Episode 262 · 30 December 2025 · 44:24
Expert Predictions for 2026 (Part 1): Ethical AI, text chat and the death of the resume
Expert Predictions for 2026 (Part 1): Ethical AI, text chat and the death of the resume
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Prediction 1 — Phill Agnew: AI must 'show its working' & the rise of text speak
Prediction 2 — Meghan French Dunbar: AI will advance humanity & job creation trumps destruction
Prediction 3 — Erica Breuer: Identity deviates from work — explore over optimize
Prediction 4 — Anthony Taylor: Clarity and middle managers are the new superpower
Prediction 5 — Georgia M. Hodkinson: Clarity is the new productivity metric (not time)
Prediction 6 — Josh Levine: The death of the resume — relationships are the new CV
Wrapping up — what's coming in Part 2 and Happy New Year
Show notes
Expert Predictions for 2026 (Part 1): Ethical AI, Text Chat & the Death of the Resume
This Week in Work — Al Elliott and Leanne Elliott (Chartered Occupational Psychologist) kick off their annual predictions special with six experts sharing contrasting visions for 2026. From AI needing to "show its working" to the death of the resume, from clarity replacing time as the productivity metric to identity breaking free from work — this is Part 1 of their two-part crystal ball special.
🔮 The 2026 Prediction Panel
Six experts. Two very different camps. Here's who's making predictions in Part 1:
1. Phill Agnew (The Nudge Podcast) — AI must "show its working" & the rise of text speak Phill predicts a push for transparency in AI decision-making, plus the continued rise of informal, text-style communication seeping into the workplace. Find out more →
2. Meghan French Dunbar — AI will advance humanity & job creation trumps destruction The optimist of the panel. Megan has spoken to people using AI for oncology research in Nigeria, legal applications, and even setting up companies at 1/100th of traditional costs. Her message: jobs won't disappear — they'll evolve into strategic advisory roles. Find out more →
3. Erica Breuer — Identity deviates from work: explore over optimize A messaging strategist who helps businesses figure out what to say (and what not to say). Her prediction: our identities are breaking free from our job titles, and we should be exploring rather than optimizing. Find out more →
4. Anthony Taylor — Clarity and middle managers are the new superpower The self-described contrarian. Anthony's take: AI is revealing something important about our organisations that we've been ignoring. Mental toughness — not just resilience — will be the leadership skill that matters. Find out more →
5. Georgia M. Hodkinson — Clarity is the new productivity metric (not time) An organisational psychologist challenging everything we think we know about productivity. Time-based metrics are dead; clarity is the new measure that matters. Find out more (Event) → Find out more (LinkedIn) →
6. Josh Levine — The death of the resume: relationships are the new CV The mic-drop moment. Josh predicts the traditional CV-driven job market is dying — AI is degrading what he calls the "enshittification of the job market." What replaces it? Your network and the people who'll vouch for you. Find out more →
🎧 Featured Podcast: Nudge
Al and Leanne also give a shout-out to Phill Agnew's podcast, Nudge — the UK's number 1 management podcast (and, as they point out, the two shows have a lot in common, including both wrangling Rory Sutherland for an episode). Recent episodes cover fake fandom and whether we're all just status-seeking monkeys.
📅 Coming Up Next
Part 2 of our Predictions for 2026 drops on New Year's Day (January 1st) — with a different energy, apparently. Al has promised an ASMR version. We'll see.
Connect With Us
Got your own prediction for 2026? A question for the Workplace Surgery segment? Or just want to say hello? Get in touch, book a call, or find Al and Leanne on LinkedIn — all in one place: truthliesandwork.com/connect
Mental health support: findahelpline.com — UK: Samaritans 116 123 · Mind 0300 123 3393 — US: 988 — Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14
Truth, Lies & Work is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network.
Full transcript
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Al ElliottHappy New Year's Eve Eve!
Leanne ElliottHello everyone, I hope you had a lovely Christmas. We're in that glorious lost week, if you've got it off work, between Christmas and New Year when no one really knows what day it is. Nobody's pants fit anymore, um, and we're kind of looking forward to going back to work just to stop eating all the chocolate.
Al ElliottYes, Quality Street, had enough of that. Yeah, anyway, if this happens to be your first time here, welcome.
Leanne ElliottWelcome. This is Truth, Lies and Work. We are the award-winning podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture. And we, of course, still brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Sometimes I do wonder if I say HubSpot's name more than my own, but let's, let's say mine instead.
Al ElliottDon't say it 3 times. Don't say it 3 times, otherwise they'll pop up, they'll appear behind you.
Leanne ElliottMy name is Leanne. I'm a chartered occupational psychologist.
Al ElliottMy name is Al. I'm a business owner.
Leanne ElliottTogether we help you build amazing workplace cultures.
Al ElliottYes, we do. But today we're not doing that. We're not doing that today. Hey, we're doing something a bit different. We've gathered some of the smartest people we know to share their predictions for 2026. And I guarantee some of these are gonna surprise you. But I'll be honest, if you're looking for something which wasn't about AI, then this probably ain't the prediction show for you. In fact, let's be honest, is there any prediction show gonna be for 2026 that's not gonna have AI in it?
