team norms and practices ensure sustainable and planned support, avoiding burnout. 🛡 Protecting those who provide support is essential to prevent compassion fatigue. Key Insights 💔 Burnout and performance decline stem from missed compassion steps: When leaders or colleagues fail to notice struggles or fail to take meaningful action, individuals feel isolated and overwhelmed. This leads to quiet burnout, reduced engagement, and fragile teams. Recognizing this as a systemic issue rather than an individual failure shifts the responsibility to organizational design. 🕰 Leadership time investment is foundational: Leaders often want to be compassionate but are constrained by time and lack of tools. Blocking dedicated time to listen and truly engage with the team signals that compassion is valued. Training leaders in perspective-taking and difficult conversations equips them to respond effectively rather than reflexively fixing problems. 🔄 Psychological safety transforms vulnerability into strength: Normalizing expressions like “I’m not at 100% today” helps destigmatize struggles and encourages open communication. Regular check-ins with questions about what’s working and what’s hard provide structured opportunities for support. Confidential channels and protection from retaliation build trust and reinforce psychological safety. 🤝 Explicit team norms prevent compassion from becoming heroic or inconsistent: Without agreed-upon practices, helping others can feel like a burden or an exception. Setting clear expectations for how to cover for teammates, ask for help, say no, and cross-train creates a sustainable environment where compassion is part of everyday workflow rather than heroic acts. 📋 Policy alignment ensures culture and systems support each other: Policies such as flexible scheduling, clear leave, and mental health benefits must not only exist but be accessible and effective in practice. Crisis processes should be simple and respect privacy by default. When policies reflect cultural values, compassion is reinforced rather than undermined by bureaucracy. 🔄 Protecting helpers prevents compassion fatigue and turnover: Those who provide emotional support carry an emotional labor burden that can lead to exhaustion or burnout if unacknowledged. Rotating support roles, setting boundaries on availability, and debriefing after difficult moments acknowledge this labor as real work and preserve helpers’ well-being. 📈 The business case for compassion is clear: Compassionate workplaces experience higher retention, more open communication, and better problem-solving. Teams argue less and innovate faster, proving that empathy and support are not just ethical imperatives but strategic advantages. Embedding compassion systemically transforms organizational culture and performance over time. Like & share if this helps you champion compassion at work. #CompassionAtWork #WorkplaceWellbeing #CompassionateLeadership #ResilientWorkplace #OrganizationalHealth

This research explores how compassionate organizational cultures serve as a strategic necessity for enhancing both employee wellbeing and operational performance. It defines compassion as a three-part process of noticing, empathizing with, and taking action to alleviate the suffering of colleagues. This research argues that when organizations integrate support into their leadership development and formal policies, they see measurable improvements in engagement, retention, and innovation. However, the research warns that leaders must also address compassion fatigue to ensure that those providing support do not become emotionally exhausted. Ultimately, the research suggests that making care a core strategic priority creates resilient workplaces that can better navigate economic and social disruptions.

This episode explores how compassion—recognizing, empathizing with, and responding to suffering—shapes employee wellbeing and organizational performance. It reviews evidence on the costs of compassion deficits (stress, burnout, disengagement) and the benefits of supportive cultures. Practical, evidence-based responses are presented: leadership development, psychological safety, team practices, flexible policies, and systems to prevent compassion fatigue. The episode concludes that integrating compassion into strategy and governance creates sustainable workplaces where people and performance thrive.

This conversation explores how compassionate organizational cultures serve as a strategic necessity for enhancing both employee wellbeing and operational performance. They define compassion as a three-part process of noticing, empathizing with, and taking action to alleviate the suffering of colleagues. They argue that when organizations integrate support into their leadership development and formal policies, they see measurable improvements in engagement, retention, and innovation. However, they warn that leaders must also address compassion fatigue to ensure that those providing support do not become emotionally exhausted. Ultimately, they suggest that making care a core strategic priority creates resilient workplaces that can better navigate economic and social disruptions. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this HCI Webinar, I talk with Johnathan Grzybowski about leveraging your organizational talent to win in the future of work. Johnathan Grzybowski is the co-founder of Penji, a creative subscription service that empowers businesses, agencies, and teams with the simplest way to access creative talent.  He’s also a storyteller and host of Dear Dads and Free Ideas, where he shares insights on entrepreneurship, leadership, and family life.

