What If the Youth Are Right?
- pd9192
- Sep 8, 2025
- 2 min read
For several years, I've had the privilege of running a Leadership Development Program (LDP) that guides established leaders through a transformative journey.
A Success Story: The Leadership Development Program
The program is structured across four intensive three-day modules:
Module 1: Leading Yourself. We start with the foundation—understanding our own values, behaviors, and impact.
Module 2: Leading Others. We then expand to the dynamics of teams, exploring how to inspire, develop, and guide others effectively.
Module 3: Leading Organizations. This module scales our perspective to entire systems, from large corporations to the foundational organization of the family.
Module 4: Being the Emerging Future. Finally, we confront the disruptive reality of our times. Here, I ask leaders: How will you apply these learnings to be accountable for the future that is emerging right now?
It's in this final module, grappling with our responsibility in a changing world, that the most profound questions arise. And recently, an unexpected challenge put those very questions to the test.
The Challenge: A New Generation
A graduate from my LDP reached out with a unique request: could the transformative impact of the program be adapted for apprentices and dual-track students, but in a condensed two-day format?
I'll admit, I was hesitant. The core of my program is deep reflection, and I questioned what a 17-to-22-year-old could draw from such exercises. There isn't much to reflect on yet, I thought. I wondered if my perspective, shaped by a different generation and a high-performance value set, would even connect with Gen Z—a generation navigating constant social media interruptions, unsettling world politics, and a challenging economic outlook.
Would they even bother to listen?
The Discovery: A Readiness for Hope and Collaboration
To my great relief and profound joy, the experience was a stunning success. The engagement and connection in the room were remarkable. When I asked the participants for their takeaways at the end of our two days, their feedback wasn't just positive; it was specific, insightful, and mature.
This experience left me with a powerful and encouraging message. It seems that when we, as leaders, are willing to step away from the questionable values of "infinite growth" or "getting more results from fewer people," we don't find a void.
Instead, we find a powerful readiness for collaboration, a wealth of fresh ideas, and a deep, shared desire to co-create a more prosperous, trusting, and sustainable way of existing in these disruptive times.
The willingness to engage is there. The wisdom is there.
Perhaps our greatest opportunity—and responsibility—as leaders is not to have all the answers, but simply to listen. To create the space for these conversations, to trust the insights of those who will inherit the world we are building, and to have the courage to co-create that emerging future. Co-create. That is: together.
What if the youth are right? Maybe it's time we started listening as if they are.
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