Leanne ElliottI don't think so. If you are new here or newish here, if you've been with us less than a year, you might not know that Al and I have been doing these prediction episodes for the past 3 years. If you wanna hear 2025's prediction episodes, go back to episode 159 and 160. And if you wanna hear the ones from before that, you wanna head back to episodes 71 and 72.
Al ElliottWow.
Leanne ElliottI know.
Al ElliottThat's a long way back.
Leanne ElliottI know. I'll be honest, so far we've got nothing right, but don't let that discourage you from leaning in heavily to today's episode.
Al ElliottYes, our guests quite often get things right.
Leanne ElliottSo what is interesting about this year's guests is we're seeing 2 very different camps emerging, I felt, Al. Some guests are feeling very hopeful about what's coming. Others are bracing for some pretty significant challenges, but they are all pointing to the same thing. The way we work is about to shift in some fundamental ways.
Al ElliottYes. So let's quickly run through who we've got, and then we'll go to each individual guest and hear their prediction. First up, we've got Phil Agnew from Nudge with us. There's no prediction show that's complete without the amazing Phil. Phil is all about behavioural science and how people make decisions. He's got 2 predictions about AI that are gonna make you think differently about how we interact with technology and each other.
Leanne ElliottThen we hear from Megan French Dunbar.
Al ElliottMFD.
Leanne ElliottMFD, who's taking a much more optimistic view of where AI is heading. She's been talking to people doing some really exciting work in healthcare and beyond, and her take on job creation versus job destruction might actually challenge what you've been hearing in the news.
Al ElliottAnd after that, Erica Brewer, one of our brand new friends, she's gonna be talking to us about something pretty profound, how we find meaning and identity Now, she knows what she's talking about because she's a brand strategist. So she thinks about connection and identity for a living. She's got a couple of predictions about how people are gonna fundamentally change their relationship with work.
Leanne ElliottThen we have Anthony Taylor, who's getting a bit contrarian.
Al ElliottNice word, chaperone.
Leanne ElliottThank you. I don't use that very often. I'm like, maybe I should use it more.
Al ElliottI'm writing it down so you can use it more often in 2026.
Leanne ElliottSo Anthony, his words, not ours. He thinks AI is revealing something important about our organisations that we've been missing. And he's got some strong views about what really matters in the workplace. Bit of a spoiler, it's not what most people are focusing on.
Al ElliottFinally, Georgia Mary Hodkinson is challenging the entire way we think about productivity. She reckons we've been measuring the wrong thing all along, and burnout, well, that's not actually about individuals struggling with it.
Leanne ElliottSo whether you are feeling optimistic or slightly terrified about 2026, we've got perspectives here that'll make you think. So let's dive straight into these predictions. Right after a very quick message from our sponsors.
Al ElliottThe dirty little secret is that most businesses think they know their customers. They have the data, the records, the history, but it's scattered across 3 teams and 4 systems. And in our case, it's about 216,000 spreadsheets, which means nobody can actually use it.
Leanne ElliottWhat you should be doing is using HubSpot, because why? HubSpot connects it all— every interaction, every support ticket, every conversation— into one platform every team can work from. So when sales talks to a customer, marketing already knows the full story. And when you know more, you grow more.
Al ElliottNice. Check out hubspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses. Welcome back. Right. Our first prediction comes from a friend of the show, fellow HubSpot Network podcaster and host of the UK's number one marketing podcast, The always cheerful, always amazing Phil Agnew from the Nudge Podcast. My prediction, like probably most people's prediction on today's show, is to do with AI, because what else is there to predict other than AI? I have 2 predictions actually. Both of them are based around a bit of psychology because that's where my head's usually at. I'm often reading behavioral science journals and figuring out how people make decisions. The first one is this idea that I think I think AI, come next year, will start to be very clear in terms of showing it's working. So right now it sort of sometimes says what it might be doing and then gives you an answer, but it doesn't really tell you what it's been doing. And I think AI companies will actually start to build tools to show the working of the AI. So when they write you an email, it'll give you, you'll be able to click a button. It'll say, here's exactly why I wrote the email in that way. Here's why I used this line rather than this line. Here's why I said this rather than this. I think the reason they will do this is because Showing the working will make customers actually value the output even more because the magic has worn off now. So two years ago, when we were using ChatGPT to write an email, it was magical. It really blew our mind. Now it just seems normal, and actually, I think we undervalue how impressive it is because it just happens so fast and we don't really think about it. And I think AI companies will realize something that psychologists have realized for a long time, which is that if you show you're working, for example, people will value the thing you create more. I'm sure I've heard an episode around open kitchens or something, which is where you can see the chef actually make it. Is this a similar kind of idea? So that's a study by Ryan Buell from Harvard University, and he's studying something called operational transparency. And it's exactly that. In Harvard canteens, he sets up these studies where sometimes the people who are dining in the canteen can see the chef cooking Their meal. And other times he places a partition between the chefs and the diners, and so no one can see each other. And what you find consistently is that diners enjoy their meal more when they can see the chef, whether