A trio of emerging social trends combine to present new challenges to organizational leaders in their decision-making and oversight. This, especially as the trends impact strategic planning and interaction with stakeholders.
Of course, now’s not the greatest time to be introducing new issues, real or perceived, onto the leadership agenda. Officers and directors have enough problems trying to balance the turbulence of new governmental edicts with pressing economic and operational challenges.
Yet these new social trends, as documented in surveys and commentaries, raise important concerns of organizational trust, increasing personal isolation, and the decline of respected organizations. No, they’re not balance sheet items. Yet each of them go to the core of the organization’s relationships with its customers, its employees, and the communities in which it operates.
Self-Imposed Solitude
One such trend is what a recent essay in The Atlantic described as “the Anti-Social Century”; i.e., the increasing attraction of Americans to solitude, and its impact on our personalities, our politics and our relationships with reality. The essay observes that Americans are interacting with others less than any other period in the last 60 years-a trend established long before the pandemic. Notably, the author draws a distinction between loneliness and solitude, with latter being a personal choice and not an affliction.
The essay attributes the root causes of this preference for solitude to factors ranging from the degrading of public spaces; to the dramatic increase in time spent at home, to the progression of the digital world and to the personalization of AI. It summarizes the trend as the obsession of personal optimization; the decline in ways that people make themselves essential to their families and their communities.
The consequences of self-imposed solitude have the potential to “rewire America’s civic and psychic identity”. And they should be of concern to organization leaders who are by necessity (if not also by orientation) focused on workforce culture and all of its manifestations, including the ability to attract, develop and retain a stable and productive workforce and as well as the ability to interact with customers, vendors and community members.
Trust and “The Grievance Society”
A second notable trend is identified in the 2025 edition of Edelman’s annual “Trust Barometer” survey. The survey is drawing widespread attention for its description of a “Grievance Society”; i.e., an environment in which a “pervasive lack of belief in a better future” has created a widespread sense of public discontent. According to Edelman, that discontent is leading public sentiment “beyond political polarization to aggressive advocacy for self-interest”.
It’s a gloomy scenario, to say the least. On the one hand, the survey results show that business organizations are generally viewed as more ethical and competent than government, and thus a “default option” for resolution of social concerns. On the other hand, there remains a widening divide in trust (according to income groups) in the ability of business maintain ethical behavior. It reflects a belief that government and business make peoples’ lives harder, and serve narrow interests that allow the wealthy to unfairly benefit.
Too harsh? Maybe. But the survey sends an unavoidable message about the importance of trust as an intangible corporate asset; that organizational leadership should focus more on how trust is earned, preserved — and lost.
Decline of Key Institutions
A third noteworthy trend comes from the results of the Pew Research Center’s recent “ Religious Landscape Study”, which studies the U.S. population’s religious composition, beliefs and practices.
The survey reflects poorly on the long term future of organized religion in the country. From one perspective, the Christian share of the population, after years of decline, has been relatively stable since 2019. Similarly, the religiously unaffiliated population, after increasing substantially in recent decades, has leveled off — at least temporarily.
From a more negative perspective, however, are substantial indicators of the long term erosion of the religiousness of the American public. This is attributed to several reasons, including (i) young adults are far less religious than older adults; (ii) no recent birth cohort has become more religious as it has aged; (iii) a decline in the “stickiness” of a religious upbringing; and (iv) a rise in the “stickiness” of a nonreligious upbringing.
The relevance of these indicators isn’t limited to the major religious denominations. There’s something fundamentally threatening of credible data suggesting a decline in the role and prominence of an historical American institution. Organizational leadership across the spectrum will want to know whether their business model, their purpose, is exposed to similar erosive factors.
Conclusion
Let’s “be real” here. None of these surveys suggest impending economic, regulatory or societal catastrophe. They are analyses, projections and extrapolations; not financial barriers, operational roadblocks nor civic calamities.
But they are pieces of a larger puzzle of social change that have the potential for impacting leadership oversight and decision-making over the long term. While they may not belong at the top of the leadership agenda, they deserve to be accommodated within the general conversation.