I believe that, propelled to breakneck speeds by the pandemic, the last four years have seen the pace and connectivity in the workplace (in whatever form it now takes) exceed what us mere humans can process. This rapid evolution has resulted in what is now becoming the norm: corporate entities and individuals seemingly vanishing into thin air, leaving behind nothing but a chilling silence, well and truly establishing corporate ghosting as the new norm.
There is a battle of AI automation at play here too, with one side automating sales pitches into killer robots ploughing through hundreds and thousands of connections and engagements that once would have been built on human relationships and connectivity. Under this siege, it’s a fight or blank response. The battle on LinkedIn and email may already be lost, so rather than retaliating with AI and risking the creation of a zombie network, maybe it’s time to return to more traditional and disconnected methods of communication.
So I say that, and yet this little pondering is one I am sharing online—but not to try and engage, connect, or sell. Instead, I urge anyone who sees this message to reach out to their connections of old and arrange a catch-up over coffee with no agenda other than humans sharing what they are doing. With every conversation shared, we can start to rebuild those human networks.