they could see the chef working. Interestingly, the chefs also enjoy creating the meal more when they can see diners enjoying the meal. So this is operational transparency. If you can see behind the scenes, you value things more. And there's other elements of this as well, which, and I think the one which is pertinent to the AI example, Is that this is again a Michael Norton and Ryan Burrell study. They did a study with Kayak where people were shown the Kayak homepage. They entered their search. So I want to do whitewater rafting in New Zealand. And Kayak, because this was back in the sort of 2010s, early 2010s, it took a bit of time to load. So there was a loading screen. Sometimes the loading screen just showed a wheel loading. And other times the loading screen showed it's working. When it does that loading screen, they find that people value the results more than when the loading screen is blank. Interestingly, if they show they're working, the loading screen can take like 3 times as long and people still value the results more because you can see all the effort going into it. And I think because AI has got so fast, it's become so omnipresent, it's lost a bit of that. magic, a bit of that shine. And I think companies will realize that if they actually reveal a bit of what's going on behind the, under the hood, people will value it a bit more for that reason. So you have a second prediction? Yeah, this one's silly. And it's for the same reason. There's this weird thing that happens when you realize something is created by AI, which is you start to devalue it, undervalue it. So there's this amazing study we've shared on my show by Professor Matt Johnson, where he shows individuals 2 pieces of art. Now, it's a podcast, so I can't describe, I can't show you the art, but one of the pieces of art is actually quite beautiful. It's really symmetrical. The colors sort of mesh really nicely. It's pleasing to look at. The other piece of art is a bit janky and it's not quite as nice to look at. So when people look at these 2 pieces of art, me included, and you're asked, which do you prefer? Pretty much everyone prefers that one, which is nice to look at. I did too. However, the study then reveals to the viewers that that piece of art, the nice one to look at, is AI-generated, and the janky one is human-created. And then they show these labels to people, and they find that when the piece of art is labeled as AI-generated, we actually don't like it anywhere near as much. And we suddenly say, oh no, I much prefer the human-created piece of art. I don't like the AI piece of art. I think this is maybe a bit of a problem with AI. I know you see it a lot. I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn because I'm a loser, and you see it a lot on LinkedIn. You see people calling out other people for using em hyphens and clearly using AI comments and clearly using AI. And so my prediction next year as a sort of fight back against AI is that text speak is going to become a thing again. So text speak, you know how we always used to speak on texts when you paid by the letter and you couldn't be asked to write out a See you late with an 8. I think that's going to start coming back or dripping into our vocabulary. I think there's going to be this weird value that people place on messages that have so clearly been not created by an AI because they're chaotic and weird and grammatically incorrect in some ways or cut short in others or meshing words together in a way that AI wouldn't. Previously, before AI, that would have just been nonsensical and would have looked unprofessional. But now, in a world where potentially so many of the messages, especially on somewhere like LinkedIn, are written by a robot, not a human, that'll become really weirdly valuable.
Leanne ElliottIf you enjoyed that, you absolutely need to check out Nudge. And here's the thing, right? You're already 90% of the way there because you've got your podcast app open right now. So press pause, type in Nudge, press follow, press play. We're all happy.
Al ElliottWell, don't press play just yet because I've got a few more predictions for you.
Leanne ElliottSo I meant come back and then press play on host. Wasn't very clear there.
Al ElliottWell, okay, on to prediction number 2 then.
Leanne ElliottYes, our next prediction comes from none other than the incredible Megan French Dunbar, or as we call her, MFD.
Al ElliottMegan is brilliant. She is an author. She's worked with some of the most forward-thinking organisations, and she just released a book called This Isn't Working, which, to be frank, if you care about the future of work, you 100% need to read it. Although, come on, let's be honest, you're clever. You've probably already read it, listener, haven't you?
Leanne ElliottYeah, absolutely. I mean, And Megan is just one of those people who manages to be both incredibly hopeful about where we're heading and brutally honest about what needs to change. So, let's hear what she thinks is coming in 2026.
Al ElliottI feel hopeful. I think we're going to start seeing more positive advances. I think AI is going to be used in not just negative ways. I think there's going to be ways that it's going to be used in like really helpful, positive. I think we're going to see breakthroughs. research, breakthrough technologies, things coming through that are advancing people's lives and healthcare and actually using business to the betterment of humanity.
Leanne ElliottThere's an oncologist from Nigeria who is working with a friend of mine, and he is using it to do oncology research.
Al ElliottAnd it is rapidly advancing a ton of research that has been stagnating and taking so long over years and years and years. Like when we use AI on really deep vertical trenches of solving problems like this, like very specific oncology.
Leanne ElliottAnd there's another one that was being used for deepening connection and like helping people who have like-minded interests to be able to connect with each other. And like people actually taking it and using it as a tool for good, that is going to, I hope and assume, create more jobs as we advance in research, as we advance in ideas and solutions and new ways of being. In the business space, I do think there are some sectors that are going to get hit. Yeah.
