68% of the WorkForce is Disengaged
It's a systems problem. And it's been hiding in plain sight.
What Organizations Keep Getting Wrong
You've tried the engagement surveys, the retention bonuses, the wellness programs. The exodus continues. Because you've been treating symptoms-not the disease.
Values Alignment. When what you say doesn't match what you reward, people stop believing in the mission.
Personal Agency. When people can't act on what they see, they stop trying to fix what's broken.
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Growth Trajectory. When people can't see how they progress or where they are going, they stop investing in where they are.
The workforce crisis costs $9.6 trillion in lost productivity globally every year ($1.9 trillion in the US alone. And it's accelerating: In 2024, global engagement fell by two percentage points, costing an additional $438 billion. Organizations keep responding with the same playbook: retention bonuses, wellness programs, culture initiatives, and the numbers keep getting worse.
The reason is simple: they're treating symptoms while the actual disease goes undiagnosed. Three structural failures are driving the crisis: values alignment, personal agency and growth trajectory, and they affect all five generations in the workforce. Gen Z just makes them visible faster because they haven't yet learned to rationalize dysfunction as "just how it works" or defend it as "how we've always done it."
My field report: Throttle Up from the Field: Canaries in the Coal Mine, draws from Gallup's 2025 State of the Global Workplace, DDI's 2025 Global Leadership Forecast, and 18 expert practitioner interviews to identify these failures and prescribe five structural interventions to fix them. This isn't theory. It's a diagnosis backed by convergent evidence from three independent sources.
Three Failures. One Crisis. A Clear Path Forward.
The crisis is diagnosable. And what is diagnosable is treatable. I work both sides, helping organizations rebuild these three frames structurally, and helping individuals evaluate whether they exist before accepting an offer. Think of it as building a bridge from both sides of the river.
The Research Tells the Same Story Three Times
Structural Failure 1
Values Alignment. When What You Say Doesn't Match What You Reward
47% of employees have considered leaving because they can't reconcile their personal values with organizational reality. Mission statements hang on walls while daily decisions contradict them. Organizations claim collaboration but reward competition. They preach innovation but punish risk.
The result: people stop believing in the mission and start looking for one they can believe in. Gen Z just does it faster. They leave after an average of 1.1 years, taking $20,000 in recruiting and onboarding investment with them.
Structural Failure 2
Personal Agency. When People Can't Act on What They See
Trust in immediate managers collapsed from 46% to 29% in just two years. 71% of leaders report increased stress, with 54% concerned about burnout, and 40% considering leaving their roles entirely. When people see problems but can't act on them, when authority doesn't exist at the point of work, they stop trying. Suppressed agency doesn't just drive disengagement. It drives burnout. That's not a motivation problem. That's a structural failure.
Structural Failure 3
Growth Trajectory. When People Can't See Where They're Going
Career development has been the number one reason people leave their jobs for over a decade, one in five departures. High-potential leaders planning to leave increased from 13% to 21% in just four years.
Less than half of all managers have received any management training, despite the fact that 70% of team engagement is attributable to the manager. When advancement paths are invisible, development is episodic instead of structural, and mentorship is impossible because leaders are underwater — people don't wait. They leave.
And they take $20,000 per departure in recruiting and onboarding investment with them.“I just don’t know where I’m going here.
Building the Bridge from Both Sides
The workforce crisis won't be solved from one direction. Organizations have to rebuild what's broken. But individuals can't afford to wait for that to happen.
The Organizational Side
Organizations must rebuild the three frames structurally — values alignment, personal agency, and growth trajectory — as operational realities, not aspirational language. My field report prescribes five structural interventions that target the root causes: establish mission clarity, build strategic thinking capacity, create psychological safety through structure, develop infrastructure rather than episodic programs, and measure what actually matters.
The Individual Side
In a workforce where 68% are disengaged and the structural failures are widespread, waiting for organizations to fix themselves isn't a strategy. It's a gamble. Individuals navigating job transitions, career pivots, or forced reinvention need the diagnostic capability to evaluate whether an organization's values, agency, and growth trajectory are real — before they walk in. Not after. Before. Because in the end, people aren't just looking for a job. They're looking for meaning, purpose, and work that matters. And for some, that clarity reveals a bigger realization: they don't need to find the right organization. They're ready to build one.
The Crisis. The Failures. The Fix.
About Dr. John Dentico
As a young naval officer, Dr. John Dentico learned the leadership principle that would define his career: take care of your people and your people will take care of you. From the deck of a destroyer to training, consulting, and speaking engagements with the FBI Academy, the Defense Intelligence Agency, IBM, the Brookings Institution, and Johns Hopkins University, he spent over 30 years observing what happens when organizations forget that lesson.
His field report, Throttle Up from the Field: Canaries in the Coal Mine: The Workforce Crisis Gen Z Is Exposing (2026), draws from Gallup's 2025 State of the Global Workplace, DDI's 2025 Global Leadership Forecast, and 18 expert practitioner interviews from his Throttle Up Leadership Podcast to diagnose the three structural failures driving the workforce crisis — and prescribe five interventions to fix them.
Dr. Dentico holds a Doctorate in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego and is a certified AI Management Professional (AIMP). He is the award-winning author of Throttle Up: How to Accelerate the Impact of 21st Century Leadership, host of the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast: 165 episodes, 32 five-star ratings, ranked #3 on Matchmaker.fm, and creator of the LeadSimm Leadership Impact Simulation method and the TSWG Strategic Thinking process.
He is a retired US Navy Reserve Commander.
His guiding philosophy: Leadership is Action.
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