Sophie Wade predicts the future for a living. As a writer, speaker, podcast host, and consultant, she helps companies stay ahead of the trends that are transforming workplaces. For example, while many of us were scrambling to adjust to working from home after Covid-19 hit, Wade had seen remote work coming for years. “I don’t want people to ever believe that where we are is because of the pandemic,” she says. “We were already on this trajectory.” Indeed, there were companies that were ready for the pandemic because they already understood how technology is changing and what it means to do business.

In Empathy Works, Wade explains that the key to navigating technological change is focusing on people. Kirkus Reviews calls this book an “insightful and practical must-read for leaders” and praises Wade for “demystifying the concept of empathy” and challenging “the idea that human-centric workplaces are excessively emotional or unstructured.” Kirkus talked with the New York–based author via Zoom, which only seems fitting.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Wade has worked in England, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Germany. Before coming to the U.S., Wade found that empathy was key to helping her adapt to a variety of workplace cultures. By the time she arrived in the States, she says she had “an open perspective about what work means” rather than set ideas of what work should look like. “We never really sit down and ask, ‘How should we work?’ ”

The pandemic, however, forced us all to adapt to new possibilities that were already on the horizon, and, she argues, there’s no going back. “In a country where the work culture has been pretty toxic for a long time, people just aren’t going to accept returning to the office full time when they’ve gotten a glimpse of how they can live differently.” The fundamental message of her book is that everything is changing, and companies can only succeed by acknowledging and accommodating human needs.

Positive, proactive change begins with looking at the employee experience. “The social contract between employers and employees is broken. It used to be that you got a job for life and then you retired, and even if it was crappy work, it was secure. All that’s gone, and the way we’ve been working just isn’t sustainable.” There are no instant fixes, Wade says, but “human understanding is going to help us work together better—more closely—and get through this challenging transformation. When we really connect with one another and help one another, we do our best work.”

Creating human-centered workplaces doesn’t just help companies make the most of technological change. It can also help bridge generational divides. Any baby boomer, Gen Xer, or millennial who has worked with Generation Z colleagues can tell you that they have different expectations of work than their older colleagues and that these differences can cause friction. Wade’s advice is to work with these youngsters rather than trying to make them fit an outdated mold. “Empathize, don’t judge. Instead of telling them to put away their phones, ask them why they’re attached to their phones and then figure out how to use that. Maybe they’ll show us some hacks—how to streamline convoluted old processes.” One of the things Wade says most often about Gen Z is that they are “manifesting the future of work right now.” In a world that is only becoming more connected, employees who have grown up with the internet can show companies how to benefit from diversity and innovation. “When you grow up with access not just to your own village, but also to villages in India and Africa, you understand that your way is not the only way. Creating a workplace environment informed by new information and amenable to emerging trends is the only way forward:

This is the moment to review recent data and reflect, to project new pathways and generate a new orientation, strategic framework, and guidelines for your organization and ecosystem. This is the moment to use research and relevant insights to cultivate a cohesive and supportive environment by nurturing your company’s culture and community.

When asked about the role that self-awareness plays in exercising empathy, Wade returns to her years of moving from country to country. “I lived in Hong Kong for five years. I lived in Germany for two and a half years. These places were so different—from each other and from what I had known before. That really forced me to try and put myself in other people’s shoes. At the time, I wasn’t thinking of this as empathy. I was just trying to figure out what was going on around me, and that gave me fresh insight into my own background and how it shapes my worldview.” This new awareness, in turn, helped Wade appreciate—and learn from—the diverse environments in which she was working.

What’s ahead? Wade is not alone in seeing AI as the next seismic disruption, but she suggests that empathy is, again, the key to navigating this new technology successfully. “You can ask ChatGPT to write a speech, but AI is not going to capture who you really are—not yet.” For now, at least, AI is a tool that we can use to serve us as we reimagine the workplace. Wade says that like the pandemic, rapid advances in AI are going to accelerate change that was already underway.

Whether we like it or not, change happens. Toward the end of her conversation with Kirkus, Wade pointed out that during America’s Industrial Revolution, factories relied heavily on women’s labor because men were reluctant to work for another man. “So factory owners imported this Prussian schooling system,” she says. “They built schools designed to train compliant factory workers.” These innovations created a model for work that has persisted for 200 years. Now this model is broken, and we’re in the midst of figuring out what comes next.

“It’s going to be messy for a while. Really, really messy,” she predicts. Empathy is the best tool we have for navigating chaos. Connecting with one another, listening to one another, learning from one another—that’s empathy, and that’s what companies are going to have to do to thrive as we move into the future.

Jessica Jernigan lives and works on Anishinaabe land in central Michigan.