Al ElliottAnd my hope is that with enough of these deep vertical AI ways that we're applying it, that it actually—
Leanne Elliottthere's a ton of new jobs that are going to be created again in things that are advancing humanity and society. One of the places I was in recently, they were talking about a new AI application that makes accounting a breeze.
Al ElliottAnd things that are numbers-based, where it's pretty black and white, and a computer could do them very well. They were also—
Leanne Elliottthere was one that was talking about using it for legal application.
Al ElliottAnd like, my husband is an attorney.
Leanne ElliottAnd but like that, again, black and white, like here is the letter of the law.
Al ElliottAnd this was pretty much a like entrepreneurial kit to get started with all the business things that you need to know as like when you're a brand new entrepreneur, which 10 years ago I would have loved. And this woman was like, I used to work at one of the largest business law firms in the world.
Leanne ElliottAnd I can do all of the setup for a company at 1/100th of the cost of what you would spend on a traditional attorney.
Al ElliottSo it's like fabulous for entrepreneurial endeavors and like all of that and advancing that. And then like the legal profession, I'm like, ooh.
Leanne ElliottBut then like with that, she, you know, someone asked like, what do you, what do you think about the fact that that's probably going to be cannibalizing the legal profession and you are in fact an attorney? And she was like, well, I think—
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottLawyers need to be starting to see themselves in a different capacity.
Al ElliottLike, yes, they need to understand the letter of the law, but they need to be more in a place of strategic advisors. And like, really thinking about what are the nuanced perspectives that you can bring that are from experience and from studies and like all of the amalgamation of information you have in your brain that you can bring to bear that puts you in more of an advisory capacity rather than like a—
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottI am going to help you interpret the law because there will most likely be AI applications for that. So, most of the things that are very black and white. And I think there's also, like with this, it wasn't like it's going to— all of the lawyer jobs are going to be gone.
Leanne ElliottIt was like, you're just going to need to tweak the way that you're thinking about your profession.
Al ElliottAnd I was like, oh, that's hopeful.
Leanne ElliottHow are you applying that hope into what what that world is going to look like next year, because it does affect us all. It really does.
Al ElliottJust heard this last week. I was at an event and Vicki Saunders, who you should, if you haven't had her on the show, I'm like, she's like a guru. Oh my gosh. She mentioned that before every progression, there is a regression, and that she feels like right now, this moment in history is like the bow being pulled back. That's the regression to like launch the arrow that is about to go further than we've ever imagined.
Leanne ElliottAnd I was like, that's how I, that's what I need to stick.
Al ElliottI have to have that in my head as what is happening right now.
Leanne ElliottAnd I think the number one predictor of consistent behavior change is who you surround yourself with.
Al ElliottAnd I intentionally put myself in rooms with people who are hopeful, people who are trying to make change, people who are looking at solutions, people that are using their time on this planet to just try to make it better.
Leanne ElliottAnd it's hard not to be hopeful when you're looking at the extraordinary brains and wisdom and energy that is going into creating wonderful things in the world.
Al ElliottThere's a lot of bad shit, uh-huh, and you can focus on that. It's not— I have to almost put horse blinders on right now and just stay the course so that I can keep doing what I'm doing. If that resonated with you, and I suspect it will have done, Go grab Megan's book, This Isn't Working. You can find it on Amazon, or we've put a link to her website in the show notes.
Leanne ElliottIt is a proper good read. She doesn't pull any punches, but she's also got this really infectious optimism about what's possible when we actually rethink how work works.
Al ElliottOkay, prediction number 3 coming up. Prediction number 3 comes from Erica Brewer, and if you don't know Erica yet, you're in for a treat.
Leanne ElliottErica is a messaging strategist who basically helps businesses figure out what to say, and more importantly, what not to say. She's also the co-host of Trash Talk Podcast, which has possibly the best tagline we've ever heard, where clichéd advice goes to die.
Al ElliottShe also runs something called the Worst Kept Secrets Hour, which is a monthly meetup for people who've got something genuinely new to say. Needless to say, we are not invited and never have been and never will be.
