Generation Numb.
Customer Education edition.
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The rise of Generation Numb.
Customer Education teams face an impossible equation: the demand for agility, unity, and relentless innovation has never been higher - just as workforce energy hits rock bottom. After years of chronic uncertainty, digital overwhelm, and isolation, employees have emotionally shut down.
layoffs across the tech sector between 2023 and 2024.
of organisations report a 'low trust culture.'
record low in employee connection to company mission.
What is
Generation Numb?
Generation Numb represents a collective response to prolonged uncertainty and digital overload.
The numbers behind
Generation Numb.
When we surveyed employees across enterprise organisations, the data confirmed what leaders already sense: the workforce has fundamentally changed.
50% of employees say they feel numb, indifferent, or ‘nothing’ at all, when companies announce change. 63% report feeling disconnected from colleagues. And when asked to describe work in one word, responses like "autopilot," "meh," and "I'm here to get paid" dominated.
Intensifying expectations.
Numb teams.
Customer Education is maturing into a core growth driver, demanding seamless experiences that inspire customers to move beyond passive adoption to true product relationships. You need to unite diverse teams - Marketing, Product, Instructional Design, Customer Success. Create simplicity from complexity. Deliver at pace.
But the gap between these expectations and your team's emotional state is widening. The energy that once powered tech innovation has been replaced by exhaustion and cynicism.
Me/Us/It.
You need to break through the apathy.
Sustaining customer obsession over time requires teams to be personally motivated, united under a vision, and constantly re-energised. We've developed a pragmatic, invigorating approach mapped across three sequential stages:
Me - Meet personal priorities.
Us - Restore connection.
It - Break through the apathy.
This is your
competitive advantage.
Even across Big Tech, Customer Education remains surprisingly inconsistent. Every company tackles it differently.
This means there's enormous opportunity to pull ahead. Your ability to re-ignite team dynamism isn't a 'nice to have' - it's the strategic work that needs doing. Culture isn't HR's job when it comes to Customer Education performance. It's yours.
There is everything
to play for.
In today's world, content and features are outdated almost from the moment they ship. By contrast, investing in a culture where customer delight becomes not just the output but the input - the very thing that fuels your teams' energy - will yield dividends for years to come.
Leaders who are bold enough to examine how to generate energy and dynamism in their teams long-term will find this is the most valuable work they do.
About Sponge.
Sponge is a people enablement partner to 43% of the Interbrand Global 100, one in 10 of the Nasdaq, and a third of Europe’s Fortune 500.
Supporting leaders tasked with high-stakes transformation, we’ve spent over 20 years delivering targeted shifts in behaviour, culture, and capability through unforgettable learning. Our approach combines strategic learning consultancy, grounded in the science of what moves people, with world-class creative—delivered end-to-end across digital, blended, and in-person experiences.
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