What's on Your Mind?

The psychological contract hasn’t just shifted around where we work. It has shifted, and continues to shift, around the entire relationship between organizations and employees. That shift in expectations feels most dramatic when we look at Gen Z, the latest entrants to the workforce. More than 40% of Gen Z employees have refused a work assignment because of ethical concerns. Nearly four in 10 have turned down a job with a company that doesn’t align with their values. In the workplace, they are driving the conversation around social justice, mental health, and work-life balance. More than 90% of workers say they’ve been influenced by Gen Z on issues of meaning at w…

The European Union’s law enforcement agency cautioned Tuesday that artificial intelligence is turbocharging organized crime that is eroding the foundations of societies across the 27-nation bloc as it becomes intertwined with state-sponsored destabilization campaigns. The grim warning came at the launch of the latest edition of a report on organized crime published every four years by Europol that is compiled using data from police across the EU and will help shape law enforcement policy in the bloc in coming years. “Cybercrime is evolving into a digital arms race targeting governments, businesses and individuals. AI-driven attacks are becoming more precise and de…

3:52 a.m.: Wake up. 3:54 a.m.: Pour out a cup of Saratoga Water. 4:04 a.m.: Work out next to a bottle of Saratoga Water. 5:49 a.m.: Dunk face in ice-cold bowl of Saratoga Water. These are just a few of the steps of fitness influencer Ashton Hall’s extremely specific morning routine, which grabbed the internet’s attention over the weekend for its oddly regimented timing and near-comical flaunting of wealth. One particular video of Hall’s schedule has amassed 98.4 million views on TikTok and 674.5 million views on X, spawning countless reactions and copycats, as well as shout-outs from Mr. Beast and Sweetgreen. And there’s one brand that’s clearly the …

Generative AI is radically reshaping the job market—creating new roles, changing some, and phasing out others. But here’s one effect of the transformative technology that’s not as widely talked about: It’s deepening long-standing workplace gender gaps. A double disadvantage According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn, women systematically face a two-part problem in the ongoing AI transformation. Relatively fewer women are currently in jobs that are being augmented by generative AI, and relatively more are in roles that are being disrupted. According to LinkedIn data for the US, 24.1% of men work in augmented occupations, while 20.5%…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Many companies forget AI-powered enterprise applications are just business apps at the end of the day. The reality is, AI is simply another arrow in our quiver, albeit incredibly more powerful. But what IT has done since generative AI exploded on the scene is frantically rush to deploy any and all possible applications, causing massive confusion and huge resource wastes, without delivering much …

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…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. While talent intelligence platforms (TIPs) serve an important purpose in identifying skills, they are inherently limited and never designed to address the fundamental question: How is work itself structured and how is it changing? AI has dramatically magnified and accelerated those pre-existing limitations. It’s not just creating new skill gaps—it’s redefining work at its core. Yet most org…

It was perhaps the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley. When he wasn’t running his design firm LoveFrom, Jony Ive was building another new company, just around the corner in San Francisco’s Jackson Square, called io. Focused on the future of AI hardware—what some have oversimplified as the iPhone of AI—io was rumored to be the physical side of OpenAI’s groundbreaking software. Now, the rumors are reality. OpenAI is acquiring io for $6.5 billion. From a news release: The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco. …

COVID-19 cases are rising again as a new variant begins to circulate in some parts of the world. The World Health Organization said Wednesday the rise in cases is primarily in the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and western Pacific regions. Airport screening in the United States has detected the new variant in travelers arriving from those regions to destinations in California, Washington state, Virginia and New York. The new variant is called NB.1.8.1. It arrives as the United States’ official stance on COVID-19 vaccination is changing. On Tuesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 shots are no longer recommended for healthy chi…

Curiosity isn’t just a valuable personality trait—it’s a leadership superpower. In a business environment where innovation dictates success, curiosity serves as the catalyst for breakthroughs and industry reinvention. Yet, despite its transformative potential, curiosity remains one of the most undervalued tools in leadership today. According to a Harvard Business Review study, curiosity fosters openness and collaboration while reducing decision-making errors. Yet only 24% of organizations actively encourage it, leaving a wealth of untapped potential on the table. The best leaders don’t just seek answers; they reframe problems. Instead of asking, “How do we fix this?” …

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is honing in on infant formula in his food safety review. RFK Jr. says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will further test formula brands for heavy metals after some concerning results from Consumer Reports (CR) were released earlier this week. “The FDA will use all resources and authorities at its disposal to make sure infant formula products are safe and wholesome for the families and children who rely on them,” Kennedy said in a statement. HHS is calling the plan “Operation Stork Speed.” On Tuesday, CR revealed the results of testing on 41 types of powdered formula, from major labels such…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. It’s been made clear in the past few months that the uncertainty we’re facing as a country has impacted almost every level of society. And it’s not lost on me that there is an overwhelming amount of pressure on our state leaders in the current political and economic environment. Unfortunately, I’m not confident that these leaders are using their power to tackle the deep-rooted issues that our co…