Leanne ElliottYes, none of this reheated talking points from 2016 nonsense, Al. Erica is worth more than that. And also, new things, new ideas is exactly what you're about to hear. Erica has 2 predictions that are anything but recycled wisdom. So let's hear what she has to say. For a long time, our work was also a thing of identity. So in addition to our daily duties, the work was also being or figuring, becoming more of who you were. And that came with reward too. Like in focusing on that, you got a pension. But I think people are keen to the fact that those rewards just aren't the same anymore. You can't even rely on the consistency of a job or a career these days. So it's a shaky place to stake identity. And that's where I think deviation comes in, right? From seeing employment as this place to, you know, figure out who you'll become, to seeing other places to do that work of identity or finding meaning. How do you start to untangle that in an effective and healthy way? My thought is that people will do it through places where they do have control, in hobbies, in recreation, in play, or things that we would think of as play, or within, like, say, healing practices, whether that's yoga or some other modality. I think people will are gonna foreground those as, quote, the work, making air quotes for people who are just listening. Um, and it's the source of reward, right? I don't wanna say it's a sure thing, but it's more of a sure thing than what we would experience in our 9-to-5 lives. And, and what do you imagine the impact of that being as we start to reclaim our identity from more sources than just work? I think we'll see some more articles in Harvard Business Review about People not taking their work seriously anymore. Nobody wants to work anymore. Getting labeled as a deviant, especially as, you know, there's propaganda around the younger generations. But the flip side of that is that we're gonna have to find new ways to motivate and inspire the people on our teams. And, you know, maybe not bring them back to the dark side of finding identity through work, but But finding different ways to engage them in general, because the reward's not there. You know, the sense of who am I might not be as much there anymore, but there are probably other things that we can start thinking about. I feel like speed is breaking us, and most of the people I talk to are exhausted by that. And then there's optimization. It's, it's boring us. It's not making better products or better marketing campaigns. You know, executives optimizing my viewing experience isn't really making Netflix better than it was 5 years ago. Exploration inspires and excites me because it's what we need. We need new things right now. We need solutions that have never existed before. And I really think that's where exploration comes in. I mean, we need it in our careers on an individual level. We need it in the marketplace. We don't need to go faster. So yeah, I'm not inspired by optimizing anything that I'm doing or doing it better. Everything I do is pretty damn good, right? But it is about exploring and experimenting, having those unpolished riffs that you put it out there. And I think that's how you get to the important things.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottSo deviate and explore. Those are my predictions. And I think, actually, I know that's gonna get you what you need. I really like how Erica thinks about things. I think she's not afraid to challenge the status quo and just say it as she sees it.
Al ElliottAnd if you want to hear more of that kind of thinking, go check out her podcast, Trash Talk.
Leanne ElliottIt's so good.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottYeah, it's so good.
Al ElliottVery, very good. Or head to her website. We've put the link in the show notes. And if you're anywhere near one of her Worst Kept Secrets Hour meetups, honestly, just go. I mean, I say honestly, just go. Never been.
Leanne ElliottSounds good.
Al ElliottSounds great. I'm sure it is brilliant. I'm sure it is.
Leanne ElliottYeah. And you'll be hearing more from Erica in the new year. Spoiler alert. Right, on to prediction number 4 after this very quick break though. Yeah, everyone, everyone needs a— what day are we on?
Al ElliottGo and get a cuppa. Yeah, I— we don't know, we don't know what day it is.
Leanne ElliottWhat time is it?
Al ElliottWhat? I genuinely don't even know what year it is.
Leanne ElliottBaileys?
Al ElliottSee you in a second.
Leanne ElliottDid you know that the UK's number 1 management podcast— that's us, by the way— yeah, yeah, and the UK's number 1 marketing podcast are both on the same podcast network?
Al ElliottWe actually have a lot in common. We both use behavioral science to help people do better at work.
Leanne ElliottAnd we both had to wrangle Rory Sutherland on an episode.
Al ElliottAnd 2 out of 3 of us are devilishly good looking. And you're not going to say which. Fel, host of Nudge, UK's number 1 marketing podcast. It's brought to you— we need to do this in 3s— the HubSpot Podcast Network.
Leanne ElliottThe audio destination for business professionals. Seamless.
Al ElliottSeamless. Tell us about your latest episode, Phil. We've just done an episode on fake fandom and how New York indie bands are paying agencies to create fake TikTok videos about how much they like their work. And we talk about the behavioral science behind fandom and how that encourages people to enjoy the music and all of that good stuff and do some big things about how this affects the world of politics, business, and brands as well.
Leanne ElliottIt is. It's such, it's such a good show. Of course, you'll hear all the stuff you want to hear about how to grow your business by using behavioural science in your marketing. But there's also just some really interesting episodes that'll be right up your street. Personally, I enjoyed Can Balsamic Vinegar Make Beer Taste Better?
Al ElliottIt can.
Leanne ElliottAnd Are We All Just Status-Seeking Monkeys?
Al ElliottI am. Go and listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts.
Leanne ElliottBut come back.
Al ElliottYeah, come back. Definitely come back because Nudge isn't as good as this. So come back. I'll cut that out. Keep that in.
Leanne ElliottOkay, so prediction number 4 comes from Anthony Taylor, and Anthony's got what he calls a bit of a contrarian view.
Al ElliottAnthony's a leadership coach who specialises in helping mid-career professionals rebuild confidence and resilience, particularly after setbacks. He's been through it himself— redundancy 3 times, bounced back every single time. Rubber Tony, they call him in the trade.
Leanne ElliottHe's also all about mental toughness, the ability to stay calm, focused, and decisive when the pressure is relentless. And that's exactly what his prediction is about.
