- Speaker #0
Welcome to the Deep Dive, your shortcut to critical knowledge. You're here because you need to understand one of the biggest forces reshaping the European landscape right now.
- Speaker #1
And that is, of course, Generation Z.
- Speaker #0
Exactly. We've been given the introduction of Gen Z. So imagine this for a second. You walk into a new office or you log on to a new Slack channel for the first time.
- Speaker #1
Right.
- Speaker #0
And the words being used, all the big ones like culture, empowerment, well-being, they all sound great. They're familiar. But the vibe, it just feels, I don't know, foreign. Like every little pause or a delayed reply on a message is somehow speaking volumes about the real rules.
- Speaker #1
That feeling right there, that's exactly what we're diving into today. That sense that the unwritten rules are, well, they're screaming louder than anything in the company handbook.
- Speaker #0
Okay, so this isn't just like a communication breakdown.
- Speaker #1
No, not in the traditional sense. This whole deep dive is about... decoding this subtle sort of implicit language Gen Z uses to navigate work. Experts are actually calling it CINEL.
- Speaker #0
CINEL. Okay, so that's S-I-N-E-L. Socially Interpreted Non-Explicit Language.
- Speaker #1
Exactly.
- Speaker #0
And sounds a bit academic, but it feels like it's really about day-to-day office life.
- Speaker #1
Oh, it is.
- Speaker #0
So our mission today is to take the source material on CINEL and turn it into something actionable for leaders, for managers, really for anyone working with this generation.
- Speaker #1
For sure. Because the core idea here is that Gen Z doesn't just listen to what you say. They scan the environment. They're constantly interpreting the culture.
- Speaker #0
So it's an adaptive strategy.
- Speaker #1
It is. And the biggest risk for a manager isn't that someone misunderstands a policy. It's that they mistake that silence, that quiet scanning for satisfaction.
- Speaker #0
When really it's the sound of them concluding this place doesn't add up.
- Speaker #1
Precisely. The disconnect isn't in the big official documents. It's in the tiny repeated behaviors.
- Speaker #0
The tone of an email. Who gets cut off in a meeting?
- Speaker #1
That's where the culture really is. And to get why Gen Z is so, so vigilant about this, we have to look at how they were basically trained from birth to spot these inconsistencies.
- Speaker #0
It's fascinating when you put it in a historical context, right?
- Speaker #1
It is. I mean, think about the boomers. They largely operated with a sense of institutional trust. You work for a company, it provides stability, a clear path.
- Speaker #0
Then Gen X comes along and reacts to that. Their whole thing was trust no one, be independent.
- Speaker #1
Total self-reliance. And then you get to the millennials.
- Speaker #0
Right, who are all about self-expression, you know, follow your passion and this idea that if you just speak up, you can create change.
- Speaker #1
But Gen Z inherited the, let's say, the wreckage of those expectations. They didn't just see the 2008 crash. They lived through the aftermath where trust in those systems just never fully came back.
- Speaker #0
So they were constantly checking the gap between what was said and what was real.
- Speaker #1
Constantly. They'd hear, oh, you can be anything. But it was coming from parents who were completely burned out and couldn't even take a vacation.
- Speaker #0
Or they were told in school, use your voice, speak truth to power.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, but then they saw the actual systems punish people for speaking out and reward just, you know, going along with things.
- Speaker #0
And the big one, being told to stay connected online during a pandemic that forced everyone into, well, total isolation.
- Speaker #1
All these conflicting messages, this huge gap between the ideal and the reality. It hardwired a whole generation to look for one thing above. above all else.
- Speaker #0
Coherence.
- Speaker #1
Coherence. They are always asking, do the words actually match the actions here? Does this place practice what it preaches?
- Speaker #0
Which means when they get to a job, they're not just looking at the salary, they're running a constant coherence test.
- Speaker #1
And that's where I think that observation from Benoit van Kouberg is so sharp. When they find that lack of coherence, they don't protest.
- Speaker #0
Picket signs.
- Speaker #1
No. Their reaction is so much quieter and honestly more devastating for a company. They just, they disengage. They go silent.
- Speaker #0
And that silence leads us right to what the sources are calling the signal gap.
- Speaker #1
Yes. This is the often invisible canyon between the official policy and the signals people get every single day. CINAHL lives in that gap.
- Speaker #0
Let's use some real examples because this is where it gets so clear.
- Speaker #1
Okay.
- Speaker #0
So a leader says, we empower our junior staff. We want fresh ideas. They might even put it on the careers page.
