Parents & Grandparents - Future of Work Impact on Children

Leaders and professionals are quietly lost about the next generation. Which includes their own kids. It's a data point we could really capitalise on to get creative. I've been interviewing leaders across all sectors, industries and levels for months now. And for a while, I nearly missed one of the most interesting moments of those conversations. I wasn't looking for it and it wasn't where I expected to find gold. But the pattern is unmistakable. About half way through the conversation, I shift the questions from the professional focus of the leader in front of me, onto something else. 'How do you feel about the future of work when it comes to your children?' Every single interview I've done changes substantially when there are kids in the mix. Irrespective of age - be it primary, secondary, university level or young graduates. We don't shift to fear exactly, but the conversation becomes more urgent. More passionate. Confidence can fall away a little. These are resilient, experienced people and they're calculating solutions for what they see coming. What really happens is we get more honest. Certainty drops a little or sometimes a lot. There's a clear sense of realisation that what worked for us won't work for them. A desire to advise well and a sense of stabbing in the dark. It's the moment many ask for a crystal ball. I love the pivot. It's clear and predictable but I never quite know what will come next. Except this beautiful sense of parents who care deeply about more than their own future and who recognise, more than ever before that future generations will have to adapt and change the game in ways we may not be able to. It feels like the common ground that might get us into entirely more creative places. If you're a parent, or even a grandparent, I'm curious - what is showing up for you? ------------------------------------------ I'll be running research on this topic for at least the next three months. You don't need to be an expert in anything except your own experience. I'm not expecting you to know which way the world is going. The whole point is we're all holding different pieces of a complex puzzle and I'm trying to make sense of it so that I can share more. I'd love to speak to YOU. I mean it. And, if the 50+ interviews I've done already are anything to go by, I think you'll have a pretty good time in the process. I have been so enlivened by these conversations I can't even tell you. Especially with the ones who think they might have nothing to say. Got an hour to share? It might even turn out to be useful for those kids we clearly care so much about.