If there is a “great” opportunity to “reattach”, then something must have become “detached”–and it must be a pretty “great detachment”.

In fact, Gallup recently announced that we are in the middle of what they are calling “The Great Detachment”.  It promises to be a new hashtag to follow #greatresignation and #quietquitting.

We believe The Great Detachment provides a great opportunity for organizations pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.

The Great Detachment

In a December 3, 2024, article titled “The Great Detachment: Why Employees Feel Stuck“, Ben Wigert and Corey Tatel describe this newest workplace phenomenon.

Employees across America are feeling increasingly detached from their jobs. They are seeking new job opportunities at the highest rate since 2015, while overall satisfaction with their employer has returned to a record low. Yet, unlike the “Great Resignation,” many frustrated employees are struggling to make the leap
to a new employer in a cooling job market and economy marred by inflation. Instead, they are left feeling stuck with their discontent. Gallup refers to this shift as the “Great Detachment.”

The authors suggest five recent factors that Gallup research suggests may be contributing to detachment: rapid organizational change, hybrid and remote growing pains, new customer expectations, new employee expectations, and broken performance management practices.  But it seems to be “The Great Resignation” without a hot job market in which to escape.

It is Gallup’s suggested solutions that reflect opportunity for faithful leaders leading with faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing.  They offer two:

• Reset Expectations and Priorities (through “two-way” conversations with team members).

• Connect Individual Contributions to Mission and Purpose

Like the Great Resignation, we believe at the heart of the Great Detachment are organizational cultures that are dehumanizing.  In post #120 (The “Great De-Humanization”), we concluded that the factors cited as leading to the Great Resignation suggested people were leaving business as usual cultures that failed to treat people with dignity and respect–cultures in which the WHY was probably Profit as Purpose, which means people are, by definition, tools of production.

Refresher: Culture

We have talked a lot about culture in prior blogs.  Culture in an organization is “how we do things around here”–how people behave, how people treat other people, how people are motivated, what people perceive to be valued, what behavior is tolerated, encouraged or discouraged, which policies and rules are followed, and which are ignored.   It is an ever-changing reality that must be cultivated and curated.

As we have said many times in prior posts, purpose and values define the culture of an organization; the culture shapes the behavior of the people in the organization; and the behavior of the people drives the results of the organization.  Unlike lofty purpose statements and value lists, culture is where the rubber meets the road and the boots hit the ground.  It drives whether people are engaged or disengaged, flourishing or dying, competing or collaborating.

Reattachment=Connection

Reattaching workers to their work, to their workplace and to each other requires making reconnections–reengaging the disengaged.  As we have said in many posts, Mike Stallard’s “connection culture” is the best tool we know for understanding human engagement at work in an organization.

Although Stallard’s book Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work is written in secular language, in his research he tied all the ideas back to Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.

Stallard explains that a healthy work culture is a “culture of connection” in which humans feel connected to the organization, to their work and relationally to each other.  This aligns with managing an organization in a way that prioritizes relationships, community, human dignity and flourishing–it aligns with business a better way.  According to Stallard, a healthy culture of connection exists when people have:

• Vision:  When everyone in the organization is motivated by the mission, united by the values, and proud of the reputation.

• Value:  When everyone in the organization understands the needs of people, appreciates their positive unique contributions, and helps them achieve their potential.

• Voice:  When everyone in the organization seeks the ideas of others, shares their ideas and opinions honestly, and safeguards relational connections.

We believe Gallup’s solution of “Reset Expectations and Priorities” through two-way conversations reflects “Value” and “Voice”, and their solution of “Connect Individual Contributions to Mission and Purpose” reflects the key ingredient “Vision”.

Riding the WHY Wave

The discontent at the heart of the Great Detachment appears to align with the “WHY” wave we described in post #167 (The “WHY” Wave).  We suggested that a “WHY” wave seems to be building momentum in the United States, together with an undercurrent of mainstream cultural events tied to Biblical faith.

Although the Great Detachment may be new, the momentum toward purpose is not.  Gallup’s 2016 report on “How Millennials Want to Work and Live” listed as its #1 “functional change” that millennials “want to work for organizations with a mission and purpose”.

The “WHY” wave represents a cultural momentum toward finding purpose and meaning in life and work (which God designed as an integral part of life), and we choose to see an undercurrent of faith in the culture as representing a “glass half-full” openness of people to faith as a source of purpose and meaning.  For example, “The Chosen” has reportedly been viewed by over 200 million people and is on track to reach 1 billion with its goal of dubbing or subtitling in 600 languages.

Although the WHY behind this “WHY” wave is not the bigger WHY that defines business a better way in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities, this confluence represents an opportunity for faithful leaders to offer their employees a transcendent WHY–a WHY that does align with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.

It is the WHY implanted in every human by their creator and the only WHY that will maximize human flourishing.  It is a WHY of Glorifying God by Humanizing People and Beautifying the World.

Why the Great Detachment is Dehumanizing

To understand why we think detachment is “dehumanizing”, it is necessary to understand what we mean by “human”.

If you have been following our posts, you will know we believe one of the three bigger WHYs of business a better way is to Humanize People.  We do not believe that being human is the same as being homo sapien.  A person can be be more or less Humanized.

You might be asking, “I was born a human and have always been a human–what does it even mean to be Humanized?”  We were certainly created by God to be human–creations uniquely brought to life with divine breath (no other aspect of creation received divine breath) in the image of a creative, productive and relational God, made for a purpose (Creation Mandate) and deserving of dignity and respect because we were created in God’s image.