- Speaker #1
A very common explicit goal. But then in the actual team meeting, what does the Gen Z employee see? they see that That every time a junior person speaks up, they get interrupted.
- Speaker #0
Or their idea just gets like handed over to a senior person to validate it.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. Or in the really big meetings, only the senior people are even allowed to talk. So the signal signal they get is immediate.
- Speaker #0
It's hierarchy is what really matters here. My voice is just for show.
- Speaker #1
Yep. It's a huge instant disconnect.
- Speaker #0
Okay. Here's another one. Well-being. Every company talks about it.
- Speaker #1
Oh, yeah. They roll out a mental health week. Maybe there are posters.
- Speaker #0
The explicit message is we care about you.
- Speaker #1
But then that same manager sends a super important Slack message at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday.
- Speaker #0
Or expects a reply on a Sunday.
- Speaker #1
Right. And the interpreted signal isn't about the nice brochure. It's productivity beats people every single time. Burnout is basically rewarded here.
- Speaker #0
And that contradiction just cancels out the entire policy.
- Speaker #1
Completely. And maybe the most important one is about diversity.
- Speaker #0
The company says, we champion diversity and inclusion. It's a core value.
- Speaker #1
But then the Gen Z employee looks up at the leadership team. And what do they see?
- Speaker #0
Everyone looks the same. Went to the same schools, has the same background.
- Speaker #1
And Kennedy's signal interpretation is just, it's brutal and it's fast. It's inclusion is a PR tactic. The real path to power here is very narrow and it doesn't include people who look like me.
- Speaker #0
So these aren't just small things. These signals are updating their internal dashboard from the second they start.
- Speaker #1
From day one, they are running a full diagnostic.
- Speaker #0
So let's actually break down that dashboard. What are the key things they're scanning for in that first week?
- Speaker #1
OK, so the sources point to five big ones. And the first, maybe the most important, is safety.
- Speaker #0
As in psychological safety.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. They're asking, can I speak my mind here without getting punished for it? And a huge signal is what happens after someone asks a tough question.
- Speaker #0
So if a junior points out a flaw in a process.
- Speaker #1
And there's dead silence from the managers or the question gets brushed aside. That's a massive danger signal. It means the culture protects the status quo, not the people.
- Speaker #0
Okay, what's second?
- Speaker #1
Second is sincerity. This is that coherence check we've been talking about. Do the actions match the words?
- Speaker #0
So if the company value is innovation.
- Speaker #1
But they absolutely crush any experiment that doesn't work out perfectly. Gen Z learns really fast that the real value is don't take any risks.
- Speaker #0
Makes sense. Number three.
- Speaker #1
Number three is power. They're trying to figure out... The real hierarchy. Who actually makes decisions around here?
- Speaker #0
Not just what the org chart says.
- Speaker #1
Never what the org chart says. If they're given a fancy title, but all they do is take notes in meetings, they know their actual power is zero.
- Speaker #0
Right. And number four is tone.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, this one's subtle. It's the emotional atmosphere. What does silence mean? Is it okay to disagree or is that seen as being hostile?
- Speaker #0
I see. And the last one is digital, right?
- Speaker #1
Yes. Number five is digital culture, which is huge now. Do the vibes on Slack match the vibes in the boardroom?
- Speaker #0
Ah, so you can have this super fun emoji-filled group chat.
- Speaker #1
But if the minute you get into a performance review, it becomes cold, formal, and totally scripted, they know which one is the real culture and which one's just for show.
- Speaker #0
And when that whole dashboard after that first week is just flashing red.
- Speaker #1
That's when you get what the sources are calling the great emotional escape.
- Speaker #0
It's not that they just quit on the spot.
- Speaker #1
No, no. The withdrawal starts emotionally first. It's a self-preservation move long before anyone sees a resignation letter. It's not about being disloyal. It's just pattern recognition.
- Speaker #0
But wait a second. Let's push back on that. Because a leader from, say, a different generation might just see that and think it's laziness.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
Or lack of commitment. How do you tell the difference?
- Speaker #1
That is the absolute critical question. And the difference is the starting point. Gen Z often comes in with a ton of energy, you know, idealism. they want to find a purpose.
- Speaker #0
They want to contribute.
- Speaker #1
Yes. But when that energy smacks right into a wall of contradiction, they don't pull back because they're lazy. They pull back because their effort feels pointless. They learn that the system wants compliance, not their actual creativity.
