Since the industrial age, we’ve treated people like machines: Hired for efficiency, managed like machines, and optimized for productivity. We also built organizations to match: hierarchical and mechanical, based on the outdated belief that survival belongs to the strongest and most adaptable but maybe Darwin was wrong. It’s actually the most connected who survive. Connection, it turns out, is also the key to human flourishing. However, that connection is under pressure due to individualization, digitization, polarization and today’s geopolitical climate. How, then, to build a strong company culture? This talk is a timely reset for HR and leadership. It explores how to build cultures of meaning, connection, and belonging in a world that’s fragmented and fast-moving. We’ll discuss why the World Economic Forum coined ‘resilience’ as the #2 most important skill for the years to come and why guiding people through uncertainty and investing in wellbeing is no longer “soft”, why it’s not just a moral obligation, but at the core of future-oriented businesses and HR teams. We’ll explore how leaders can unlock not just performance, but potential, by role-modelling what it means to lead as a human, not a job title. Because people aren’t resources and organizations aren’t machines anymore.