Once again I was NOT invited to the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland this January. So while government leaders were rubbing shoulders with big business, big philanthropy, big media, and other cultural leaders to, as they say, SHAPE global, regional and industry agendas, for the rest of us, I was having conversations with what I like to call WORKING leaders. People like the CEO of a $50 million manufacturing company in Ohio, the VP of marketing for a global food distributor, the Director of Sales for a farm implement dealership, the head of Human Resources for a large consulting business in the UK, the CEO of a cryptocurrency startup based in Singapore, and lots of other folks who, again, I like to call WORKING leaders. I have conversations with people like this every week and it’s the best part of my job. I remember having conversations with business leaders a year ago, in early 2022, and their big top-of-the-mind concerns were supply chain disruptions, productivity of remote and hybrid workers, when and how and IF to transition them back to the office, and of course retaining top talent was a big issue.

This year most of the business leaders I speak with think we are going to have a recession, but that’s not primarily what they were talking or thinking about. They were not intensely focused on the recession that may happen in the next 12 months. What they were focused on were the big transformations that are going to play out over the next 10 years.

The evolving employee recruiting and retention landscape.
The growing impact of Artificial Intelligence, especially the generative AI app called ChatGPT.
Creating an INCLUSIVE work environment where every employees feels SEEN, KNOWN… every employee feels CONNECTED to the mission of the organization AND connected to the PEOPLE they work with, and every employee feels VALUED for their contributions to the business.
In the face of all of these technology-driven accelerations, how do we keep our organizations as HUMAN as possible, how do we help our people be as mentally fit as possible?

Can we hope for a future where we have both more/better technology and more humanity all at the same time? Can we realize the potential of pairing great people with innovative technologies? It doesn’t HAVE to be about replacing one with the other, it can mean allowing people to free up more of their time to do what humans do best.

So continuing the look forward into what we should expect, as business leaders, in 2023 and beyond, at this point in time we are almost three years out from the uprisings of 2020 in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. And we know that in that year a lot of businesses made really big promises to their employees and customers and other stakeholders around equity and social justice. There was a huge WAVE of training and corporate culture change initiatives. Unconscious bias in the workplace, micro-exclusions and micro-aggressions. Social justice, equity, inclusion and belonging. These were all terms that became part of our corporate conversations. And I think 2023 is the year we’re going to see if those major initiatives will be sustained, if those big promises are going to be kept. Business leaders will be responding to political and cultural change this year, and in some cases, resistance.

What I’m hearing from many senior leaders is that they remain committed to their DEI and ESG goals, but they are going to avoid language that tends to TRIGGER a pushback. So business may remain committed to their ESG goals but simply find new ways to communicate them.

So one of my predictions – if we want to use that word – for 2023 is that business leaders in many cases WILL be more deeply connected to their DEI and ESG goals, even if their language or narrative changes.

Also in 2023, I really think the economic recession will compel some companies to wobble seriously on their inclusion commitments,