Coral reefs are vital to the health of the oceans, but in recent years they’ve been decimated by climate change, pollution, and overfishing. While this has been widely covered, a new documentary sheds light on the groundbreaking efforts to restore these fragile ecosystems, and the scientists and communities working to bring them back to life.
Reef Builders showcases the work of the Sheba Hope Grows initiative, part of one of the largest coral reef restoration efforts globally, led by Mars Sustainable Solutions. Sheba, a cat food brand owned by global conglomerate Mars Inc., has been supporting reef restoration through its Hope Grows program since 2019.
Threats Endangering Coral Reefs
As environmental disasters intensify in a warming climate, the destruction of coral reefs can be overlooked. Oceans are key to world health as they regulate the climate and weather, provide food, and support billions of people around the globe.
Coral reefs are probably the most important ecosystem that drives the health of oceans. A quarter of all marine life is found on coral reefs, although they occupy a very small percentage of the ocean surface, says David Smith, chief marine scientist and senior director at Mars Sustainable Solutions, a program run by Mars Global, which tackles environmental threats through science-based actions. The other side of the story, unfortunately, is that they’re on the edge of extinction. The best science that we have today suggests that we could lose up to 95% of coral reefs in the next 20 years.
Destructive fishing practices, water pollution, and land development all contribute to reef degradation, while climate change intensifies natural threats like ocean acidification and marine heat waves, which lead to coral bleaching, according to Smith. Just this week, the International Coral Reef Initiative announced that 84% of the world’s coral reefs have been affected by the worst bleaching event ever.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
Work Behind the Restoration
MSS has worked on coral reef restoration since 2006, investing millions in research, builds, and community engagement. It says approximately 1.3 million coral fragments and 87,000 “reef stars” (metal structures designed to support coral growth) have been installed, all using locally sourced materials.
In collaboration with local communities, organizations, and stakeholders, restoration sites are carefully chosen based on both need and feasibility. Teams then deploy reef stars to create expansive, interconnected webs across degraded reef areas. This approach enables coverage of an area the size of a basketball court within days, with dozens of reef stars installed each hour. These structures help stabilize loose coral rubble and provide a solid foundation for coral to grow.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
After a few years, corals colonize the reef stars, eventually integrating them into the natural reef. The result is a restored habitat for fish and invertebrates, alongside the return of native coral species.
Many coral reefs around the world have got to a stage where they’re not able to recover without any assistance, and that’s where restoration comes in to aid the recovery in those systems that have lost their ability to recover naturally, Smith says.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
The first Sheba Hope Grows project was launched in 2019 in Salisi Besar, a reef off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Within five years, the reefs had grown back. The organization now uses it as a model to show the impact reef stars can have.
That success proves that large-scale restoration is possible, says Mindy Barry, Shebas global VP of marketing. That’s what gives you hope, and that’s what ideally will inspire consumers to say this is an issue that not only matters, that I need to care about, but there are things that can be done.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
The Making of Reef Builders
Reef Builders follows coastal communities in Indonesia, Hawaii, Kenya, and Australia that are working to restore their disappearing coral reefs, essential for their food and livelihood.
“There’s a huge science program that underpins the restoration, Smith says. But actually what was unique, and one of the most rewarding parts of my job, is when you have that knowledge, you’ve done that research, but then you talk to the people who are at the coral face, which is actually in the local community with harbors that depend on that reef.
This intersection of science and community was at the heart of the project featured in Reef Builders, which now spans 72 restoration sites across the world.
Coral reefs form a natural belt around the planet stretching across the world’s oceans, but they’re concentrated most heavily in the Indo-Pacific. Within this belt, distinct regions emerge, each with its own unique ecological and social characteristics. The team selected sites to ensure broad representation of these different regions, focusing on areas where strong local community involvement could drive meaningful restoration.
It’s not us necessarily restoring. It’s those communities that are restoring,” Smith says. “What we can do, and what we’ve done, is demonstrate that it’s possible to restore a reef effectively, rapidly, in a way that’s accessible to local communities around the world.
While each region has its own environmental challenges, the human stories remain strikingly similar.
The emotion of the individuals, of those local members whose lives were being impacted by the loss really shines through, Smith says. It’s that beautiful combination between, yes, you’ve got all the white-coated science and numbers and spreadsheets but actually, ultimately, it’s people’s problems. People are there to try and find a solution for it.
[Image: courtesy AMV/Stream]
Call to Action
People often underestimate the crisis facing coral reefs. According to a Sheba survey conducted by Wakefield Research, 70% of people believe that coral reefs have little to no impact on their daily lives. But reefs are essential ecosystems that support a wide variety of fish species, many of which are commercially valuable and eaten by people around the world. Reefs also play a crucial role in producing a substantial amount of the oxygen humans rely on. Between 1957 and 2007, research shows that more than 50% of coral reefs vanished.
But the crisis is escalating, and so is the need for action. Barry says that through the documentary Sheba aims to rally people to recognize that saving coral reefs is not a solitary mission but a collective effort. Smith echoes that goal. Who’s going to start to make those first steps on that journey? And then who can you bring along with you? he asks. I hope that people feel that’s a trajectory that we can get on together.”
Reef Builders is available to stream worldwide on Prime Video. Through June 29, Amazon will donate $1 for every hour of the documentary thats streamed in the U.S.up to $100,000to the Kuleana Coral Restoration foundation in Hawaii.
Reading just got a whole lot cooler.
