What's on Your Mind?

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. From a young age, feedback from authority figures shape our self-perception. Unfortunately, too many young people internalize the message that they should only pursue what comes easily to them. I know this firsthand. As a student, I was interested in STEM but found it challenging. After an educator told me to focus on what I was “good at,” I believed I could never succeed in sci…

For today’s young people, online content isn’t a backdrop to daily life—it is daily life. Streaming platforms, short-form video, and social media don’t just entertain; they influence how young people see themselves, their health, and what behaviors are seen as normal or aspirational. Movies, television, and streaming content still have influence, but as the digital ecosystem expands, so does its power to shape choices—for better and for worse. Take smoking, for example. The notion of cigarette nostalgia has unwittingly sparked a slew of recent news stories about the perceived increase in smoking on screens. The impact of that imagery? Tangible. While celebrities l…

Climate change comes with serious financial risks, and those risks could affect your retirement account. Is it up to your employer, then, to protect your 401(k) from those concerns? That’s the question posed by a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court Western District of Washington. A former employee of Cushman & Wakefield has filed a lawsuit alleging that the real estate company breached its duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by failing to protect its workers’ 401(k) savings from climate-related financial risks. “Though often misrepresented as a purely ethical issue, climate risk is actually a sever…

I keep seeing articles and conferences about “humanizing” AI in one way or another. And while I get the sentiment, I think they’re taking the wrong approach. There’s no point in making technologies more human. Being human is our job. If anything, AI is less an opportunity to humanize technology, than to re-humanize ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning. AI is just the latest, perhaps greatest advancement yet in what OG computer scientist Norbert Wiener dubbed “cybernetic” technologies. Unlike traditional technologies, cybernetic ones take feedback from the world in order to determine their functions. They work less like a machine you turn on than a home heater’s th…

A few years ago, when I was working at a traditional law firm, the partners gathered with us with barely any excitement. “Rejoice,” they announced, unveiling our new AI assistant that would make legal work faster, easier, and better. An expert was brought in to train us on dashboards and automation. Within months, her enthusiasm had curdled into frustration as lawyers either ignored the expensive tool or, worse, followed its recommendations blindly. That’s when I realized: we weren’t learning to use AI. AI was learning to use us. Many traditional law firms have rushed to adopt AI decision support tools for client selection, case assessment, and strategy developmen…

I have been thinking about a question that nobody in enterprise software seems to want to sit with: why can the most advanced AI models in the world solve Olympiad-level mathematics but fail to reliably extract a total from an invoice? This is not an academic exercise for me. I have been building automation software for twenty years. My company has processed billions of documents for some of the largest enterprises in the world. Yes, I have a stake in this answer. But twenty years of watching models work on real enterprise data, not benchmarks, gives you a different view than turning a model in a lab. And when those real-world models cannot get the simple stuff right,…

In operating reviews and boardrooms, I keep seeing the same pattern: leadership asks for rigor, teams deliver the numbers, and promising AI efforts get judged as underperforming before the organization has actually learned what it takes to make them real. Then someone pulls the plug, scales back the investment, or lets the initiative quietly expire. Sometimes they’re right. But often, they’ve just used the wrong test. The problem isn’t that leaders care about measurement. Strong measurement discipline is exactly what separates organizations that scale AI from those that accumulate pilots. The problem is that many leaders are applying a mature-business scorecard to…

A recent Wall Street Journal survey found a 38-point gap between how executives and employees experience AI at work. C-suite leaders report saving eight or more hours weekly. Two-thirds of front-line workers say the tools save them less than two hours—or nothing at all. Most leaders read that as a rollout problem. A training problem. A communication problem. It’s none of those things. This month, a National Bureau of Economic Research study of 6,000 executives confirmed what the WSJ data was already pointing to: the vast majority are seeing no measurable productivity gains from AI. Not a small shortfall. A near-total disconnect between investment and results. …

In a recent survey of senior leaders at large U.S. and U.K. professional services firms, 61% said they had abandoned at least one AI project in the past year because their people lacked the skills to deliver it. Deloitte’s “2026 State of AI in the Enterprise” report, based on a survey of more than 3,200 business and IT leaders across 24 countries, found that insufficient worker skills are now the single “biggest barrier to integrating AI into the business.” There is no quick or easy solution to this problem. While it is possible to bring in new hires or contractors with the short-term capabilities you need, this approach is not sustainable in the long term as it is bo…