- Speaker #0
So they basically just scale back their effort to match the level of sincerity they're seeing from the company.
- Speaker #1
You nailed it. It is a response. And the numbers on this are pretty staggering. That Gallup report from 2024 said. 83% of Gen Z workers feel emotionally disconnected at work.
- Speaker #0
83%. They're showing up, but they're not really there.
- Speaker #1
And that emotional disconnect is usually what comes before they physically leave. The Deloitte report found 65% would rather just quit silently than try to confront a bad manager.
- Speaker #0
So that silent quitting, that's the ultimate sign-all signal.
- Speaker #1
It is. It doesn't look like a big dramatic exit. It looks like a camera that's always off on Zoom calls.
- Speaker #0
Or replies to emails that take longer and longer.
- Speaker #1
Avoiding the team social events. Or that creative person you hired just stops offering new ideas and only does the bare minimum.
- Speaker #0
And leaders miss it because they're still waiting for the angry email or the big confrontation in a meeting.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. But Gen Z grew up online. They learned that direct confrontation often goes nowhere. And sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is just mute, block, or disengage.
- Speaker #0
So when work feels off, they just switch off.
- Speaker #1
Right.
- Speaker #0
And that's why managers are so often shocked when they leave. They say, but we thought everything was fine.
- Speaker #1
When the feedback was there the whole time, it was in the silence. It was in the camera being off. It was in the slow fade over six months.
- Speaker #0
OK, so if CINEL is the language, then leaders need to become, what, fluent in it.
- Speaker #1
That's the perfect way to put it. This isn't about a new retention strategy. It's about achieving basic literacy. You can't lead people if you don't understand the language they use to decide if you're trustworthy.
- Speaker #0
It's like that analogy from the sources. You wouldn't try to coach a team in Japan without learning any Japanese.
- Speaker #1
Right. Leadership has to start with literacy, with learning to read the signals before any strategy will work.
- Speaker #0
So how do they do that practically?
- Speaker #1
Well, you have to stop relying only on employee surveys with explicit questions. You need to conduct what our sources call a signal audit.
- Speaker #0
A signal audit. Okay.
- Speaker #1
It's a process where you deliberately look for the gaps. Where do our stated values clash with what we actually do every day?
- Speaker #0
But that can be tough. I mean, the leader sending late night slacks probably isn't a bad person. They're just dressed themselves or that's how they were taught to work.
- Speaker #1
For sure, it's often not malicious. But you have to shift the focus from the leader's intent to the leader's impact. You have to listen for the contradictions, not just wait for complaints.
- Speaker #0
You have to see that disengagement as a really sophisticated signal, not just as defiance.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. Reframe it. And then... you have to invite the youngest people on your team to help you decode the culture. They're the native speakers of Sunil. They can point out the gaps instantly.
- Speaker #0
Because what they're looking for isn't perfection.
- Speaker #1
Not at all. They're looking for coherence. They get that things go wrong, but they need the story the company tells to match the reality of working there.
- Speaker #0
And that Edelman Trust Barometer really drives this home, right? That Gen Z in Europe ranks authentic leadership higher than salary.
- Speaker #1
Higher than salary. They will literally trade money for a culture that doesn't feel like a lie.
- Speaker #0
Which brings us back to that core definition of culture. It's not the poster on the wall.
- Speaker #1
It is not the poster on the wall. It is who gets interrupted, who gets promoted, and how a leader reacts when somebody makes an honest mistake. Every single one of those moments sends a signal. Gen Z is watching.
- Speaker #0
So to wrap this all up, Sentinel socially interpreted non-explicit language. It's basically Gen Z's survival guide for a world full of contradictions.
- Speaker #1
It's their way of figuring out if a workplace is real, if it's safe. And their actions or their silence often speak way louder than any official company statement.
- Speaker #0
Which leaves a pretty big challenge for anyone listening.
- Speaker #1
It does, because Gen Z demands coherence. The provocative thought for you to take away from this is to run a mini audit on yourself right now.
- Speaker #0
What signals are you sending?
- Speaker #1
Exactly. Maybe unintentionally. in how you run your meetings or how fast you reply to messages, and maybe more importantly, what subtle signals of disengagement from your team are you seeing right now and maybe mistaking for satisfaction.
- Speaker #0
A lot to think about. We'll be back with another deep dive soon. We hope you feel thoroughly equipped to understand the scope and the power of the Gen Z shift.
- Speaker #1
Thanks for tuning in.
- Speaker #0
We'll catch you next time.