Online Ceramics, a cult East L.A. clothing brand that makes hand-dyed apparel for artists like the Grateful Dead and André 3000 and helped A24 win the movie merch game, has a new capsule collection with the biggest trade publisher in the world that celebrates the freedom to read.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
The Reading Is a Right collaboration with Penguin Random House comes against a backdrop of increasing book bans across the country. Penguin Random House is among the publishers suing states like Idaho and Florida over recent laws they say are onerous and could lead to public and school library bans on books by beloved authors like Maya Angelou, Ernest Hemingway, George R. R. Martin, and Toni Morrison. The collaboration is an attempt to fight back through merch, raising awareness, and fundraising.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
The collection includes Online Ceramics cream and tie-dyed T-shirts with the publisher’s penguin mascot and an opened book that says “Practice Magic: Read. Prices range from $5 for a “Read a Banned Book” bumper sticker to $35 for “Reading Is a Right” socks. Hoodies are priced as high as $135, but 100% of Penguin Random House’s net proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit American Library Association (ALA).
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
The gesture is welcomed. “This message is incredibly timely in this climate when censorship is rampant and federal funding for libraries has been gutted,” ALAs president, Cindy Hohl, said in a statement.
There were book challenges against 2,452 unique titles in 2024, according to ALA data, a figure far above the average 273 unique titles challenged annually over the period from 2001 to 2020. And President Donald Trump signed an executive order cutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides federal funding to libraries.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
Penguin Random House publishes more than 14,000 new works annually. It’s the parent company to subsidiaries that have published bestsellers like former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Becoming and classics from George Orwell’s 1984 to Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Online Ceramics cofounder Elijah Funk called Penguin Random House “the absolute epicenter of all things books” in a statement, and for him, teaming up for “Reading Is a Right” was a long time coming.
[Photo: courtesy Online Ceramics/Penguin Random House]
“I’ve always wanted to partner with them, and once I found out about their work standing up for the fredom to read, I knew we needed to highlight their efforts as a positive force for good and bring more visibility to this issue,” Funk said. “There’s a reason books are usually one of the first things to be burned or banned from communities. Books are about justice, freedom, history, and imagination: some of the most powerful tools a person or community can have. And the library makes them free and accessible for every person.”
With book bans on the rise, “Reading Is a Right” gives people a new way to show their love of reading on their sleeves and raise some money to support U.S. libraries in the process.
In a February 2025 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump declared a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.
So far, this golden age has entailed an executive order calling for the federal agency that funds local museums and libraries to be dismantled, with most grants rescinded. The Trump administration has forbidden federal arts funding from going to artists who promote what the administration calls gender ideology. Theres been a purge of the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with Trump appointing himself chair. And the administration has canceled National Endowment for the Humanities grants.
Suffice it to say, many artists and arts organizations across the U.S. are worried: Will government arts funding dry up? Do these cuts signal a new war on arts and culture? How do artists make it through this period of change?
As scholars who study the arts, activism and policy, were watching the latest developments with apprehension. But we think its important to point out that while the U.S. government has never been a global leader of arts funding, American artists have always been innovative, creative and scrappy during times of political turmoil.
A rocky relationship with the arts
For much of the countrys early history, government funding for the arts was rarely guaranteed or stable.
After the Civil War, the Second Industrial Revolution facilitated massive concentrations of wealth, in what became known as the the Gilded Age. Private arts funding soared during this period, with some titans of industry, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, seeing it as their duty to build museums, theaters and libraries for the public. The heavy reliance on private funding for the arts troubled some Americans, who feared these institutions would become too exposed to the whims of the wealthy.
In response, Progressive Era activists and politicians argued that it was the governments responsibility to build arts spaces accessible to all Americans.
Efforts to fund the arts expanded with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, as the country was reeling from the Great Depression. From 1935 to 1943, the Works Progress Administration provided jobs with stable wages for artists through the Federal Art Project. However, Congress famously terminated the program in response to a 1937 production of The Revolt of the Beavers, which conservative politicians denounced for containing overt Marxist themes.
Nonetheless, over the ensuing decades, the federal government generally signaled its support for the arts.
Congress established the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1965 to fund arts organizations and artists. And since 1972, the General Services Administration has commissioned public art for federal buildings and organized a registry of prospective artists.
The NEA gave US$8.4 million in direct funding to artists in 1989 via fellowships and grants. This might be considered the high-water mark for unrestricted government funding for individual artists.
By the 1980s, sexuality, drugs and American morality had become hot-button political issues. The arts, from music to theater, were at the center of this culture war. Pressure escalated in 1989 when conservative leaders contested two NEA-funded exhibitions featuring work by Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe, which they deemed homoerotic and anti-Christian. In 1990, Congress instated a decency clause guiding all future NEA work. When Republicans regained control of Congress in 1994, they slashed direct funding for the arts.
With direct funding to artists largely eliminated, todays artists can indirectly receive federal government support through federal arts agency grants, which are given to arts organizations that then dole out a portion to artists. Local and state government agencies also provide small amounts of direct support for artists.
The stage of democracy
Artists and arts organizations have a long legacy of persistence and strategic organizing during periods of political and economic upheaval.
In the pre-Revolutionary colonies, representatives of the British government banned theatrical performances to discourage revolutionary action. In response, activist playwrights organized underground parlor dramas and informal dramatic readings to keep arts-based activism alive.
Activist theater continued into the antebellum period for the purposes of promting the abolitionist cause.
These dramas, often organized by women, would take place in living rooms, outside of public view. The clandestine staged readings the most famous of which was written by one of the earliest Black American playwrights, William Wells Brown seeded enthusiasm and solidarity for the antislavery cause. These privately staged readings took place alongside public performances and lectures.
