Embracing reinvention in the age of resignation

Call it a “vibe shift,” a “cultural reset,” or the Great Reinvention. We’re on the precipice of a huge opportunity — and “work” is at the epicenter.

We’re not the only ones feeling this, right? The lifting mandates; the warming weather; “back in office” dates slowly popping up for major progressive companies; resignation rates holding steady at record levels (another 4.3 million in January alone)…

Something’s in the air. The question is, what, exactly?

As we approach the 2-year anniversary of (*gestures wildly*) all of this, we have a sneaking suspicion. A suspicion that we are — as one cheeky NY Mag thinkpiece posited — experiencing a “vibe shift.” And perhaps, not the one we anticipated.

Gone are the 2021-era dreams of a “Hot Vax Summer” that never really was. A year later, these hopes have anodized into something different — a departure from the idea of a “return to normalcy” towards a re-examination of what our “normal” should be. We’ve been gone so long from the baseline, that we now have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to re-draw that line for ourselves. Call it a “vibe shift,” a “cultural reset,” or the Great Reinvention. One thing is clear: we’re on the precipice of a huge opportunity and “work” is at the epicenter.

The Great Reinvention

If it sounds melodramatic, HBR makes a compelling case:

“Almost no one in the world lived through 2020 and 2021 without experiencing major change. And, consequently, for perhaps the first time since at least World War II, almost everyone in the world is processing major shifts in their sources of purpose simultaneously.”

OK, when you put it that way…

So, what might this “reinvention” look like? It will likely be a process of rejecting status quos that no longer serve us; of “redefining of our purpose” in the workplace as employees or employers; of re-building our sense of community; of re-investing in ourselves, and of re-asserting — as evidenced by the Great Resignation — that we deserve to be invested in.

The path won’t be a straight line, but the signals are clear and — we have another sneaking suspicion — organizations that embrace and encourage this transformation will find themselves on the right side of the resignation.

Want to learn more about growth transformation in the workplace? We’ve joined forces with improv legend Wayne Brady and applied improv company FLS Academy to create FLS+, an organization using improv to improve performance at work: https://flsplus.com/