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Culture Signals: The 2025 Recap and the 2026 Forecast Leaders Need

Culture Signals: The 2025 Recap and the 2026 Forecast Leaders Need

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 Episode summaryA text message at 3 a.m. telling employees to check their personal email before work. That’s not just a layoff story. It’s a culture story. In this first episode of 2026, Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica M. Smith unpack how the way organizations handle “hard moments” (layoffs, RTO mandates, and AI messaging) shapes trust, retention, and long-term brand reputation. They also explore how global tensions, including widening perception gaps between the U.S. and Germany, are showing up inside multinational workplaces. What you’ll hear in this episodeWhy how layoffs happen becomes workplace “folklore” and damages psychological safety for the people who stayThe real issue with RTO mandates framed as “culture” (and what Nick Bloom’s research suggests instead) Why AI is being used as a narrative for workforce reductions even while many enterprise pilots aren’t showing measurable returns yet A global trust gap case study: Germans’ views of the U.S.-Germany relationship shift sharply negative, while Americans remain largely positive 2026 predictions: the “long tail” of 2024–2025 decisions, what talent will remember, and what leaders should do in Q1Chapters (timestamps)00:00 – Cold open: The 3 a.m. text and the trust fallout00:33 – Welcome + what this episode covers02:20 – Layoffs as a culture signal: “hard moments” become folklore09:20 – RTO is back: Why “culture” isn’t solved by proximity13:30 – Women leaving the workforce: the caregiving + flexibility collision15:30 – AI as scapegoat: why the messaging is already reshaping culture 20:05 – Germany + the U.S.: trust perception gaps and global team impact 26:10 – 2026 predictions: what changes, what doesn’t, what lingers41:30 – Practical takeaways for leaders (Q1 action list)45:05 – Closing question: “What story will people tell in 2030?”Key takeaways (your “do this Monday” list)Audit your hard moments. Review how you handled layoffs, restructures, and major change, then ask employees how it landed.Treat AI + RTO as culture decisions. Name the behaviors your policies reinforce and run experiments instead of mandates.Get honest about the global context. If you lead across borders, don’t pretend politics and perception gaps aren’t in the room — build a fair way of working together anyway. Sources & references mentioned Amazon laid off some employees with early-morning text messages Study finds hybrid work benefits companies and employeesMIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failingPew Research Center: German views of the U.S.-Germany relationship turning sharply negative in 2025 Thanks for Listening!We’d love to hear from you.Kristine Gentry, PhDkgentry@culturegrove.com🌐 www.culturegrove.com🔗 LinkedIn: Kristine McKenzie GentryMonica M. Smithtradewindscareerconsulting@gmai.com🌐 www.tradewindscareerconsulting.com🔗 LinkedIn: Monica Mary SmithIf you enjoyed the show, please: subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who cares about building better teams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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