Craft the world you want
Dozens of experimental schools like the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee and Commonwealth College in Arkansas were founded in the 1920s and 1930s to train activists.
Supporting adult learners of all ages but specifically young adults they initially focused on arts-based techniques for training workers in labor activism. For example, students wrote short plays based on their experiences of factory work. In their rehearsals and performances, they imagined endings in which workers triumphed over cruel bosses.
Many programs were residential, rural and embraced early versions of mutual aid, where artists and activists support one another directly through pooling money and resources. Tuition was minimal and generally provided directly from labor organizations and allies, including the American Fund for Public Service. Most teachers were volunteers, and the learning communities often farmed to cover basic necessities.
Although these institutions faced perpetual threats from local governments and even the FBI, these communal schools became testing grounds for social change. Some programs even became training sites for civil rights activists.
Linda Goode Bryant attends the opening reception of an exhibition honoring Just Above Midtown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on Oct. 3, 2022. [Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art]
Curate the world you need
Black artists have long created spaces for community connection and career development. The Great Migration brought many Black American artists and thinkers to New York City, famously spurring the Harlem Renaissance, which lasted from the end of World War I through the 1920s. During this period, the neighborhood became a fountain of culture, with Black artists producing countless plays, books, music and other visionary works.
This legacy continued at Just Above Midtown, or JAM, a gallery and arts laboratory led by Linda Goode Bryant from 1974 through 1986 on West 57th Street in Manhattan.
At the time, arts organizations primarily supported artwork by white men. In response, Goode Bryant launched JAM to create a space that supported and celebrated artists of color. JAM provided arts business workshops, cultivated collaborations and launched the careers of Black artists such as David Hammons and Lorraine O’Grady.
The future is now
Whether or not they realize it, many artists and arts organizations today are integrating lessons from the past.
In recent years, theyve promoted the unionization of museum workers and created local mutual aid networks such as the Museum Workers Relief Fund, which was one of many groups fundraising for arts workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theyre building networks of financial support to share space and money with other artists and arts organizations. And theyre forming cultural land trusts, which create land cooperatives where artists can work and live with one another.
Whats more, new philanthropic models are reshaping arts funding by elevating the perspectives of artists, rather than those of wealthy funders. CAST in San Francisco helps arts organizations find affordable gallery and performance spaces. The Community and Cultural Power Fund uses a trust-based philanthropy model that allows artists and community members to decide who receives future grants. The Ruth Foundation for the Arts makes artists the decision-makers in giving grants to arts organizations.
While the current challenges are unprecedented and funding threats will likely reshape arts organizations and further limit direct support for artists were confident that the arts will persist with or without government support.
Johanna K. Taylor is an associate professor at The Design School at Arizona State University.
Mary McAvoy is an associate professor of theatre at Arizona State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
New Jersey has a million acres filled with towering pitch pines. Its springtime and the trees stand straight, bare and bonelike, above a carpet of winter needles that worry state fire service professionals. This week, a swath of the Pine Barrens went up in flames, a stark warning of what might be a treacherous fire season.
About 11,500 acres were affected by a fire that started Tuesday morning in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area of Ocean County, New Jersey Forest Fire Service said midday Wednesday. The Garden State Parkway was shut down for miles as thick smoke wafted into neighborhoods and thousands of households and businesses were evacuated for hours and had power cuts. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service said 50% of the blaze was contained by Wednesday evening.
Foresters had warned in March that New Jersey was particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year because of below-average rains, near-drought conditionsand a delay in prescribed burns by authorities that have typically helped to reduce risk.
A Smokey Bear sign warns against wildfire in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. [Photo: Anna Mattson/Inside Climate News]
The pitch pine is considered resilient to fire. Its bark is dark and scaly and can endure the periodic wildfires that are part of the natural ecological cycle. But the pinelands, the first national reserve in the country, also thrive because of forest service prescribed burns to rid brush. This year, foresters said they cut back on springtime burns because of on-the-ground conditions: It has been just too hot and dry to start prescribed fires.
The Forest Fire Service typically treats 25,000 acres in central New Jersey, across seven counties, with planned burns. So far this year, forest personnel have burned only 3,320 acres, a fraction of its work in previous years. Five years ago, 26,000 acres were burned. In 2024, 15,000 were targeted.
New Jersey entered fire season, from March to May, following its third driest January since records began in 1895. State fire officials are warning that a drop in rainfall and snow have made autumn leaves and winter needles ready tinder across what is called the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens.
Conditions have severely hampered efforts by the Forest Fire Service to conduct prescribed fire operations that are critical to preventing wildfires, Bill Donnelly, the states fire warden and forest fire service chief, said in an email before Tuesdays flames.
Donnelly and his team normally conduct prescribed operations through March 15 in the southern and central regions of New Jersey, and April 1 in the north.
[Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News]
When fire officials burn during dry conditions, theres a higher risk of burning into whats called the duff layer, which is the decomposed organic matter like leaves, twigs, and needles that sits atop the soil. If burned, Donnelly said, it could damage new growth and cause smoke that lingers, affecting communities and roadways for weeks.
Not sure what the rest of the years gonna hold for us, Donnelly said in a press briefing last month. If things continue the way they are, were going to have quite a fire season on our hands.
New Jersey, the countrys fourth-smallest state geographically, offers an example of Americas growing fire risk in the Northeast. The region is experiencing drier and wetter seasons, part of what is a changing and much less predictable cycle of drought and deluge. Evolving climate patterns are testing fire strategy from California to Connecticut as well as communities. Los Angeles suffered devastating fires in January, with billions of dollars in damages, and UCLA researchers, in an extensive survey, found residents reported emotional and financial loss for months after.
