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Managing Generations Slides

Thanks to everyone at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida for coming out to my "Managing Generations in the Workplace" session. As a reminder, the ebook on generations can be downloaded for free, and the slides are presented below, via slideshare.

Managing Generations in the Workplace

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Managing Generations and Conflict in the Workplace

I was in Florida last week testing out a pilot training program on managing generations and conflict in the workplace. It was the first time I really combined these two topics into a training session. It's a lot of material to cover, obviously, and it was a challenge to do it all, even with a four-hour time block to work with. But it's a nice combination. The level of awareness of generational differences has increased over the last few years since I started writing and speaking about the topic. I think people are on to the hype, and they ask better questions about what these differences really mean and how we deal with them in the workplace.

And the conflict piece fits in very well. The core of my conflict resolution training is always about working through the parts in conflict conversations where we get stuck. This means slowing the conversations down and opening them up. This is perfect for generation-based conflict, because they are based in value differences and often very different views of "what is." Until you deal with that piece of it, you often go in circles trying to solve problems that have not been correctly defined or based on shared understanding.

Some insights from the workshop:

• The previous generation designs the jobs, processes, and structures for the current generation. This could be a problem. Generations tend to approach "time" and "place" very differently, so job design (hours, location) I think will be a big issue.
• I continue to get anecdotal evidence that Millennials have somehow "moved on" from diversity issues (even though that seems incomprehensible to me and I'm not sure that will stick). They raise the "it's no big deal" flag, but I know it was a big deal for the previous generations who fought for progress. How's that going to play out?
• The workplace continues to be overwhelmingly made up of Boomers and Xers, but the most popular topic is NOT Boomer-Xer conflict. They both want to focus on the Millennials. Hmmm.

If you think your organization might benefit from this training program, let me know.

Keeping Your Edge

Maddie Grant tossed out a bit of a weekend blog-grenade on Saturday with a meme targeted at Generation X titled "Have We Sold Out?" Her challenge to me and others she tagged:

So go on, tell me my fellow Xers - Have YOU sold out? Have YOU gone mainstream? Or are we still the guerilla army, changing the world (only without telling anyone)?

This question implies that if what we are doing is "mainstream," then we can no longer be changing the world. While I obviously understand that to a certain extent, I don't think it becomes clear unless you include the original challenge that Jeff Hurt gave to Maddie at the bar in Phoenix: that she had lost her edge.

Going mainstream is not the issue for me--losing your edge is. Keeping your edge means pushing people--yourself, the community, etc. I am not sure if this is the origin of the phrase "lose your edge," but I experienced it in skiing. In order to go the direction you want, you have to keep the edge of your skis in the snow (which requires significant effort). Gravity is very intent on you simply sliding down the hill, but you dig your edges in and go where you want. When you "lose your edge," you end up sliding in the wrong direction. 

So whether or not you are in the mainstream, you need your edge. Sometimes being in the mainstream (being really popular or even successful in business) can make it hard for you to keep your edge. The gravity becomes powerful. It's easy to just slide down the mountain. On the other hand, sometimes you point your edges in the direction of gravity. Sometimes that's where you need to go.

So the question is, what is your "edge?" I think the answer to that is more personal than generational. It's a why are you here question. Or as Hugh MacLeod puts it, it's a who were you born to be question. What is the gift that the world needs delivered through you?

And as hard as it is to figure that stuff out, once you do, it's not like a clear path into the future is suddenly revealed to you. Even when you know why you're here, the "path" is only clear when you look backwards. Moving forward, it is still just one step at a time. In fact, you're probably very rarely on the path itself. You are constantly a little bit off, and you need to change your direction in order to stay on it. The founder of Aikido was once complimented by a student for being able to stay centered and balanced all the time, but the master rejected the compliment, pointing out that he was off center nearly all the time--but he was skilled in quickly getting back to center. 

All of that is a long-winded preface to my answer to Maddie's question: have I lost my edge?

No. I know why I am here, and I am getting better at recognizing when gravity is starting to take me in a direction that is not good for me (or the world). I work hard at sharpening my edge. Heck, that's a lot of what this blog is about--continuously pushing the ideas and their application. Continuously fine tuning how I can best change the world, one client or one community at a time. 

Would I have predicted that I would  be sitting here "dealing with the minutiae of association management in the 'burbs" as Maddie pointed out? No way. Can the gravity of that (and believe me, there's a lot of gravity there) pull me off my line sometimes? Sure. And when it does, I dig my edges in and get back to my path. I love that I end up in places I wouldn't have predicted, because I know the strength of my edge will keep me where I'm going. In fact, I find that if I try to hard to predict where I'm supposed to be, I end up much farther off the path.