Al ElliottSo let's hear Anthony's slightly contrarian take on what's really gonna matter in 2026. I've got a bit of a contrarian view, but I think I'm naturally, I'm a contrarian at heart. So I think what I'm gonna say might jar with a few other people, but here we go anyway. So my thoughts on AI, everyone's talking about AI. They see it as this big disruptor and everything else. And the way I kind of see it is, Yes, partly that, but actually it's a big revealer. So yes, it's slightly changing the world, but I think what it's really doing is exposing actually the lack of human capability in a lot of our systems. So I think that's going to have a big impact on that. I think how it's going to affect leaders is it's going to find out an awful lot of people that don't have that capability to adapt, to be adaptable, to be able to prioritize, to be able to—
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al Elliottbecome kind of under pressure because of the pace of change. So I think that's gonna have an impact. And I see this a lot. The real revolution is gonna be attention. So the scarcest resource that I see in businesses isn't money, and it's not time, although people say it is. It's actually focus. We are asking too much of our people to do too many things at too much pace. And actually, I think for me, the organization's gonna get ahead next year, in the next decade, are going to be the ones that learn to ignore a lot of the noise and focus on what really shifts the needle. And I think there is a real— that's where business can learn a lot from sport. You know, the old British saying, if it ain't making the boat go faster, don't do it. Businesses are going to need to be asking that question every day. What are we doing? We've got the clarity. I also think a couple of things. Middle managers are going to make a comeback. I think for years we've kind of flattened structures. I think we're This big thing on leadership. But actually what we still know, and I think what's been highlighted by the pandemic and therefore this move to working from home and hybrid working, is that people still need guidance. They still need context. They still need structure. And they still need someone who cares enough to ask, are you okay? And to know what's going on with them and to care about them as an individual. And only middle managers can do that because they're the only ones that have that time and that So I think that's going to be, I think middle managers focusing, I think they're going to become the quiet superpower of organizations. I think the mental health crisis that we've seen in people, the burnout issues, all this talk about resilience, all that kind of stuff is brought about by those factors, a lack of clarity, a lack of focus on the stuff that really shifts the needle, and a lack of really good middle managers. So that's what I think what's kind of changing. I think for me, there's some of the things that are kind of overrated. I think the sense of purpose in organizations, Simon Sinek's Start with Why, all that kind of stuff, I kind of jumped on the bandwagon myself. I thought, this is brilliant, it's really useful. But I think most people, what most people want is they want to come somewhere to work that's got that clarity, that's not chaotic. They want someone who has got a boss that's going to listen. So an emphasis on the middle manager who isn't a dick.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al Elliottwho's gonna keep their promises. And I think that's what people want. They want to come to work for doing that. It's all very well having a great big purpose and a why, and that's fine. But without that stuff, people are gonna, I think, are really struggling. So I think that and that kind of the fact that realization, the culture is built in a corridor, it's not built on a poster. And quite frankly, it's not built when people are sat in their pajamas working from their back bedroom. You can't build a culture on Teams and online, and you just, we miss that kind of human connection. In terms of what I think leaders should prepare for, I think we just spent the last 10 years talking about resilience. I think the new skill is going to be about developing mental toughness. Mental toughness is that ability to manage how we respond mentally to stress, pressure, challenge, and opportunities. But can we stay level despite the hits when the hits keep on coming?
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottSo the ability to really develop that mental toughness, not just resilience kind of bouncing back because things have moved on. There's no point bouncing back when things have moved on. You're just going to go back to where you were when things have moved forward. So that's going to be a real leadership skill because that will then impact on other things as well. And I think just, and I probably touched on it, the craft of middle management, the craft of managing people, of doing the basics really well and moving away from kind of leadership fads.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottThat, I think, is what leaders kind of need to prepare for next year and in the next decade. There's an article in the news today about teachers in Scotland going on strike because they want an extra 90 minutes of their day back, not in front of the class, so they can do marking and preparation and everything else. That to me is a symptom of a bigger problem in industry. There's too much pressure on everybody to do too many things, to hit too many targets, to achieve growth all the time at what cost. And at the same time, they're burning people out. And it comes down to an absolute lack of clarity about what's going to move the needle. I see people time and time again engaged in stuff, doing reports, doing extra work that is not shifting the needle. And it comes down to a lack of clarity from the top about what do we really want you to do? And that basic conversation and communication about What do I want you to do? And I see it so many times with managers that go, I've got a to-do list. And when I finally work with them, coach them to pluck up the courage to go back to the boss and go, right, I've got 10 things here, and you get a boss that's good enough to go, right, just focus on those 3, a lot of the stress melts away and their productivity increases. I have to say, I really like Anthony's perspective on this because it's so refreshing to hear someone cut through all of the, come on, we're all friends here bullshit. And talk about what actually matters day to day.
Leanne ElliottYeah. And if you're a mid-career professional who's feeling a bit stuck, burnt out, or like your confidence has just really taken a knock this year, Anthony might be worth talking to. We put his details in the show notes.
Al ElliottAnd if you like reading, and who doesn't, then he's also got 2 books, The Manager's Code, which is The 4 Habits of Highly Effective Managers, and Mental Toughness Metaphors. Uh, it's the one with the knot that looks like a brain. It's such a cool image, cover image. Go and check those 2 out.
Leanne ElliottAnd thank you, Anthony, for sending Yes, thank you very, very, very, very much.