Beautiful broadleaf deciduous trees that color the Northeast in the fall are tightly packed so that, in less trying times, when the leaves drop they often hold a lot of moisture, according to Erica Smithwick, a professor of geography and ecology at Penn State University.
Not so in drier conditions. The leaves are parched for water as they fall and pose an increased fire risk. “If the leaves are dead and they dry out in the fall and they drop to the ground, all you need is ignition to get it all to burn, Smithwick said. Burns are meant to clear undergrowth safely and limit wildfire.
Last fall, multiple woodland fires broke out in the Northeast including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. In January, firefighters from a coalition of Northeast states met to discuss the increasing unpredictability of rain and drought across the region. Record-low rainfall allowed for blazes in October and November north of Boston, in Brooklyn, and in Connecticut. On New Jerseys border with New York, fire scorched 5,000 acres of land and one volunteer firefighter died.
Some experts, including Jaclyn Rhoads, executive director at Pinelands Preservation Alliance, suggest that prescribed burning should occur throughout the year. Fire personnel should be planning beyond seasons, she said, and considering month-by-month weather conditions.
We need to try to mimic the wildfires in a controlled way that allows for us to receive all the benefits without necessarily the damages, Rhoads said. There are plenty of exampls, like in Florida, where their forest fire service burns all year round.
Smithwick at Penn State noted that Northeast forests are close to cities and infrastructure such as roads and powerlines. Maps of wildlife urban interface (WUI)areas where wildland vegetation and man-made development intermingle and are particularly vulnerable to wildfiresshow an expansion of 2 million acres per year based on data from the U.S. Fire Administration.
Even a small wildfire could have more impact in the east because of all that built infrastructure, Smithwick said. In fact, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the mid-Atlanticsome of the highest WUI in the country is in the east.
Caryn Shinske, senior press officer of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said fire teams in the past month had been staffing fire towers, staging for initial response for possible fires, and readying equipment for the summer risks.
By Anna Mattson, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Before Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, U.S. factories and cities could pipe their pollution directly into waterways. Rivers, including the Potomac in Washington, smelled of raw sewage and contained toxic chemicals. Ohios Cuyahoga River was so contaminated, its oil slicks erupted in flames.
That unchecked pollution didnt just harm the rivers and their ecosystems; it harmed the humans who relied on their water.
The Clean Water Act established a federal framework to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nations waters.
As an attorney and law professor, Ive spent my career upholding these protections and teaching students about their legal and historical significance. Thats why Im deeply concerned about the federal governments new efforts to roll back those safeguards and the impact theyll have on human lives.
Amid all the changes out of Washington, it can be easy to lose sight of not only which environmental policies and regulations are being rolled back, but also of who is affected. The reality is that communities already facing pollution and failing infrastructure can become even more vulnerable when federal protections are stripped away. Those laws are ultimately meant to protect the quality of the tap water people drink and the rivers they fish in, and in the long-term health of their neighborhoods.
A few of the most pressing concerns in my view include the governments moves to narrow federal water protections, pause water infrastructure investments and retreat from environmental enforcement.
Diminishing protection for U.S. wetlands
In 2023, the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of waters of the United States. In its decision in Sackett vs. Environmental Protection Agency, the court determined that only wetlands that maintained a physical surface connection to other federally protected waters qualified for protection under the Clean Water Act.
Wetlands are important for water quality in many areas. They naturally filter pollution from water, reduce flooding in communities and help ensure that millions of Americans enjoy cleaner drinking water. The Clean Water Act limits what industries and farms can discharge or dump into those waterways considered waters of the U.S. However, mapping by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that upward of 84%, or 70 million acres, of the nations wetlands lacked protection after the ruling.
The Sackett ruling also called into question the definition of waters of the U.S.
The Trump EPA, in announcing its plans to rewrite the definition in 2025, said it would make accelerating economic opportunity a priority by reducing red tape and costs for businesses. Statements from the administration suggest that officials want to loosen restrictions on industries discharging pollution and construction debris into wetlands.
Pollution already harms wetlands along Floridas Gulf Coast, leading to fewer fish and degraded water quality. It also affects people whose jobs depend on healthy waterways for fishing, recreation and tourism.
This marks a shift away from the federal government protecting wetlands for the role they play in public health and resilience. Instead, it prioritizes development and industry even if that means more pollution.
Pausing investment for rebuilding crumbling infrastructure
Public water systems are also at risk. The Trump administration on its first full day in office froze at least US$10 billion in federal water infrastructure funding. That included money for replacing lead pipes and building new water treatment plants, allocated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Public water systems across the country have been falling into disrepair in recent decades due to aging and sometimes dangerous infrastructure, as cities with lead water pipes have discovered.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nations drinking water, stormwater and wastewater infrastructure grades of a C-minus, D and D-plus, respectively, in its 2025 Infrastructure Report Card. The group estimates that Americas drinking water systems alone need more than $625 billion in investment over the next 20 years to reach a state of good repair.
Congress passed the Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to help pay for updating drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems. That included replacing lead pipes and tackling water contamination, especially in the most vulnerable communities. Many of the same communities also have high poverty and unemployment rates and histories of racial segregation rooted in government discrimination.
Where I live in Detroit, this need is especially clear. We have the fourth-highest number of lead service lines, connecting water mains to buildings, of any city in the country, and these pipes continue to put people at risk every day. Just an hour up the road, the Flint water crisis left a predominantly Black, working-class community to suffer the consequences of lead-contaminated water.
