I've seen many of them “commit suicide” for various reasons, but often also because their employees (in this case, we can no longer speak of “talent”) had lost their taste for effort.

Without effort, there can be no progress, no victories. Effort brings joy

What's going on in many companies today? Why are so many people losing that vital impetus, that desire to excel?

Neuropsychologists are increasingly confirming that the human brain favours the least effort.

Less physical effort

Today's teenagers have lost ¼ of their lung capacity compared to teenagers in the 1990s - Olivier Babeau

Less effort at work

630h of working time in France on average per year, compared with 895h in Switzerland and 730h in Germany.

Too many candidates today think that success comes without effort. Fortunately, this laziness - and I use this strong word deliberately - is not shared by everyone, nor in all countries, where I note that the desire to progress is still intact, as in Asia for example.

Less intellectual effort

In some countries, the average level of schooling is falling, with all the consequences this implies for the future (not so future, unfortunately) in terms of a lack of intellectual resources and skills that all countries need to face up to the challenges of the 21st century.

Studies are beginning to point the finger at the smartphone as the cause of reduced brain capacity.

Last but not least, the decline in reading, and the effort it requires, leads to an impoverishment of thought.

Less parental effort

it's hard to have children when you want to focus on yourself.

In Italy, the birth rate has dropped to 1.2 children per woman in 2023, a 34.1% decline since 2008.

How can we restore this taste for effort in companies?

At the beginning of the 21st century, employees existed primarily through the company, adapting to the group. Today, it's the opposite: it's the company that owes us, that belongs to us, that must adapt to our employees. You only have to look at their à la carte requests concerning their schedules, or those who want to bring their dog to work...

Pleasing yourself is the n*1 objective, and above all, pleasing yourself right away. Gone is the patience of climbing the hierarchical ladder, of waiting for a promotion..., just the patience of learning your job in fact.

Here again, less effort. When the going gets tough, more and more employees give up and move on, without looking to the future. Commitment no longer counts; their only commitment is to the moment.

I don't like Monday mornings, because it's the favorite time for some employees to tell you that they've thought things through over the weekend and want to leave the company because the targets are too high and demanding... When I say they've thought about it, I'm being too kind: they've spent 4 hours on TikTok and arrive on Monday morning concluding that virtual life is much cooler than corporate life. Talent reliability: a skill that's becoming rare nowadays.

So to answer the initial question:

• Re-establish a certain discipline, the discipline of example. All sportsmen and women will tell you: achievement and victory require intense effort and discipline. It's the same in the corporate world, even if I know that I'm likely to come across as a dangerous reactionary.
• Convince employees to rediscover a taste for reading and reflection, and to gradually rid themselves of this lethal addiction to screens. Gradually stop taking their daily dopamine fix with the civilization of video. Move from passivity in front of a film or short videos, to reflective activity, memory, to finally rediscover the taste for effort, difficulty and self-fulfillment.
• Re-establish a culture of collaboration between the company's talent. Re-establish the “savoir-vivre” so that these same talent no longer focus solely on themselves
• Rearm employees to better withstand the vagaries of life and business, as well as divergent opinions.
• Re-learn to aim high, to reach for the stars. Isn't the greatest pleasure that of conquest?
• Re-teach employees to do nothing between 2 tasks: when I say do nothing, I'm talking about dreaming, chatting, resting, maturing a plan, creating... rather than grabbing your smartphone when you have a free moment to rush through attractive or stupid content.
• Stimulate the desire to succeed in specific projects that can only be achieved through passion, tenacity and collaboration.

In short, we urgently need to rehabilitate effort, merit and courage... before everyone falls into depression, because there's a real correlation between effort and depression. This is a real challenge for all civilizations, but also for human companies, all the more so as generative AI takes us one step further towards ever-greater ease.

PS: Thanks to those who made the effort to read all the way through :)

Charles-Henri Dumon
CEO Morgan Philips Group