But I will also point out that "my" edge is not exclusively an individual thing. Perhaps I am going counter to my independent and individualistic Xer heritage, but I have found that my edge cannot be maintained by me alone. It's a bit of a paradox, because it is hugely personal. It's MY gift, and MY edge. It's unique. But it is meaningless without the world to which I apply it. And the wisdom of when to dig in my edge to stay on my path rarely comes as a lightning bolt of individual insight. It comes from my community. It comes from my friends. 

Who is your "Jeff Hurt" (or for me, Maddie Grant) who will get in your face (in a loving way) to ask you if you've lost your edge? To whom do you listen for data about when to apply your edge, or if it is working? With whom do you share your edge? How else would they know to help shape it? Getting back to mainstream, how mainstream is your community? That will impact what kind of feedback you get about your edge. (That, by the way, is one of the more personal reasons to care about the issue of diversity.)

I am happy to report I have not lost my edge. I am well aware that the application of my edge is not being done at "Aikido Master" level yet, and I'm okay with that. I continue to practice and develop my skill. I am deeply grateful to my friends and my communities who help me along the way. Maybe, as an Xer, I'll never get any credit for all this. Or maybe I'll end up in the mainstream. Either way I am keeping my edge.

Get My Generational Ebook for Free

I am feeling generous and have decided to give away my ebook on Generational Diversity in the Workplace for free, at least for a limited time.

I wrote the book in 2007. It's about 60 pages and it covers the basics of generational differences and then talks about how to apply this knowledge (getting past the hype) and examines the broad implications for leadership. I'm proud of the book, and I've sold over 100 copies without really marketing it much.

But it's been out there long enough that I think I can give it away. So grab a copy. Tell your friends. It's a quick download.

Click here to get the Generational Ebook for free.

Marketing to Millennials

I was in Germany this week (my first trip ever to that country) to do a presentation on Generations to a group of people who offer counseling services to U.S. military personnel and their families. Like nearly everyone who asks me to speak on generations, they were particularly focused on the younger generation, and in their case it is for obvious reasons, as most of the soldiers deploying these days are going to be Millennials. In addition to the broader generational picture that I present, they wanted my take on how they need to be marketing to Millennials. They were concerned that traditional methods would not work on this generation.

So when I did my presentation about Millennials, I added some material about marketing. It is fairly high level, as marketing is not my background, but for each of the trends that I talk about in terms of the development of the Millennial generation, I added a related trend for marketing.

When I talk about Millennials, I frequently make the point that while everyone and their brother is writing a book or a blog post about what this generation wants and why, they are all guesses (including mine). This generation is simply too young to have a very deep sense of what is driving them. Generational differences are really best viewed in hindsight. So you have to take this stuff with a grain of salt.

That being said, we shouldn't just ignore the issue and wait until they are all in their 40s and 50s. It's good to put these guesses out there. So for me, I'm guessing that these four trends are going to be major shapers of the Millennials

• The internet (specifically the social internet)
• Abundance
• Diversity
• Child-focused.

It's hard to summarize these trends in a few sentences, but here goes: Growing up with the internet and ubiquitous information, Millennials have embraced social technology so, in short, they can do more things themselves than previous generations, so they expect to be able to do more earlier in their lives and careers. If they don't like your rules, they'll do it themselves. They also grew up with incredible abundance (self-storage--and industry based on us having way more crap than we can fit in our huge houses--is $17 billion per year), and with abundance comes a focus on higher order needs. Diversity is also more "normal" to them and they expect varied backgrounds, information from varied sources, and strange mashups as normal. And they grew up with parents focusing on them. Everyone gets a trophy. Driven to play dates constantly.

So here are the marketing trends I came up with:

1. SHARE (from the internet trend). If you want your marketing to be successful, create things that are shareable. This generation has been mass-marketed AT since they were tiny. That's boring. But what their friend gives to them, now that's worth taking a look. This is about word of mouth and social objects, which don't by the way, always have to be internet or social-media related (inviting someone to an in person networking event is a social object).

2. DESIGN (from the abundance trend). This comes from Dan Pink, but when you've got abundance you move to "higher order" needs like design. Dan points to the Michael Graves toilet brush. Having a toilet brush that works is simply a given. But we get value from its design. Millennials also grew up online where rich and engaging design is the norm. Compare the user interface of Pong to World of Warcraft. Makes me wonder if that two-color tri-fold brochure is going to cut it with these folks? (Particularly when so many of them could design a better brochure themselves!)

3. NETWORK (from the diversity trend). Expecting diversity means expecting to get information from a variety of sources--even sources that may not make sense. So instead of the funnel (broadcast message to 10,000, hope 1,000 read it, then 100 call you, and 10 buy), think lattice. Find network of influencers. Find out where the conversations really happen and see how to become a part of it. Lateral information sharing just as important (or more important?) as vertical.