These arent abstract problems; theyre happening right now, in real communities, to real people.
Dropping lawsuits meant to stop pollution
The Trump administraions decision to drop from some environmental enforcement lawsuits filed by previous administrations is adding to the risks that communities face.
The administration argues that these decisions are about reducing regulatory burdens dropping these lawsuits reduces costs for companies.
However, stepping back from these lawsuits leaves the communities without a meaningful way to put an end to the long-standing harms of environmental pollution. Few communities have the resources to litigate against private polluters and must rely on regulatory agencies to sue on their behalf.
Real lives are affected by these changes
What America is seeing now is more than a change in regulatory approach. Its a step back from decades of progress that made the nations water safer and communities healthier.
President Donald Trump talked repeatedly on the campaign trail about wanting clean air and clean water. However, the administrations moves to reduce protection for wetlands, freeze infrastructure investments and abandon environmental enforcement can have real consequences for both.
At a time when so many systems are already under strain, it raises the question: What kind of commitment is the federal government really making to the future of clean water in America?
Jeremy Orr is an adjunct professor of law at Michigan State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Conflict management is one of the most critical leadership skills today, yet many leaders are struggling to get it right. Companies are implementing return-to-office mandates; shifting stances on diversity, equity, and inclusion; and dealing with climate change and an uncertain economy. All of these factors put pressure on businesses and the people who work for them. Over 80% of workers report escalated tensions in the workplace, and 90% of workers say they have witnessed political clashes between coworkers.
Employees are feeling uncomfortable because they are unsure how they fit into company goals, or dont feel clear about where the company is headed. This tension leads to conflict, and its up to the leaders to manage the situation.
When we teach conflict management, there are several classic models and approaches. Some call for weighing goal achievement versus relationship orientation, while others look to balance assertion versus cooperation. In all scenarios, there is an underlying assumption: Leaders foster the climate that determines whether employees will engage in collegial discourse. In other words, people who disagree should be comfortable advocating for their position while listening to others points of view. While this notion works well in theory, the practical manager knows this is not always the case.
In recent years, hybrid work has made free-flowing communication opportunities and seeing things eye-to-eye more challenging, literally. While its widely recommended that you should not accept what you read, having a conversation to ask for more clarity is not always natural (or even possible) in a hybrid setting.
So, what do you do when mixed-work modality team members are in conflict with one another, with the company, or even with you? As the leader, your job is to manage the situation. The challenge is determining how to approach conflict in a way that is both constructive and comfortable.
The Remote Work Factor
There are many efficiencies afforded by flexible work arrangements, but a side effect of remote (and sometimes asynchronous) work is that conversations between coworkers are often limited to scheduled check-ins and meetings. Consequently, coworker interactions are relatively two-dimensional. Employees make inferences and judgments from emailed statements or Slack DMs that rarely, if ever, tell the full story of ones perspective and context.
Compounding this issue is the fact that todays multigenerational workforce has significantly different comfort levels using different modalities for collaboration. Gen Z and millennial employees have learned communication norms that entail a heavy reliance on direct messaging and video calls versus talking things through with one another. In fact, 46% of workers report they have engaged in full arguments over chat-based applications. Meanwhile, members of all generations have varying preferences for direct communicationwhether in person, via phone, or video.
The shift toward remote and hybrid work has complicated communication particularly as it pertains to giving feedback. In traditional office settings, mentorship and sharing feedback often occur naturally through hallway conversations, post-meeting discussions, or informal manager check-ins. One of the drawbacks of remote work can be the elimination of these spontaneous opportunities.
Without casual in-person interactions, employees must deliberately schedule feedback conversations, which can make the process feel more formal and high-stakes than a quick chat in the office. As a consequence, performance itself can become a source of conflict since remote employees are 32% less likely to receive real-time feedback, including what has been working well, and what needs to change.
Navigating the Next Era of Workplace Conflict
When teams realize that what they are doing is not working, conflicts will happen. Due to not having the opportunity to bring issues up until they become undeniable, conflicts may have festered and therefore may be emotionally charged. We recommend three considerations for those ready to rise to the challenge of hybrid or remote conflict management.
1. Be honest about what you’re seeingand why it’s a problem
A first crucial element to managing conflict is that leaders call out what they are seeing and then discuss observations with their team. For example, although sentiments are mixed when it comes to how politics should be brought into or left out of the workplace, there is no denying that stakeholders and stockholders alike have been impacted by various international events and executive orders. From the impact tariffs may have on a companys ability to import materials, to the impact layoffs may have on staffing, what needs to be considered in our work today is different than it was a few weeks ago.
Leaders cant ignore what is going on around them. One of the tenets of psychologist and author Daniel Golemans model of emotionally intelligent leadership posits that a leaders primary responsibility is to be in sync with their followers. In order to be able to react in a way that resonates with ones team, leadrs should know whether something may cause apprehension, excitement, or concern among their reports. In fact, if managers are oblivious to or ignore any elements of the world that concern their employees, they will cause further frustration or be dismissed themselves.
One option is for leaders to start their weekly check-ins with a current events update. Share top headlines and explain how news may impact the organization in the coming week or months. If a company does change its policies due to shifts in federal or state sentiments, acknowledge these and explain how this shift will affect your team members directly or indirectly.
If you dont know how to get discussions going, its likely that your companys communication department has created talking points for managers to use. In smaller companies, ask the human resources department for some guidelines on how to explain changes to employees. You should not feel alone in what you say, but you should take responsibility for bringing changes up.