It is “who we really are“, but not necessarily how we are living and working in broken workplaces that are part of a broken world. Dr. Skip Moen argues that “If I am going to become human, I must move in the direction of the divine design in me.”   Because we were created by God to reflect God’s image through work (post #048-Work Is Good), working actually moves us in the direction of becoming more fully human.

In other words, we are more fully human when we work because it is an important aspect of how we live out Imago Dei and fulfill the Creation Mandate.  But to truly reflect Imago Dei in our work, we need to take joy in it just as God took joy in His creation. God made us to flourish through work, and we are less fully human when not reflecting our God-given creativity and productivity through work that is fulfilling.  In the words of Jeff Van Duzer:

When humans engage in creative, meaningful work that grows out of relationships and gives back to the community they become more deeply human.

Detached and discontent workers are not experiencing the fullness of humanity God intended.

The Great Reattachment Opportunity

The Great Detachment presents an opportunity for organizations pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  It is an opportunity to be an oasis, a releaser and a beacon–an opportunity to “fill the bus” with talented people hungry to flourish, an opportunity to release people who would flourish more fully elsewhere, and an opportunity to demonstrate to other organizations how to reengage workers through business a better way by pursuing a bigger WHY and prioritizing relationships, community, human dignity and flourishing.

An Oasis and Releaser

In his book From Good to Great, Jim Collins explained that “good-to-great-leaders” “first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right people in the right seats.”  The Great Detachment means that there are many talented people hungry to find a job in which they can flourish.

For an organization pursuing faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing with a Re-Imagined Vision, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Purpose, the Great Detachment is an opportunity to get the right people on the bus–people who would otherwise be unavailable if flourishing in their current positions.

It also represents an opportunity to offer release to people who would experience greater flourishing in another job but are being retained because there is no better replacement.  Again turning to the insights of Jim Collins:

Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people . . . [and] equally unfair to the people who need to get off the bus. For every minute you allow a person to continue holding a seat when you know that person will not make it in the end, you’re stealing a portion of his life, time that he could spend finding a better place where he could flourish. Indeed, if we’re honest with ourselves, the reason we wait too long often has less to do with concern for that person and more to do with our own convenience.

Offering release is not the same as kicking a person out into a tough job market because you found someone better.  It is about helping a person find a place where they can become even more fully human.  It might be a different seat on the same bus, or it might be on a different bus.  Offering release should follow the principles we described in post #215 (Integrity Idea 045: Terminate with Gold).

A Beacon

As we discussed in post #229, faithful leaders leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical Flourishing can be a beacon–an inspiration and a model.

It is based on the Biblical proclamation in Matthew 5:14 that “a city set on a hill cannot be hidden“, the Biblical call in Matthew 5:16 to “let your light shine before others“, and the Biblical principle in Proverbs 27:17 that “iron sharpens iron.”

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Faithful leaders operating in an increasingly secular culture and sharing “best practices” and stories of transformation can serve to encourage and equip other faithful leaders in their efforts to lead with faithful integrity. It is not about implementing overt practices but being overt about the practices being implemented and the bigger WHY behind them, wherever they are on the Covert-Overt Continuums.

As organizations pursuing business as usual struggle with responding to the Great Detachment, faithful leaders pursuing the Great Reattachment Opportunity might awaken what pastor and theologian Tim Keller called the “first order beliefs” written on the hearts of secular leaders and inspire leadership in alignment with principles such as the Golden Rule.  Keller points out in his book Every Good Endeavor:

People have innate consciences that are preloaded with senses of honesty, justice, love, the Golden Rule, and so on. . . . This universal knowledge of God and of good—this aspect of natural revelation—has been called “first-order beliefs.” All people hold these beliefs at some level, even if their conscious, intellectual, culturally conditioned “second-order beliefs” deny them utterly.

When a faithful leader boldly proclaims initiatives that their organization has implemented in order to operate with faithful integrity in alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities, and shares how those initiatives have cultivated an organizational culture that Humanizes People and reattaches detached workers, it is like tossing the proverbial stone into a pond, creating ripples that can change the broader culture.

The ripple-effect of such a courageous action has been described eloquently by Robert Kennedy:

It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. (Robert Kennedy)

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM):  As I was thinking about the Great Detachment and Jim Collins’s “bus” metaphor, I remembered a ride I took recently on a school bus.  School buses are not made for adults or for long trips.  My knees were pressed tightly (and uncomfortably) against the seat in front of me–far worse than even a coach airline seat these days.  There was no bathroom on the bus and no air conditioning.  The Great Detachment is like riding on that bus as an adult, with no particular destination and no opportunity to get off.  Even the people in the “right seats” are not happy and not having the best thoughts about the ride.  They are likely thinking more about the discomfort than the view out the windows.

ESSENCE:  Gallup recently announced that we are in the middle of what they are calling “The Great Detachment”.  Like the Great Resignation, we believe at the heart of the Great Detachment are organizational cultures that are dehumanizing.  God made us to flourish through work, and we are less fully human when not reflecting our God-given creativity and productivity through work that is fulfilling.  The Great Detachment presents an opportunity for organizations pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  It is an opportunity to be an oasis, a releaser and a beacon–an opportunity to “fill the bus” with talented people hungry to flourish, an opportunity to release people who would flourish more fully elsewhere, and an opportunity to demonstrate to other organizations how to reattach detached workers through business a better way by pursuing a bigger WHY and prioritizing relationships, community, human dignity and flourishing.

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Photo Credit: Original image by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
(photo cropped)