AI is forcing every leader into a choice they can’t dodge: do you believe your people are fundamentally creative and motivated, or lazy and in need of control? Most leaders won’t want to answer that honestly, but their AI strategy already has. The AI mandates. AI-blamed layoffs. So-called AI-enabled “bossware.” The truth is in the tools: many leaders prefer “synthetic” employees they can control, and will treat human beings much the same way until they can be replaced. Sound hyperbolic? Just look at recent headlines. Klarna’s CEO famously bragged about AI replacing his staff after the company fired or lost 22% of its workforce a year earlier (this blew up in his f…

When a company with tens of thousands of software engineers found that uptake of a new AI-powered tool was lagging well below 50%, they wanted to know why. It turned out that the problem wasn’t the technology itself. What was holding the company back was a mindset that saw AI use as akin to cheating. Those who used the tool were perceived as less skilled than their colleagues, even when their work output was identical. Not surprisingly, most of the engineers chose not to risk their reputations and carried on working in the traditional way. These kinds of self-defeating attitudes aren’t limited to one company—they are endemic across the business world. Organizations ar…

Climate change is making your allergies worse, in part by creating longer and more intense pollen seasons, according to a growing body of research from a number of scientists and physicians. “We know that climate change is leading to greater amounts of pollen in the atmosphere,” says Paul Beggs, an environmental health scientist and professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who published a 2024 paper on the link between climate change and asthma. “It’s changing the seasonality of the pollen. It’s changing the types of pollen that we’re exposed to.” With pollen season already underway in many parts of the U.S., the AccuWeather 2026 US Allergy Forecast…

In April 2026, cloud-hosting platform Vercel disclosed that hackers had breached its internal systems and stolen customer data. The breach occurred because a Vercel employee had signed up for a third-party AI productivity tool using their corporate Google account and granted it full-access permissions. When that AI tool’s own systems were compromised, the attackers used the trust relationship as a bridge straight into Vercel’s internal environment. The stolen database was listed for sale on a hacker forum for $2 million. Note that the breach did not directly attack a software vulnerability. Rather, it exploited an architectural gap. The technology worked as designed, …

Having a helicopter manager can bring you down. It’s exhausting to have a boss who constantly monitors you, requires you to check in all the time, and takes away your authority to make decisions. This sort of micromanagement can lead to decreased employee morale, lower productivity, and reduced job satisfaction, according to experts. “Whether intentional or not, helicopter managers send clear signals that they do not trust their direct reports and are concerned about the work getting done correctly,” says Matthew Owenby, chief strategy officer and head of human resources at Aflac. “Helicopter managers can often exacerbate burnout by making employees feel that they ar…

The first few weeks of working for a new boss are exciting. You’re ready to jump in, hopeful for growth opportunities, and eager to please. Your boss is enthusiastic, too, likely welcoming you with open arms, setting up 1-1’s, and taking a keen interest in your professional development. You both want to make a great impression on each other. Yet, as the new job glow wears off, you may find yourself confused by how quickly your boss’s attention vanishes. The leader you were excited to work for becomes the person ignoring your emails, giving haphazard feedback, and postponing your 1-1 (again!). Working for a boss who is overwhelmed is a frustrating, yet not uncommon…

In a world where work-life boundaries are increasingly blurred, the well-being of employees has emerged as a pivotal issue. Despite leaders’ good intentions, a stark reality persists: While a staggering 91% of executives believe they prioritize employee well-being, only 56% of employees share that sentiment. This disconnect, revealed in a recent Deloitte study, underscores a critical gap that companies must bridge if they are to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. As businesses grapple with the complexities of modern work, a framework is emerging to guide leaders: The Four Pillars of Worker Well-Being. These pillars offer a comprehensive approach to fostering a h…