2. Get to know your team
If a leader doesnt know what the team cares about in the first place, it will be impossible to connect their perceptions to conflicts that may erupt. Meanwhile, those employees who have not learned how to self-advocate may struggle finding the right time and place to raise their concerns (and voices) constructively. Leaders who bridge these two scenarios can mitigate conflicts or manage them when they arise.
As mentioned earlier, resonant leaders are those in sync with their followers emotionally. They understand that an employee who is seeking international relocation may see global affairs differently than one who has a domestic promotion agenda. If your company conducts business with countries involved in tariff discussions, some company leaders may worry about how financial reporting will be adversely impacted. Knowing what is important to your team enables you to proactively manage topics that may become conflicts.
Because of this, its important that leaders take the time to listen to their employees when they share what matters to them. Whether there is data from a formal performance review and goal-setting session, or youve gone to lunch with a member of your team, take inventory of what you know about each individual and what is important to them.
If you are not already in the habit of doing so, use your one-on-one meetings as opportunities to bring up what you know, and ask your team members to share how they are feeling about a related element of their job or development plan they had established.
If employees dont share topics of frustration or worry, ask open-ended questions that provide the opportunity to express their concerns or identify paths they wish to explore. And, if youre not having in-person or virtual on-on-ones, now is a very good time to start.
3. Learn to communicate proactively and address conflict remotely
If you were walking down a hallway and heard someone complaining, youd know they are unhappy. But if your interactions with your team members are limited to when they choose to turn their webcams and microphones on, you will not have the same windows of insight. Identifying potential conflicts and managing ones that have already come into focus require an adjustment of management techniques.
Similar to knowing and understanding what team members may value, its incumbent upon a manager to know some of their direct reports attitudinal tells. If an employee shakes their head a little more than usual in agreement or asks the same question more than once and does not seem to apply what they learn, these may be signs that remote workers are struggling to stay focused or engaged.
It has been said many times before, but when working with a remote workforce, you cannot overcommunicate. Leaders need to establish a cadence of regular meetings and also be sure to casually check in with informal conversations and temperature checks. Information that is verbally shared in a meeting should also be documented and distributed via written communiqués to avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding, which can also lead to conflict.
When remote employees are simply not performing according to expectations, leaders need to manage their performance in the same way they would for in-person employees. Letting issues go or looking the other way is not an option.
On the flipside, its important to understand that sometimes what youthe leaderare doing is the cause of the conflict. One-third of employees have indicated that their bosses are too aggressive in text messages. Therefore, to avoid greater conflicts, leaders must address the situation directly and manage just as they would if the employee worked in the office.
To preempt any issues, leaders must become comfortable saying, Hey, can you stay on the line for a minute? Use this time after the regular meeting to acknowledge what you are seeing and ask for feedback on the initiative, the players, or the process being employed to address the work.
If the opportunity to talk right after another meeting is missed, its okay to email or send a Slack message to an employee to ask: Do you have time later to hop on a quick Zoom? I want to go over X topic. Its important to be specific about the agenda so that there isnt cause for alarm as to the subject of the conversation. That said, we also suggest doing this when you are able to jump on a call in the not-too-distant future, as requesting a meeting may still induce anxiety.
Bring People Together to Manage Conflict
When workers are not in the same physical space, facilitating conflict management is not easy. While its easy enough to ignore what may be distressing your team or assume that everyone interprets things the same way, managers should openly address differences, ask questions, and demonstrate flexibility when conflict arises.
By deliberately managing communication in a way that normalizes healthy conflict, leaders create an environment where everyone feels heard and understood.
The European Commission is coming for SkinnyTok.
EU regulators are investigating a recent wave of social media videos that promote extreme thinness and tough love weight-loss advice, assessing whether TikTok is doing enough to protect children online, per Politico.
Frances minister for digital media, Clara Chappaz, recently reported #SkinnyTok to both the French media regulator Arcom and the EU. These videos promote extreme thinness. Protecting minors online is one of my priorities, Chappaz said in a TikTok video posted Friday.
@clara.chappaz Et si on parlait plutôt de #StrongTok ? Saimer, commence par se respecter. Ces modles dextrme maigreur peuvent faire beaucoup de mal. #skinnytok #fyp son original – clara.chappaz
Arcom told Politico it is collaborating with the European Commission to examine the trend given the public health risk it may pose. A Commission spokesperson also confirmed to Politico that it is aware of the issue and ready to cooperate.
This comes alongside an ongoing EU investigation into TikToks algorithm and its impact on minors. The Commission is already looking into how the platform promotes content related to eating disorderssuggesting that further action may soon follow.
Although the investigation is still in its early stages, discussions with TikTok are underway. The platforms community guidelines claim it does not allow showing or promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviors. Still, content that shows or promotes potentially harmful weight management is permitted for users over 18 and is excluded from the For You feed. Fast Company has reached out to TikTok for comment.
Search SkinnyTok on TikTok, and the first thing youll see is a platform-generated message stating, You are more than your weight. Tap it, and youll find links to resources for disordered eating support, including the National Eating Disorder Association.
But once you move past that well-meaning message, you’re hit with thousands of videos promoting restrictive eating, body checks, and before-and-after transformations. Unhinged skinny advice, one post reads. Another declares: Being skinny is an outfit. And, of course, the old favorite: Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.
Weight-loss and pro-anorexia communities have long thrived on social mediajust ask anyone who used Tumblr in the 2010s. In recent years, this kind of content has surged on TikTok, coinciding with the rise of GLP-1 medications. Many credit these drugs with pushing back against body positivity and ushering in a resurgence of thinness as the ideal.