Al ElliottOkay, on to our final prediction. It comes from Georgia Mary Hodkinson. She is an organisational psychologist specialising in fatigue, burnout, and performance.
Leanne ElliottGeorgia is currently in stage 2 of her occupational psychology training. She's the founder of Georgia's Psy Work, where she helps organisations prevent burnout and improve performance through psychology-led training.
Al ElliottShe's also the Director of Operations and Marketing at the Psychology Business Incubator, or PBI if you're friends with them, which is, as you know, a global community for psychologists and coaches. Basically, she knows her stuff when it comes to knowing how our brains actually work at work.
Leanne ElliottYes, and her prediction is going to challenge everything you think you know about productivity. Let's hear from Georgia. Clarity is going to become more of a productivity measurement. Right now, everyone's obsessed with time management, but the real bottleneck here is cognitive load, decision friction, and ambiguity. So, in 2026, I believe we'll shift from managing your time to managing what your brain is carrying. So, we obsess over time management, and what you're saying is Let's stop obsessing over time management. Let's start obsessing over clarity management. Why is clarity more important than time? Because blaming individuals for a burnout when it's actually the system that's causing us issues, it's not going to get us what we need. It's about creating this system that helps human beings. More than just time management. When we're working and we're fatigued, our brain already has these shortcuts, but they're exacerbated by our fatigue, our burnout. So, when we become, and I don't like to use the word tired because it's not always a physical tiredness, but it's about an emotional and a physiological way of becoming burnt out. So, I would angle this as the lack of clarity is potentially causing us fatigue and burnout in a way that we can't maintain. We're all different. We're all going to begin tasks differently. We're all going to organise our desk differently, but it's about understanding how all these different ways of doing things can affect personality, which is fatigue, performance, communication. So, it's about making sure that everybody's catered to. Now, that's challenging in an organisation, especially large global ones, because there's so many moving pieces. And that's how I like to think about human beings is moving pieces, dynamic. So, it's about allowing this. To paint the picture, to grow, to flourish. So, I suppose human factors is the dynamic challenges that are brought on by different people interacting. Love it. And it's so important, isn't it? And I think it's even more relevant now that AI is becoming such a massive part of our organisations. Are you excited for AI? As a human factors specialist, are you excited or are you nervous? I want to say both because I think it's important to stay nervous and stay— I'm going to change that word. I'm going to say it's important to stay curious. It's important to say, to stay questioning whether this is appropriate, whether this is going to either affect me in a positive or negative manner. So, always stay curious and always stay sceptical.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottHowever, this is a tool that if you use it right, will benefit us. And if you choose not to use it, potentially could be leaving behind, it could be left behind. Yeah, I'm actually doing a training course, the big, at the end of January with Neil Chester, where we will be discussing unlocking AI, but staying human. So, in order to keep that human edge in that personable way, but still using it as a tool to improve our adaptability and improve our speed, productivity. I'm getting the vibe from what you're saying and your predictions, you're on the hopeful side for 2026. I guess, are you? And if you are, what are you hopeful for? What positive change do you think we're going to see next year? I like to remain positive, and I do like to remain hopeful. Because that does emit things of our personality and wishful thinking. What I am hopeful for is just bringing back these procedures that make, that give us a system that is easier to work with. And I suppose this relates to the 5-day working week research. The weekend was designed how many centuries ago, whereas we're evolving now to a very different world. Now, do these systems need challenging? And my answer would be yes. And the further we go, the more that we challenge this dynamic system or build a more efficient dynamic system for us to interact with. I love how Georgia frames this, that it's not about working harder or faster, it's about understanding what our brains are actually dealing with. And that whole shift to clarity is just delicious.
Al ElliottYep. And if you like that kind of thing, then you are going to like Georgia's brilliant draining training program. Not draining. No, no, there's nothing to do with draining. It's all about training. She's like, Lee, I'm being serious here. I'm plugging a course. She's actually running a course at the end of January with Neil Chester called Unlocking AI but Staying Human.
Leanne ElliottWhich just feels extra relevant now given all the predictions We've heard today. We've put links to George's work and the Psychology Business Incubator in the show notes.
Al ElliottI'll also make sure her personal website goes in those show notes. Okay, Leigh, who's next?
Leanne ElliottRight, we've got one more prediction for you, and this one is a bit of a mic drop moment, Alastair.
Al ElliottWe actually, we actually did use the words mic drop. Can't remember if I left it in the edit or not. I can't remember. This comes from Josh Levine, who's the host of Great Mondays Radio and the author of Great Mondays. Josh thinks that how we find work and how we hire, the whole system, it is just broken.
Leanne ElliottHe is particularly focused on this idea of what he calls enshittification of the job market. AI is degrading the quality of applications. Recruiters are overwhelmed trying to find real people. And the resume, well, Josh actually thinks it's on its last legs.
