The Dark Reality Of The Emotional Economy Boom

Written by a human, for humans, always.

I am a big fan of things that are fun and make us feel good.

We "should" want to feel good in life.

There is nothing inherently wrong with people seeking out things that improve their emotional state in the world.

Not inherently wrong...

But contextually...

Within a specific moment and period in time...

For specific reasons...

There may be something that businesses should pay attention to.

In the past few years, there has been a growing boom in what has been labeled the "Emotional Economy".

This economy revolves around products and services that strike an emotional chord in people...

Making them feel better through things that are fun or cute.

Now, there are businesses that have profited greatly as part of this boom...

And I am all for businesses making profit...

But there is a question that is worth asking, regardless of how you make profit...

Why?

Why, at this specific moment, is there a growing boom in the Emotional Economy?

The answer...

Is that a growing number of people...

Are struggling to feel emotions in their lives.

This causes them to spend money on things to feel "something".

Again, the fact that there are businesses that make profits from things that create this is not a bad thing...

The businesses are not, themselves, a problem.

The problem...

Is that the reason the Emotional Economy is having such a boom right now...

Is because people are "only" feeling these emotions through these products and services.

That is what should worry businesses.

People are not turning toward the businesses that make up the Emotional Economy because they "want" to...

It is because these businesses are an "escape" from an otherwise "emotionless" life.

That is the real problem.

More and more people's lives are being dominated by an utter lack of feeling.

There are worsening levels of things like...

Discontent...

Depression...

Anxiety...

Burnout...

Loneliness...

And the percentages are getting worse and worse.

At an individual level, this may not seem like a business problem...

But at a societal level, it becomes a gigantic problem for businesses.

Why?

When these stop being individual challenges...

And they begin to spread across entire workforces...

Which is already happening...

It causes business problems such as...

Disengagement...

Decreased emotional intelligence and IQ...

Lack of innovative thinking...

Drops in problem-solving capabilities...

Growing levels of internal strife...

Decimation of productivity, or increases in Negative Productivity...

And worse.

See...

When people stop feeling their emotions in their lives...

They begin to lose access to the greatest aspects of being human...

And the result...

Negatively impacts businesses.

Now this is where businesses should really become worried...

If people stop feeling these emotions...

Stop feeling human...

They begin to run to anything that makes them feel "anything"...

Which is why we are seeing the boom in the Emotional Economy.

But...

This escapism does not actually resolve the real issue...

The lack that is experienced in every other part of life.

As long as that lack persists...

The humans that make up a business will become psychophysiologically worse and worse...

Which then begins to destroy the bottom line of businesses...

And businesses will not simply be able to "replace" an employee who does not seem to be performing...

Because the problem is persisting at a societal level.

So you let go of one employee...

To replace them with an employee with the exact same challenge...

And you begin to have a revolving door problem...

Which is already occurring in more and more businesses.

But...

If you do not bring on these employees...

You put worse pressure on your current employees...

Making their problems vastly worse...

In turn, causing the problem to get worse in the organization.

Your best potential employees will seek escape from the business...

And because they have the talent...

They end up happily taken by other businesses...

Leaving only employees who are struggling but cannot figure out how to get elsewhere.

(PS - those employees who leave usually end up in another business that feels equally bad, or worse, so they are not actually solving their problems by doing this, but it is the natural pattern that most people follow.)

But this is not the end of the problems for business.

If the trends continue...

Costs will end up rising for businesses...

But the efforts and needs required to get desired results will continue to increase...

Continuing to make these problems worse and worse.

Something ends up giving somewhere...

And there is an eventual collapse.

But...

This is going to happen not at an individual level...

But at a societal level.

Collapse.

Now, the level of the collapse is very much in question...

As is the timeline.

I have seen enough people fail to call economic collapses to know better than to try to give an exact date.

But...

If we are not paying attention to the trends...

And we do not do what is needed to reverse those trends...

The result will eventually come.

The wrong question to ask is "when" a collapse will come.

The right question that businesses "should" be asking...

Is how to turn the trends around so that this does not occur.

The answer to that question...

Is to actually understand the psychophysiological needs of the humans who make up our businesses.

Think about this one perspective to understand the value...

Burnout.

In burnout, based on the research, an individual is working at 5% or less of their productivity potential...

And they can, and frequently do, go into negative productivity.

What this means...

Is that there is a lot more they "could" accomplish...

If...

And "only" if...

They are operating at their psychophysiological best.

If they are actually working at 5% (which is a generous number to assume)...

Then you are looking at a potential 20x increase in productivity that "could" be achieved.

This is only possible...

If the human beings that make up the workforce...

Are actually operating as humans...

Within work contexts that are designed around how human psychophysiology works.

For most businesses...

It requires a complete structural reconceptualization.

Trying to put new fancy words on the wall...

Telling people that there is going to be a "culture change"...

Putting ping-pong tables out, creating meditation rooms, and giving employees food...

Is not going to cut it.

These are all psycho-hack gimmicks that fail to address the deep psychophysiological problems at play.

If they actually worked...

Leaders would not be experiencing the problems they are experiencing.

We've had essentially two decades of these psycho-hack gimmicks that clearly are not working.

Real change requires "actual" change...

Which I call Regenerative Legacy Design in business.

There is currently a boom in the Emotional Economy...

But it is a band-aid to the real problems...

And if businesses continue down their current path...

The band-aid will no longer suffice...

And we will experience something significantly worse.

At the heart of this boom...

Is a dark, festering problem that needs a resolution.

It can be resolved...

If businesses change.

Are You Ready to Go Beyond Leadership?

Tired of Broken Algorithms and AI Slop?

Excited to Dive Deeper into Psychophysiological Mastery?

Want to Change The World?

The Seeking Sageship Newsletter is for You!

Click Here to Subscribe for Free!