4. PERSONAL (from the child-focused trend). Whether we like it or not, they had their needs catered to as children. If you say "Yeah, but they need to wake up and not be so spoiled" I say, "Sorry. They got it instantly and customized and they will continue to expect it--and get it." Think about the google ads that are customized. Think about how I mentioned divorce in a tweet once and I now get DMs from relationship coaches. The data is out there and is being used to customize. Once they have that, they won't go back, so we'd all better figure out how to do it.

So what do you think?

Generations: Where's the Love?

Maggie McGary went off on a bit of a rant about Generation Y/Millennials on her (spectacular) blog the other day. She watched Penelope Trunk speak about the younger generation and then read a guest post on Trunk's blog by a 23-year-old who had quit a job after just two weeks, partially because she was able to continue living with her parents (something done much more frequently by this generation than generations before). The gist of Maggie's commentary: Gen Y needs to get over themselves and stop thinking that the world is going to constantly cater to them, and for God's sake don't you realize that living with Mom and Dad makes you a loser?!

I'd like to push back a bit. First, on the living at home thing. Here's my take. Living at home after college used to make you a loser. Now it doesn't. The people who need to get over that are the Gen Xers and Boomers who want the Millennials to experience the world the same way we do. What constitutes "loser" will change over time and the aging generations will choose to either roll with that or resist it. I prefer rolling with it. And I'd also add that the world is different now than when we were getting out of college. Student debt is bigger than it used to be and I think in most areas housing might be relatively more expensive than it used to be. I don't have the numbers on this, but it's worth considering before being too judgmental about where Millennials live.

Second, I have a different read on that guest blog post. I thought her points about realizing early on that it wasn't a good fit there and being smart enough to leave are points worth considering. We just don't have enough data in that blog post to know if she was being impetuous or insightful. Recognizing it wasn't the right "fit" might have been because they made her make copies, but it might have been because the culture was not as promised. She might have been giving up too quickly, but she might have been doing everyone a favor by not wasting time and energy trying to make it work.

Third, Maggie suggested that there are "droves" of Gen Xers waiting to take and do jobs if Millennials would rather stay at home with Mom and Dad, and from a demographic view, that's not true. There are millions and millions of Gen Xers--don't get me wrong. But relatively we are a much smaller generation than either the Boomers or Millennials. I agree that I don't think all the Boomers are going to retire en masse as many have been worrying, but there are senior positions opening for Gen X now, so I'm not sure we will be available in droves to fill lower level positions. I think the combination of generational attitudes plus the "hourglass" demographics is going to force some rather significant structural change in organizations.

Oh, and by the way, Strauss and Howe, my favorite theorists on generations, point out that typically every generation has "issues" with the generation immediately below them. Just look at the conversation Eric Lanke had with a Boomer colleague about Generation X's leadership (and the comments too).

Great Ideas Leadership Lessons 3: Learn About Generations

(Lessons 1 and 2 are posted here and here)

This was arguably the hardest one to pick 80s music for for me, but that doesn't make it any less important. Those who know me know that I think generations are important, but there were a few points that I particularly wanted to highlight around the topic of generations and leadership.

First, I think Generation X is going to lead differently. That was the impetus behind the Hourglass Blog that I write with Eric Lanke, and I posted more detailed thoughts about this part of the Great Ideas session over there.

Second, beyond all the generational differences in values, attitudes, and behavior, we frequently overlook the basic demographics of the generations that will have a serious impact on leadership. The Boomers and the Millennials are both huge populations--the two biggest generations in our nation's history. Generation X is MUCH smaller. This means that all the organizational structures we have in place now were created as a large generation was moving up through the ranks. At the big picture level, we won't be able to fill those slots with Generation X. So we either need to restructure things or put people in those slots who do NOT have the same level of experience as those who are vacating them.

Third, I think the Millennial generation also leads differently, and I don't think they are going to wait as patiently as Generation X has. Enabled by the social web, Millennials do a lot themselves, and it's going to change what leadership means. These days associations debate at the leadership level whether or not they should create a Facebook page for their association, and when they finally get approval to do so they discover that there are already 28 different groups on Facebook about them, most of which are using the association's logo! How will leadership in our organizations adapt to a group that won't necessarily wait for us?

New Blog on Generations and Leadership

Several weeks ago, Eric Lanke, who is the Executive Director of the National Fluid Power Association, reached out to me with an idea to start a dialogue. Like me, Eric is a Generation X leader who has noticed that most of the conversation about generations seems to be looking "down" the ladder: what do we do with these Millennials coming into the workforce?!