The effects arent just digital. According to a recent report by Trilliant Health, eating-disorder-related health visits among those youths younger than 17 have more than doubled in the past five years. From 2018 to mid-2022, these visits rose by 107.4%, with visits related to anorexia nervosa increasing 129.26%.
In 2021, a report revealed that Instagram had failed to protect vulnerable users from pro-anorexia content. Lets hope TikTok learns from those mistakes.
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A companys corporate brand name should be its hardest working marketing asset. Nothing will be used more often or for longer than the companys name. And in a world where competitors can copy almost everything else, they cant duplicate your name. However, sometimes the original name, chosen long ago, no longer fits and it’s time to rebrand. Rebranding a company is not just a superficial exercise; this strategic move can redefine your business, energize your team, and reshape your future.
Steve Jobs, a master at communication, understood that a brand is more than a name or logoits a story, a purpose, a promise, and the right name can make or break a brand. After all, the man turned a company named after a fruit into one of the most successful brands in the world. Here is some guidance on when to rebrand and the steps to make a rebrand successful, with inspiration from Steve Jobs.
When to rebrand
So, when is it time to rebrand? Maybe your brand no longer reflects who you are or what you stand for. If your company has evolvedexpanding into new markets, adopting new technologies, or shifting its missionyour brand must evolve too. Just as Jobs famously redefined Apples purpose to focus on innovation and simplicity, you must ensure your brand reflects where youre headed, not where youve been.
Perhaps your brand is facing increased competition. If customers cant tell the difference between you and your competitors, its time to stand out. A rebrand can help clarify what makes your business unique and why it matters. And most common, you are merging or acquiring another company. Mergers and acquisitions often demand a new identity that reflects the combined strengths of the entities involvedan opportunity to tell a fresh story.
Once a decision has been made to rebrand, here are five steps for success.
1. Tell the story first
We are all wired for story. When someone says, I have a story to tell you, we lean in. So the first step is to tell the story of the rebrand with emphasis on the benefits to the audiences. Why you are changing is a good start, but what does this mean for your customers? Craft a narrative that resonates emotionally and aligns with your audiences needs. As Jobs said, People dont buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Anchor your rebrand in a strong why. And an even stronger what!
2. Write your future headlines
Imagine the article you want to see in The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times about your brand. What would they say about your rebrand? This exercise will clarify your vision and guide all creative efforts. While this sounds simple, the strategic exercise can be your compass as you prepare your creative and launch activities.
Take a recent Lexicon name, Lucid Motors. The companys mission statement expresses that through technology, we create exceptional experiences to drive the world forward. For this assignment, the client was looking for a name that would capture that notion while setting itself apart from any other auto brand. The name Lucid achieves this by working on our imagination, moving us from the literal meaning clear-headed to exceptionally efficient brain powerto exceptionallyefficient battery power. While this is going on in the intellectual realm, weexperience the shock of the names unexpectedness in its category. Of course, shock by itself is not enough. As we see, the name also moves us from the literal meaning of lucid to one that fits the character of the car.
3. Focus on the unexpected and emotion.
Humans like to think of themselves as rational animals, but it comes as no news to marketers that we are motivated to a greater extent by emotions. Logic brings us to conclusions; emotion brings us to action. Whether we are creating a poem or a new brand name, we wont get very far if we treat the task as an engineering exercise. True, names are formed by putting together parts, just as poems are put together with rhythmic patterns and with rhyming lines, but that totally misses what is essential to a name’s success or a poem’s success. Consider Microsoft and Apple as names. One is far more mechanical, and the other much more effective at creating the beginning of an experience. While both companies are tremendously successful, there is no question that Apple has the stronger, more emotional experience. What is that worth?
4. Identify your audience and speak directly to each group
Different stakeholders care about different things. Employees need inspiration; investors need confidence; customers need clarity on whats in it for them. Break down these audiences and craft tailored messages for each group.
Identifying the audience groups can be challenging. While the first layer is obviouscustomers, employees, investors, and analystsall these audiences are easy to find and message. However, what is often overlooked is the individuals in those audiences who can more positively influence the rebrand. It may be a particular journalist, or a few select employees. Once you have identified these influencers, develop more relevant conversations that help them understand the rebrand.
5. Plan for longevity
A successful launch must be roadmapped with events and reminders over a 9-18 month timeline. It is much more than simply reannouncing the name change; it becomes an opportunity to build stronger relationships with the audiences that matter most to your brand. Consistency builds trust. Plan events and marketing efforts over a longer timeframe to reinforce your new identity. For example, company or industry conferences are excellent venues to reinforce the change and show where the company is headed. Any event must be viewed as an opportunity to strengthen the reasons for the rebrand.
Steve Jobs approached branding with clarity, simplicity, and a relentless focus on storytelling and user experience. He didnt just change Apples logohe transformed its identity by aligning every touchpoint with its purpose: empowering individuals through technology. By following these principles, you can ensure that your rebrand isnt just a name change but a strategic leap forward that captures attention, inspires loyalty, and drives growth. As Jobs might say, Think different.
David Placek is founder and CEO of Lexicon Branding.
The death of Pope Francis has been announced by the Vatican. I first met the late Pope Francis at the Vatican after a conference called Saving Our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth in July 2018. My colleagues and I sensed something momentous was happening at the heart of the church.
At that time, I was helping to set up the new Laudato Si Research Institute at the Jesuit Hall at the University of Oxford. This institute is named after the popes 2015 encyclical (a letter to bishops outlining church policy) on climate change.
Its mission is rooted in the popes religiously inspired vision of integral ecologya multidisciplinary approach that addresses social and ecological issues of equality and climate breakdown.
