Hi. I am Karena de Souza.
Strategist. Speaker. Coach.

But the title I am most proud of is Parent. It is the most challenging position because it did not come with a manual. It is also what inspired my keen interest in, and focus on, GenZ and the Future of Work.

As a strategist with a futurist mindset, I look forward – five years and out. I watch for shifts in technology, outliers, patterns, and anomalies.
I look for pockets of opportunity and uncommon connections.

A few years ago, my professional and personal lives collided.

As a strategist I could see the impact that FinTech would make on the skills that the average Wall Street or Bay Street firm would come to value. I watched simple and sophisticated technologies from Tap&Pay to distributed ledger rapidly automating and disrupting steady industries.

 As a GenZ parent, I began to wonder what this would mean for education and career choices being made by my children in this new normal.   

We were on a roller-coaster of opportunity and worry, apprehension and excitement.

I started researching the Future of Work and realized that the very Nature of Work was changing. It still is. And there is a much broader impact on society than expected.

And in the middle of the transition, GenZ is trapped between an education system designed to serve an Industrial Era, but job hunting in an economy that is already evolving to a Digital & Intelligence Age.

I knew GenZ could use some help. Based on surveys of Canadian students in 2019, it was clear that these students now consider their parents one of their biggest influencers – quite a switch from previous generations.

So I offer GenZ – and the educators and parents who influence them – three things:

  • Perspective: “I had this instinct that things were different, but with this explanation, I now understand why!” exclaimed one student.
  • Actionable ideas: Tools and strategies that position us to respond
  • Hope: When we are able to take direct action in our own lives, we find the edge of hope.

I’m sharing the same strategy skills that Fortune 500 companies have used for decades as they struggle to stay relevant and current in an increasingly uncertain world.

 After all, if it is good enough for Fortune 500s
why aren’t we teaching it to teens who are planning further ahead?  

Recently, I surprised myself by publishing a book.

“Contours of Courageous Parenting – Tilting Towards Better Decisions”

It started as a travel memoir. But as it developed my beta readers saw that I had been living the principles of the long view, of decision-making for many years. What I teach is based on my lived experience. As they asked me how we had made the multiple decisions to journey around the world for a year with three young children, a different book evolved: one that broadened the discussion on the way we break down decisions; and the way we can embrace risk and mitigate it so that we can fully engage with new experiences. I created a book that anyone can use as a framework for making better everyday and special event decisions.

How is that for embracing serendipity and becoming an accidental author?!