But what about up? What about the large number of Boomers who are slated to resign from the very top of the organizational chart (note I said "slated to retire"; I'm not yet convinced they actually WILL retire!)? How will generational tendencies of the X generation change the way leadership is executed at the top? How will the hourglass shape of the three main generations in the workforce today (large number of Boomers, small number of Xers, large number of Millennials) impact how organizations most effectively shape the future?

Eric and I like talking about topics like this, and we're looking for others who want to talk about it too. We're not exactly sure of the best way to promote and facilitate this dialogue, but at the very least we felt it was worthy of a blog! So we created the "Hourglass Blog." It's just getting started, but I hope you'll get the feed and follow along because I think the conversation will be interesting.

Generations and Learning Style

In my last post I told a story that talked about the younger generation and asking questions. I put out there the possibility that at least some members of the younger generation might think that asking questions in a group setting was "rude" and they preferred to ask questions directly. I thought the comments to that post were an interesting mix of agreement and push back.

Some of the push back basically said, "But group questions and discussion is a valuable way to learn and these young people need to adjust." I tried to make the point that any time you tell anyone they "need to adjust" you first need to question your side of the story. Just because they have a different point of view doesn't mean it's wrong or inferior. I encourage people to approach that situation with curiosity, playing with different possibilities rather than being sure that you're answer is the right one.

But Jeff De Cagna brought up an interesting point to me in a conversation we had. While we may all have different learning styles, that doesn't mean we should ignore principles of adult learning. We all benefit from pushing the edges of our comfort zone in that regard. Sue Pelletier blogged about my post and got the following comment:

I am a member of that “younger generation” and I found this quite interesting. I have always felt the same way. I much prefer to ask questions in private, over email, or in general not in front of the group. And as you point out, it is not because I’m shy (I consider myself to be quite outgoing and talkative), but because sometimes I feel like I could be wasting others’ time. More than that though, I simply prefer to learn that way. I am more likely to walk away fully understanding something if I ask or discuss it personally (electronically or not).

It's always a balancing act between people's preferences (where they are comfortable) and their learning edges (which are by definition uncomfortable). You need to have some time in both. I love pushing people out of their comfort zone because it's a part of growth and learning, and that should be a driver here: improving learning (rather than trying to figure out the absolute "right" way to do something).

Focus on Others (You'll Get More for You)

Thanks to generations guy Andrew Krzmarzick for pointing to a nice article in Tech News World about using social networks (like Facebook) in a business context. It's a nice article to have on hand to those of you out there who get the push back when you talk to executives about social media initiatives. Granted, the author is a CEO of a technology company, but I think he makes some compelling arguments about why it's a good idea for just about any organization. One of my favorite quotes was this:

Often companies...spend a fortune on programs to try and force their people into a contrived "corporate culture" that looks nothing like what the organization's employees want.

My experience has shown that social networks deliver in several ways. First, they keep the most clever and creative staff members happy in their work, because they can multi-task, manage their lives, consult their peers, and feel somewhat free while spending long hours at their desks. Secondly, social networks facilitate the "informal learning" that is so crucial in any business environment, particularly in the world of high tech. The added bonus is that the subject matter experts are not limited to the people immediately at hand; they can be anywhere in the world, and they often are.

Happier people. More learning. Access to more resources. These are good things.

The theme that I want to pull out, though, is creating an organization that your employees want. I know there are bosses out there who would bristle at that paragraph. "You mean I need to create an organization that allows for my 20-something employees to 'manage their lives!?' Um...Don't they work for ME? Manage your life on your own time!"

Look, it's your organization and you can run it however you want. You can demand that all your employees work the way you would want to work, and a bunch of them will be fine with that. You'll survive. I would argue that your turnover rates are going to increase steadily, but honestly there are plenty of organizations that can handle those increased costs.

But why wouldn't you create an organization that gives employees what they want? In conflict resolution, I have to make this point all the time. When you are negotiating with someone, it is in YOUR interests to make sure THEY get their interests met. People don't like this advice. They don't want to spend their energy helping their adversary get what they want. They want to focus on their own needs.

That is the lesson: you are more likely to get what you want when your opponent is getting what they want. This doesn't mean you give in to all their demands (no, you don't necessarily have to order a foosball table for your employees), but you do have to be aware of what they want and why they want it.

Do you know what your employees want and why? If you did, you'd probably be able to give them much of what they ask for while still protecting your interests in running a successful organization. Facebook and social networks is just one example.

I think we spend too much time designing things and doing things overly focused on what we want. We make web sites that work for us (not the user), we create organizations that work for the organizers (not the employees), we create evaluation forms that work for the meeting planners (not the attendees). Of course we need to be clear on what we want and need, but that shouldn't be our focus. I think if you focus on others, you'll end up getting more for you.