This research explores how human-centric skills like creativity, resilience, and empathy have become essential strategic assets in an economy increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence. While employers prioritize these capabilities for future growth, this research highlights a significant global skills gap and a lack of formal recognition in current hiring practices. These human traits are surprisingly fragile and sensitive to external shocks, yet they remain the most difficult for machines to replicate. To address these challenges, this research advocates for a systemic framework involving performance-based assessments and portable digital credentials. Real-world case studies demonstrate that integrating experiential learning and technological simulations can effectively cultivate these durable advantages. Ultimately, this research argues that investing in uniquely human judgment and collaboration provides the ultimate competitive edge in an automated world.

The video transcript explores the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society, the economy, and individual roles in the workforce. It emphasizes that while AI is advancing rapidly and automating many routine and data-driven tasks, the future will be defined not by machines, but by uniquely human skills that machines cannot replicate. These human-centric abilities—creativity, complex problem-solving, emotional resilience, adaptability, continuous learning, collaboration, and communication—are becoming increasingly essential in a world marked by constant disruption and technological change. Highlights 🤖 AI is reshaping industries by automating routine, predictable tasks but cannot replace human ingenuity. 🎨 Creativity, complex problem-solving, emotional resilience, adaptability, continuous learning, collaboration, and communication are the key human skills for the future. 🏫 Traditional education systems fail to adequately prepare students for the human-centric demands of the modern workforce. 😷 The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and weakened essential human skills like collaboration, resilience, and mentoring due to remote work isolation. 📉 Despite high demand, many job descriptions and hiring processes overlook crucial human skills, focusing mainly on technical qualifications. 🛠️ AI should be viewed as augmentation, complementing rather than replacing humans, emphasizing the importance of empathy, ethical judgment, and creativity. 🚀 Developing human skills requires active, project-based learning, psychological safety, coaching, and cultural shifts in both education and workplaces. Key Insights 🤔 Human Ingenuity as the New Currency: The video stresses that human creativity and ingenuity, not raw processing power, will define economic and social progress in an AI-driven world. This insight reframes the value proposition of human labor from transactional execution to innovative and empathetic contributions that machines cannot replicate. 🌱 The Fragility and Necessity of Human Skills: Human skills such as collaboration and emotional resilience are described as “muscles” that weaken without regular exercise. The pandemic’s impact demonstrated how quickly these abilities can degrade when social and work environments change drastically, underscoring the need for intentional cultivation and continuous practice. 🧠 Mismatch Between Skills Demand and Educational Focus: There is a critical disconnect between what employers seek and what traditional educational systems provide. Schools often prioritize easily measurable knowledge over ambiguous, complex skills like creativity and emotional intelligence, leading to a workforce ill-prepared for modern challenges. 📉 Hiring Practices Lag Behind Skills Needs: Many companies still focus job ads and recruitment on technical skills, neglecting the human competencies essential for innovation and leadership. This oversight perpetuates the skills gap and hinders the development of a workforce capable of thriving alongside AI. 🤝 Psychological Safety as a Foundation for Growth: The video emphasizes that fostering psychological safety—an environment where experimentation, failure, and vulnerability are accepted—is vital for nurturing creativity and collaboration. Without such a culture, employees are less likely to take the risks needed for breakthrough innovation. 🤖 AI’s Role as Augmentation: AI excels at pattern recognition and routine data processing but lacks the capacity for emotional depth, ethical reasoning, and intuitive problem solving. This delineation clarifies that the future workforce strategy should focus on complementing AI with human strengths rather than competing with machines. 📚 A Framework for Developing Human Skills: Effective development of human skills requires moving beyond passive learning to active, real-world projects that promote collaboration and creativity. Coaching, mentorship, and continuous reflection are essential components. The adoption of such frameworks by leading organizations signals a promising shift toward future-ready education and training models. 🏢 Leadership’s Role in Embedding Human Skills: For businesses to succeed, leaders must explicitly define, measure, and reward human skills like curiosity, creativity, and collaboration. This requires integrating these skills into hiring, performance reviews, and everyday work culture, moving away from one-off training to sustained developmental practices. Like and share if this helps your team or learning journey. #HumanSkills #AI #FutureOfWork #Creativity #Resilience OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - The Human Edge in an AI World 00:01:12 - The Skills We Need and the Gaps We Face 00:03:43 - The Fragility of Our Most Human Abilities 00:05:40 - Building Skills That Machines Can't Master 00:07:46 - A Call to Action for a Human-Centered Future