In this blog, Mr Godfrey (Deputy Head), throws the spotlight on the futurist and author Chloe Combi, who is one of our guest speakers at this year’s much-anticipated Academic Conference at Downe House on Thursday 13 June. She will be sharing her expertise on understanding the mindset of the next generation.
Click here to read about the Conference – and click here to book your tickets!
At Downe House, we are delighted to be working with best-selling author, speaker, futurist and researcher Chloe Combi. Chloe is central to the Respect Project, our student-led collaboration with Radley College. She is well known to our girls as she visits Downe regularly and speaks to them in a variety of different formats. Chloe has also conducted two extensive surveys of all pupils at Downe and Radley to monitor their attitudes on range of issues that affect today’s young people.
Chloe is a trusted authority on the mindset of young people – Generation Z (those born between 1995-2009) and Generation A (those born between 2010-2024). She has interviewed over 20,000 young people globally and she uses that expertise in helping schools, brands, companies, governments, and institutions understand and prepare for the present and future.
At our 2024 Conference on Thursday 13 June, Chloe will discuss current and emerging trends in the younger generations, and she will consider how we can tackle the ‘new’ challenges presented by the cost-of-living crisis, neurodiversity, mental health, resilience and intergenerational skill-sharing and compatibility.
Chloe writes a regular and highly readable blog which I would recommend to all parents and teachers – anyone, in fact, who has an interest in intergenerational issues.
In her most recent blog, Chloe considers the supposed ‘sick-note culture’, so-called ‘lazy girl jobs’ and the frequent claim that Gen-Z and Gen-A have basically checked out of work, with high rates of younger people being unemployed, taking benefits, refusing to do jobs that are not to their absolute satisfaction and giving up on jobs very easily.
Chloe writes: “Whilst it is true that both culture and attitudes have shifted hugely around work in the last decade, and particularly since the pandemic, the notion that younger generations have basically checked out of professional life all together is false and consistent with the tabloid need to whip up a kind of generational resentment and fear and negative press on young people.”
In her blog, Chloe goes on to consider a wide range of reasons why the current generation of employers have not fully understood the younger generations.
These include: not appreciating how AI has impacted young people who are now inclined to question everything, including the very nature of truth and facts; not seeing why modern workplace cultures such as ‘bring-your-whole-self-to-work’ gives the wrong message to new, inexperienced colleagues; and how words such as ‘equality’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘diversity’ have become buzzwords in their vocabulary and yet many companies remain at root hierarchical.
Subscribe to Chloe’s substack to learn more or join us at our Academic Conference on Thursday 13 June to meet Chloe and hear her speak.
Mr Matt Godfrey
godfreym@downehouse.net