Al ElliottSo let's hear Josh's prediction about what's going to replace the traditional CV-driven job market, because if he's right, this is going to change everything. The job market is, I was going to say slowly but surely, but fastly but surely becoming enshittified. So the book Enshittification came out in 2025, and we're seeing that in the job market. AI is just degrading the quality of the applications And the resumes as we try to match, pattern match or keyword match. I don't know if you've experimented with some of those resume revision AI websites and you put in the job listing and you're like, here, make sure you have this thing. And then on the other side, you have an overwhelmed hiring manager or recruiter who is trying to find A real person that's not AI or a bot or someone who's qualified. And the truth of the matter is we are circling towards the bottom of the barrel. And I feel like we are almost gratefully at the end of the life of the resume. The resume is a 2-dimensional offshoot or detritus of our 3-dimensional experience. It's, it's not, it just does not work any longer. And so when we think about the expansion of our, our, you know, presence on LinkedIn is one step. We have portfolios. So I design, I graduated as a designer with a portfolio, and now we have more than, more than just designers with portfolios. We've got everybody that has their own pages of writing and experiences and projects, which is wonderful. That's a great use of LinkedIn.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al Elliottof the web. Even better, we need those people that we've worked with to bring us along and for us to bring them along. We need to build and continue to invest in relationships so that we can demonstrate best of all, right? So if your resume is 3 jumps away from what you actually do and your LinkedIn portfolio is, or your LinkedIn page is 2, right? You get a little more space to kind of add in some assets and then your website is 1 jump away of like, Here's how I present myself. Here is my brand. The real real of it is when you work with somebody and you have done a good job, you have demonstrated that you are capable and thoughtful and provide value to an organization and a team, that is the best case for you to get your next job. And because all those folks are going to be moving along at some point, you either need them or they need you. You're going to Or get the band back together. And that is what you want, is to increase the opportunities for those kinds of experiences and collisions so that you have a network of trusted peers who really understand your value. Then we can get out of the resume, of the CV game, because that is a losing game. I'm sure many of your listeners have experienced this looking for work, and it's just like punching yourself in the face every time you, every time you apply. We need to change the way we're doing things because it just doesn't work. And that is where I believe we're going to start. I think next year, it's kind of the instigating moment for my prediction is we're going to see a collapse of the resume-driven job market. And Hopefully after that, we will see other assets, other ways, other tools to really bring together the best of the best. And maybe that's even already happening in the kind of niche community job or Slack channels or, you know, Discord channels, right? There's the old things about the the unlisted jobs. It's those people that you know, or you know, you know, that can validate or can vouch for you that are going to get you that next job. That's what I think we're going to see next year. And I actually am excited to see the death of the resume finally. If you didn't have such a beautiful mic, I would encourage you to rip it off and drop it on the floor because that is it. This actually got me kind of excited. I did really like this. And fun fact is that Josh and I spoke for about 15 minutes before this, and then he just went, oh, before I go, I've got this idea, dropped it. And I was like, yes, this is amazing. The death of the resume. I think I'm for it.
Leanne ElliottI'm gonna have to professionally decline from having an opinion on that. But Josh does make a compelling case for, for, yeah, for why relationships and demonstrating the value are going to matter more than just a 2-dimensional document that doesn't really show. What you can do anyway.
Al ElliottMost 2-dimensional documents, not the ones that—
Leanne ElliottI was gonna say, a good resume written by a professional organisation is likely to demonstrate those relationships and value.
Al ElliottIf you wanna hear more from Josh, check out Great Mondays Radio. You can find it wherever you're listening to this right now. And his website is greatmondays.com. Talking of great domain names, he didn't pay that much money for it, but he still secured it a few years ago. Well done, Josh. We're gonna put all the links in the show notes.
Leanne ElliottI love that that's what you just asked somebody about. Josh, before you go, can I just ask you how much did your domain cost?
Al ElliottI did.
Leanne ElliottI know, I'm sure you did. Don't doubt it. Just weird.
Al ElliottI am very, very strange.
Leanne ElliottSo there we have it. 6 predictions for 2026. Some about AI, some about how we work, all pointing to some pretty significant shifts ahead. Part 2 is coming on New Year's Day, the 1st of January. We are your hangover buddies. If you haven't subscribed, then maybe that can be your first New Year's resolution, eh?
Al ElliottYeah, and we will talk very quietly. We'll do an ASMR version.
Leanne ElliottYes, we'll bring a different energy.
Al ElliottIf you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you haven't enjoyed it, then please share why to us privately. Don't put it on the internet. We— nobody needs to know your thoughts if they're negative. Oh, by the way, what are your predictions for the year ahead? Go on to LinkedIn, find Leanne or me if you want, because I'm starting to do a bit more stuff on LinkedIn. But search for Leanne Elliott and Go and tell her what you think predictions are for this year ahead, because if you're right, then we'll, we'll, we might ask you next year to come on the show. If you're wrong, well, we will just—
Leanne ElliottWe might still ask you to come on the year next, because we've never got it right. Who are we?
Al ElliottPublicly humiliate you.
Leanne ElliottAnyway, this is Truth, Lies and Work. We'll, we'll see you on Thursday. Happy New Year.
Al ElliottHappy New Year.