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How to Rebuild Trust at Work During Significant Times of Change
Trust at work is fraying. Edelman’s 2026 Trust at Work report found trust in employers fell five points since 2024, and trust in direct managers and co-workers each hit record lows. That same research describes a broader shift in which people are growing reluctant to trust anyone different from them, which makes the workplace one of the few places left where people across differences still have to rely on each other. AI is adding fuel.
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The Feedback Staircase: A Tool for Calmer, More Useful Feedback Conversations
Most feedback conversations go sideways in the three seconds after the feedback lands, well before anyone has had a chance to think about whether the content itself was even right. You may have felt this yourself: someone tells you something about your work that you didn’t ask to hear, and before you’ve even processed the content, your body has already decided how to react– maybe defensively, perhaps launching into an explanation, or maybe just shutting down entirely. That reaction is very common.
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Essential Feminist Reads from 2025 and 2026
While feminist dialogue seems to be disappearing from the zeitgeist, the reality is that it’s more necessary than ever that we don’t stop learning and sharing. We know there’s a lot competing for our attention, which, we could argue, might very well be by design. We encourage you to read through this list and pick a book to finish out your summer. We’re truly inspired by these authors and their powerful contributions to this important, still very much needed topic. Looking for more? You can find our book list for 2023 and 2024 right here!
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Why Organizational Buy-in Fails and How You Can Fix It
Why does organizational buy-in for change sometimes fail? Organizational buy-in fails when people are given information instead of the opportunity to share their voice. This is a structural and participation problem, and solving it requires a different kind of intervention than most change plans include. The buy-in problem According to a July 2025 Gartner survey of senior-level respondents, organizations that continuously adapt change plans based on employee responses are four times more likely to achieve change success. Adapting a plan based on employee responses is only possible when employees have the structural conditions to respond candidly and without fear of…
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Same Mission, Evolving Work
Our mission has always been about abolishing inequity in the workplace, even as the language around that work has shifted. We believe the future of work must lead to this end-goal. It’s how we get there that’s evolving. Given that everything seems to be changing all at once, we’re focused on how to navigate these changes without losing each other. As long as we have to work together (and we don’t see that ending anytime soon, robots notwithstanding), shared humanity has to stay at the center.
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How You Can Use AI and Still Care About Climate Justice
Data centers are projected to consume up to 1,050 terawatt hours of electricity by 2026, and the environmental costs of that consumption aren’t spread evenly. They’re concentrated in specific communities, often ones that were already overburdened. You don’t need to stop using AI, but rather consider how to use it intentionally, and hopefully for good. Data centers already consume about 1.5% of global electricity, and servers built specifically for AI workloads are expected to jump from 93 TWh in 2025 to 432 TWh by 2030, nearly a fivefold increase.
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What Does ‘Ethical AI’ Actually Mean for People Leaders?
“Ethical AI” has become one of those terms that sounds (and is!) important but may be confusing for those newer to the AI space. So let’s break down its meaning so that it’s useful to you, no matter if you’re an HR leader or a people manager trying to make good decisions about AI. It’s Not Just About Bias (But Yes, It’s About Bias) When people hear “ethical AI,” they may jump straight to algorithmic bias, and they’re not wrong to. AI systems trained on historical data will reproduce historical inequities unless someone actively works to prevent that.
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AI Bias in the Workplace: What It Is, Where It Hides, and What People Leaders Can Do About It
AI tools are shaping who gets hired, who gets promoted, who gets flagged as a retention risk, and who gets passed over entirely. However, these tools aren’t neutral and carry real human biases that carry real weight. Where Does AI Bias Come From? AI systems learn from data. When that data reflects historical patterns of exclusion, the AI learns those patterns too and often amplifies them.
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Webinar Recap: Build a Future Ready Culture That Excites Your Team
Felicia Jadczak took the virtual stage to unpack one of the most pressing questions facing organizations right now: how do you build a culture that doesn’t just survive disruption but actually rides the wave of change and gets your people energized about what’s coming next? The timing couldn’t have been more fitting. The session fell on Equal Pay Day during Women’s History Month, and as Felicia noted, the gender pay gap has widened for the second consecutive year, a reminder that the future we want to build requires intentional, sustained effort across every dimension of how we work.
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New in the Inclusion Library: Six Resources to Bookmark This Month
We’ve been busy adding to the Inclusion Library, and this latest batch of resources spans everything from how women thrive in remote learning environments to the surprisingly tricky design choices behind pay transparency. Here’s what’s new and why we think each one is worth your time. With a Little Help from My (Girl) Friends: Field Evidence on Gender Homophily and Women’s Training Outcomes in Remote EnvironmentsThis study published in Organization Science offers the first causal evidence on how peer gender composition shapes women’s career outcomes in remote training settings.
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Understanding the Human Dynamics Beneath Every Organizational Change
In a previous post, we explored how a PESTLE analysis helps organizations move from being reactive to acting strategically by mapping the external forces shaping their environment. That’s encompassed in the Systems pillar of our SHIFT consulting framework, which is all about understanding what’s happening around you. It’s important to note that you can have the sharpest environmental scan in the world and still watch your change initiative collapse. This is because the forces that actually determine whether change takes hold are found below the surface. An estimated 60–70% of organizational change initiatives fail.
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Massachusetts Employers: Workforce Training Grants Are Open!
We’ve got great news for our Massachusetts clients. The Workforce Training Fund Program is now accepting applications for State Fiscal Year 2026. commcorp That means funding is available right now to invest in your team’s growth and we’ve just expanded our workshop catalog to give you even more to work with. Here’s the quick breakdown on funding: The Express Program offers grants of up to $15,000 per organization per calendar year, with up to $3,000 per employee per course. The General Program offers up to $125,000 for two-year training grants.