It would seem unlikely for clothing designers get their wheels turning by thinking about what happens to garments when people are through with them. But that’s exactly the sort of backward thinking that led to Under Armour’s new “regenerative sportswear collection,” created in collaboration with Portland, Oregon-based Unless Collective. The collection, which is making its debut in Italy this week during Milan Design Week, comprises footwear and clothing made entirely from plants and plant-based materials. That means they’re biodegradable and compostable. “All of our products make good dirt,” says Eric Liedtke, Unless co-founder & Under Armour EVP of brand stra…

Waking up in the middle of the night used to spike my anxiety. I’d panic about losing sleep, which would only lead to more lost sleep, and more panic, until I wore myself out or the sun came up. But over time, I realized that those wakeups weren’t always bad. Some of my thoughts during those half-asleep moments turned out to be surprisingly useful. They helped me generate article ideas or navigate complex, ambiguous problems. Eventually, I saw that this altered state of wakefulness let me engage with life’s challenges in ways I couldn’t during the day. It turns out that I wasn’t alone. Your mind in the middle of the night In a well-known study from 2022 tit…

Andy Merolla is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Jeffrey Hall is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the director of the Relationships and Technology Lab at the University of Kanas. What’s the big idea? Individually, most day-to-day interactions may seem trivial, but they add up to an important personal and societal opportunity. We all engage in our own unique ecosystem of everyday communication—our very own social biome. Meaningful engagement with others is critical to health and wellbeing, but we live in a time when any kind of engagement is dwindling. So, even if we don’t get ev…

How brands reach consumers is always evolving. And at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW this past weekend, executives from Duolingo, NBCUniversal, and Creators Corp. discussed how they’re not only holding their consumers’s attention, but finding ways to embed their brands into their daily lives, primarily through branded entertainment. NBCUniversal: Find Ways to Engage Fans within an Experience When John Jelley, SVP of product and user experience at Peacock and global streaming for NBCUniversal, thinks about branded entertainment, he thinks about fandoms. From Love Island to The Traitors to Saturday Night Live, NBCUniversal has a wide array of IP with deep fando…

Business leaders love to talk about innovation. But for all the energy poured into frameworks and strategy decks, most teams rarely experience what innovation actually feels like. Real innovation is uncertain, emotional, iterative, and profoundly human. That’s why Cliff has spent the past several years guiding organizations through songwriting experiences—yes, literal songwriting—to unlock the emotional and relational capacities that innovation demands. And as someone who works at the intersection of story, leadership, and transformational design, Tony sees this as more than a clever workshop: it’s a reorientation. The same skills it takes to write a compelling song—…

Barbara Corcoran is one of Shark Tank’s longest-running sharks, with an estimated net worth of approximately $100 million. But she’s also one of 10 kids from a working-class family. By age 23, she’d held more than 20 jobs. By 52, she sold her real estate company for $66 million. Corcoran knows how to build wealth. Her financial strategies are bold and unconventional. They buck traditional financial wisdom and—full disclosure—they can be also risky. But could they help you build wealth? 1. Don’t Bother Saving Money “I’ve never saved a dime my whole life,” Corcoran told CNBC Make It in 2023. Rather than letting her money sit idly in a bank account, Cor…

Everyday Health Group, a division of Ziff Davis, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired theSkimm, the newsletter and media brand dedicated to giving women the information they need to make confident decisions. TheSkimm was cofounded by Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg in 2012. They met in college, and then reconnected years later while working as news producers for NBC. The company began as a daily newsletter that was an essential daily news digest for millennial women (and men). Today, it offers multiple newsletters, podcasts, and a mobile app. It also houses Skimm Studios, which creates video and audio content, as well as SKM Lab, which allows brands to …

Japanese regulators on Tuesday accused U.S. tech giant Google of violating anti-monopoly laws, echoing similar moves in the U.S. and Europe. Google Japan said in a statement that it found the action “regrettable.” It said it has invested in Japan significantly to promote innovation as a technology leader. The Japan Fair Trade Commission’s “cease and desist order” says Google must stop the preinstallation of the Google search engine in Android smartphones, which it said in effect shuts out competition. It’s unclear if Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., based in Mountain View in the Silicon Valley, will take legal action to fight the order. In the U.S., a judge rule…

A new Marvel movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, is set to arrive in July, and fans are already invested in its marketing campaign. Earlier this month, the film’s Instagram account uploaded a promo poster, and people have been reacting. On the subreddit r/marvelstudios commenters praised the poster’s minimalistic design and color scheme. (“The art for this movie has been [to] die for. Man. Whoever is doing this graphic design should be proud,” read one comment.) The retro-futuristic design features only two colors: sky blue and white. Overlapping figure fours surround white silhouettes of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing standing in t…