Pocket Change: 2025 will be a year that asks questions
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There’s an alarming through thread between the U.S. presidential election results and the folk-hero status achieved online by the alleged murderer of UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson – a theme that has shown up in the data again and again:
The anger over the status quo is reaching a boiling point.
People are frustrated with everything about how our institutions are run, and the anger isn’t limited to the government or the health insurance industry. And they have little patience with institutionalists, i.e. those in elite positions who are guardians of the existing system. Messages like “this is how we’ve always done it,” “we’re not going back” — or even “protect democracy” ring hollow when people feel like democratic institutions have failed them. We desperately need to re-examine the infrastructure of society from the ground up.
If you think this disconnect isn't going to affect your particular industry or workforce, think again. Last week, I got a sneak preview of soon-to-be-released data from The Harris Poll that shows employees still want their companies to lead strongly on mental health, on building a sustainable planet, on building a more inclusive workforce — despite the most “anti-woke” political and regulatory environment in a decade.
To the average worker, those aren’t political issues; they’re about creating a better future. Framing them as such misses the moment we’re in anyway, when party and group identities are in flux. America needs a hard reset, and they’re asking business leaders to be out in front for reimagining our social contract.
Anti-institution sentiment is pushing us toward a massive employer/employee reckoning. The way it will show up in the workplace is both predictable and hard for most leaders to address: people are going to want to know why.
Why do we exist? Why do we need this industry at all? Does the world actually need what I help create every day?
Zora Neale Hurston wrote that there are years that ask questions and there are years that answer them. 2024 gave us answers that most of us weren't prepared for. In 2025, these are the questions that will matter.
I can’t tell you what your answers should be. But they need to be bold to meet the moment. They shouldn’t sound like recycled corporate-speak. Remove any assumptions you may have made in the past about your purpose, re-examine any traditions you’ve kept because they’ve always been there, and start from the ground up.
How you should be prepared to answer is clearer. The industries that are growing are responding to these questions with powerful storytelling and big ideas about the future. They’ve invested heavily in communications, understanding that those who control the narrative online control what people believe about reality. And importantly, they’ve turned skeptical employees into powerful advocates by investing in internal communication and re-organizing their structures where necessary around their missions.
Despite the heaviness many of us are feeling about the year ahead, in the past few weeks I’ve talked to many individual leaders who for years have been doing the kind of imaginative work of redefining our social contract, and they are mostly unphased. Their stubborn optimism reflects what has always been true about making change: it only ever happens through individual imagination, collective power – and a little bit of faith.
Sometimes the best answer you can give is, “I don’t know how yet, but we’re going to keep going.”
Keeping an eye on:
BLOODY WARNINGS – Adrienne LaFrance in The Atlantic argues that the cheering of Brian Thompson’s murder is a marker on the path toward “decivilization.” (Yikes.)
QUANTUM MILESTONES – Google engineers reached a new quantum error correction milestone with the company’s new chip, Willow. Maybe one day it’ll help with its increasingly accurate A.I. weather forecasts.
VIDEO GENERATION – With the official public launch of Sora (and the end of GPTs?), OpenAI has moved strongly into video generation. Is live-streaming our AI companions the next step?
TIKTOK D-DAYS – TikTok is still facing a potential ban in the U.S. after a court of appeals refused to block the law forcing its sale – which may be why it is throwing money at users to get them to spend more time there.
DIVERSITY WIMPS – Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, announced it was rolling back its DEI policies, joining other companies bullied by conservative groups emboldened by the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down affirmative action.
FULFILLING JOBS – The self-employed are most likely to say they are proud of their jobs (*winks in entrepreneur*) while lower-paid service workers struggle to find meaning in their work according to new data.
