Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School and author of Living the 100-Year Life, joins Seth Green, dean of the Graham School at the University of Chicago, to discuss longevity and work. The conversation opens with the premise that longer lives change the rules, and Gratton introduces a central shift in the book: moving from the metaphor of a career ladder, which offers direction but runs on autopilot, to a weave, which demands personal agency and asks three guiding questions: who am I, where am I now, and what will I promise my future self. The weave is built from eight threads divided into productivity threads like mastery, knowing, cooperating, and amplifying with AI, and nurture threads including intimacy, friendship, calm, and adventure. Gratton co-authored the original The 100-Year Life with economist Andrew Scott a decade ago; Living the 100-Year Life is her own follow-on, prompted by the sense that while the longevity conversation has grown, not enough has changed. Data from her online diagnostic, completed by a thousand people within its first week, reveals that calm is the most commonly neglected thread across countries.
The conversation broadens from individual life design to the systems people live and work within. Gratton addresses how companies need to rethink workforce structures, pointing to the growth of freelance and portfolio careers and the rising number of people on LinkedIn who identify as founders. She discusses how intergenerational cooperation, building friendships and working relationships across age groups, strengthens a long life. She draws on her conversations with Robert Waldinger of the Harvard adult study of longevity on the role of trust in friendship, and talks through what curiosity means as a human advantage at a time of AI. The session closes with practical guidance on next steps, including Gratton’s Life Threads journal and the free diagnostic at https://www.livingthe100yearlife.com/…
Lecturer bio:
Lynda Gratton is a globally recognized thought leader on the future of work and Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, where she designed and directs the popular Future of Work elective. Her research on hybrid work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, and she writes for MIT Sloan Management Review. She founded HSM Advisory, which advises organizations around the world on the future of work. The author of 11 books, including Redesigning Work and The 100-Year Life, her books have sold more than a million copies and been translated into more than 20 languages. She has served as a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and advised global companies and Japan’s former Prime Minister Abe.