AI wears many hats at work, whether it’s a brainstorm partner, mentor, or doing the actual work itself. However, it’s time to add a new one to the list: spy. In a recent episode of the “All-In” podcast, Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff, said he was using AI to analyze employee slack messages to understand what they’re complaining about. (Salesforce acquired Slack in 2021.) “Because you run your company on Slack, all your DMs, all your channels, we’re reading that now through the AI and we can tell you more about your business than you know,” Benioff explained. “Slackbot is reading stuff that, you know, nobody knew what was happening. I’m using that myself.” Benioff says,…

When I was learning to play bass, my first teacher told me, “Find your groove and stay in it.” As a musician, that meant discovering the rhythm that allowed me to lock in with the drummer so the rest of the band could shine. Years later, as a consultant and culture architect, I realized the same principle applies to productivity: Each of us has a groove—a natural style of working—that, once discovered, allows us to perform at our best. The challenge is that most professionals attempt to replicate productivity systems that don’t align with their brain’s natural rhythm. They read about a CEO waking up at 4 a.m. or a time-blocking hack and feel frustrated when it doesn’t…

At the Exceptional Women Alliance, we enable high-level women to mentor each other to achieve personal and professional happiness through sisterhood. As the nonprofit organization’s founder, chair, and CEO, I am honored to interview and share insights from thought leaders who are part of our peer-to-peer mentoring.  This month, I introduce to you Alma Derricks. With broad experience ranging from strategy partner at Deloitte to global sales and marketing leader at Cirque du Soleil, she is the founder of REV, an award-winning strategy consultancy that crafts and launches distinctive campaigns and new ventures for the world’s most coveted brands. For decades, she has he…

The other day, a friend confessed her new nightly routine: hiding in the bathroom for ten minutes after putting her kids to bed. The reason wasn’t to scroll TikTok, but to breathe. “It’s either that or cry into the mac and cheese,” she laughed. It struck me: parenting in 2025 often looks like quietly triaging our own stress while juggling work deadlines, permission slips, Slack pings, and dinner prep. Headlines scream about the youth mental health crisis, but what rarely makes the front page is the state of the people raising those kids. Working parents are running on fumes. And here’s the part we can’t gloss over: our kids’ emotional health is directly tied to ours. …

Emily, the Chief Revenue Officer at a global financial services company, learned something about her CEO she cannot unknow. She recently discovered that her CEO is having an affair. The relationship appears private and consensual. It does not violate company policy. She knows his spouse well; their children play on the same basketball team, and his spouse coaches it. The proximity is unavoidable. On Monday morning, she listens as he outlines priorities for the quarter. The strategy is sound. The numbers are holding. But she hears him differently now. This is the same CEO who regularly speaks about integrity and trust. As he reinforces the company’s val…

Many of us want to get promoted at work, but don’t often stop to consider what that means. Moving into the executive ranks often means leading the very people you once worked alongside. And while you might attract attention with stellar performance, it’s not enough to secure your success as a leader. As a CEO and C-Level coach, let me tell you that I, nor any of my most successful clients, would risk elevating a leader to the next level if it would lead to a systemic risk of losing talent or momentum. In those cases, I’d wait to ensure that this high performer is making an effort to work on leadership quality, including their peer relationships. Leadership req…

For years, leaders have treated transformation as a question of strategy and technology. Do we have the right plan? The right tools? The right talent? Most leadership teams think they have a speed problem. They don’t. They have a friction problem. Not the obvious kinds, like failed systems or bad strategy. Friction is quieter, far more pervasive, and seems innocuous. But friction, the invisible drag embedded in how organizations structure work, make decisions, and align teams, is becoming a material leadership risk. And as organizations push harder for agility, that friction comes with serious costs. WHERE WORK SLOWS DOWN Friction rarely shows up as a drama…

In today’s job market, many employees are feeling the pressure. Layoffs continue to make headlines, hiring pipelines have slowed, budgets have tightened, and job seekers are facing fierce competition. For those already employed, this environment raises a tricky question: What’s reasonable to ask for at work right now—and what isn’t? There’s always the standard wish list: promotions, raises, more flexibility, and better benefits. But in a strained economy, some of these asks may be harder to land—and for many employees, even harder to ask for. Zety, a career platform designed to make job searching easier with expert-backed tools and advice, found in its latest …