Originating from Argentina, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, witnessed firsthand the destruction of the Amazon and the plight of South Americas poorest communities. His concern for justice for vulnerable communities and protection of the planet go hand in hand with his religious leadership.
In his first papal letter, Laudato Si, he called for all people, not just Catholics, to pay more attention to the frailty of both our planet and its people. What we need is no less than a cultural revolution, he wrote. As a theologian, I recognise that he inspired significant change in three key ways.
1. At global climate summits
Its no coincidence that Pope Francis released Laudato Si at a crucial moment in 2015 prior to the U.N. climate summit, Cop21, in Paris. A follow-up exhortation, or official statement, Laudate Deum, was released in October 2023, just before another U.N. climate summit, Cop28 in Dubai.
Did the decisions at these global meetings shift because of the influence of Pope Francis? Potentially, yes. In Laudate Deum, Pope Francis showed both encouragement and some frustration about the achievements of international agreements so far.
He berated the weakness of international politics and believes that Cop21 represented a significant moment because the agreement involved everyone.
After Cop21, he pointed out how most nations had failed to implement the Paris agreement which called for limiting the global temperature rise in this century to below 2°C. He also called out the lack of monitoring of those commitments and subsequent political inertia. He tried his best to use his prominent position to hold power to account.
Promoting a general moral awareness of the need to act in ecologically responsible ways, both in international politics and at the local level is something that previous popes, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI also did. But, Pope Franciss efforts went beyond that, by connecting much more broadly with grassroots movements.
2. By advocating for Indigenous people
Cop28 marked the first time that close to 200 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. Pope Franciss interventions potentially helped shift the needle just a little in the desired direction.
His emphasis on listening to Indigenous people may have influenced these gatherings. Compared with previous global climate summits, Cop28 arguably opened up the opportunity to listen to the voices of Indigenous people.
However, Indigenous people were still disappointed by the outcomes of Cop28. Pope Franciss lesser-known exhortation Querida Amazonia, which means beloved Amazonia, was published in February 2020.
This exhortation resulted from his conversations with Amazonian communities and helped put Indigenous perspectives on the map. Those perspectives helped shape Catholic social teaching in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, which means all brothers and sisters, published on October 3 2020.
For many people living in developing countries where extractive industries such as oil and gas or mining are rife, destruction of land coincides with direct threats to life. Pope Francis advocated for Indigenous environmental defenders, many of whom have been inspired to act by their strong faith.
For example, Father Marcelo Pérez, an Indigenous priest living in Mexico, was murdered by drug dealers just after saying mass on October 23, 2023, as part of the cost of defending the rights of his people and their land.
While 196 environmental defenders were killed globally in 2023, Pope Francis continued to advocate on behalf of the most marginalised people as well as the environment.
3. By inspiring activism
Ive been speaking to religious climate activists from different church backgrounds in the U.K. as part of a multidisciplinary research project on religion, theology and climate change based at the University of Manchester. Most notably, when we asked more than 300 activists representing six different activist groups who most influenced them to get involved in climate action, 61% named Pope Francis as a key influencer.
On a larger scale, Laudato Si gave rise to the Laudato Si movement, which coordinates climate activism across the globe. It has 900 Catholic organizations as well as 10,000 of what are knownas Laudato Si animators, who are all ambassadors and leaders in their respective communities.
Our institutes ecclesial affiliate, Tomás Insua, based in Assisi, Italy, originally helped pioneer this global Laudato Si movement. We host a number of ecumenical gatherings which bring together people from different denominations and hopefully motivate churchgoers to think and act in a more climate-conscious way.
Nobody knows who the next pope will be. Given the current turmoil in politics and shutting down of political will to address the climate emergency, we can only hope they will build on the legacy of Pope Francis and influence political change for the good, from the grassroots front line right up to the highest global ambitions.
Celia Deane-Drummond is a professor of theology and director of Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Campion Hall at the University of Oxford.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
If you’re feeling detached from work and lacking motivation lately, know that you are not alone.
Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace report revealed that employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024, declining 2 points from the previous year. In the last 12 years, employee engagement has only fallen one other time, in 2020, due in part to COVID-19, the shift to working from home, and increased isolation.
The report “offers what may be our last snapshot of a workforce on the cusp of seismic change,” Gallup CEO Jon Clifton said in the report. “We are witnessing a pivotal moment in the global workplaceone where engagement is faltering at the exact time artificial intelligence is transforming every industry in its path.”
The most recent decline can be linked to disruptions in the workplace over the last five years, including layoffs, the introduction of AI across industries, ongoing friction around RTO policies, and more.
Broken down by region, the U.S. and Canada tied with Latin America and the Caribbean for the region with the highest engaged employeesalthough the percentage was still low, with less than a third being engaged. The region also ranked at the top for employees experiencing daily stress.
Managers need help
The report found that the global decline in engagement centers around one particularly affected group: managers. Managers under 35 years old and female managers were the most affected, with engagement declining by 5 and 7 percentage points, respectively.
The findings suggest that a lack of engagement from the top is trickling down to employees, and resulted in a loss of $438 billion in productivity to the world economy.
Despite the declining rates, Gallup identified ways that employers can take action and lean toward a productivity boom:
First, training managers on basic roles may boost engagement, with 44% of managers reporting a lack of training.
Second, Gallup suggests teaching managers techniques for effective coaching, which could boost performance by up to 28%.
Lastly, improving manager well-being should be prioritized, with manager development training and an encouraging peer working environment boosting well-being by up to 50%.
