Staying On Track: It’s easy to get lost

Why Millennials?

The generational conflict:

Why Millennials:

Team focused organizations:

There are good reasons why the Millennial generation is such a hot topic in the organizational development world.

The business world of today is fundamentally made up of three distinct generations: the Boomers, the X’ers and the Millennials. In short the Boomers have reached the decision making levels of an organization. The X’ers are currently in the mid to upper management and the Millennials are in the entry level and developing positions.

Each generation carry clear assumptions and subsequent expectations about how to get the job done, and this is where we find culture clashes that lead to slowdowns, if not overt shutdowns in organizational productivity. Let’s briefly review the generation’s demographics and a few important assumptions regarding “how to work productively.”

Michael Maccoby, a current and respected researcher on how personality and social character impact the work environment, describes the three generations as follows: The boomers (Born 1946-64) are marked by an attitude of wanting to work in an organization that values loyalty and experience, where their work allows autonomy, and the boss is like a good parent. (Maccoby: Research Technology Management; Vol. 55, No. 2 March-April, 2012 pp. 55-56.) The X’ers (born 1965-81) are marked by and attitude of working in an environment of working with a mix between authoritative and collaborative styles. Whereas the Millennials (born 1982-2000), are marked by a wish to work in a flatter, more collaborative organization and see themselves as free agents, wanting roles that improve their marketability so they can take advantage of better opportunities. They like the idea of working in a team where leadership shifts to the person with appropriate skills. And they prefer a leader who is a facilitator rather than a paternalistic boss. (Maccoby: Research Technology Management; Vol. 55, No. 2 March-April, 2012 pp. 55-56.) Maccoby goes on to describe the difference (in brief here) as boomer’s social character may be described as “inner-directed/ identification with parental figure/ and precise and methodical.” In contrast, what he calls the ‘interactive types’ best match the Millennials as: “other directed / Indentification with peers and siblings / experimental and innovative.”

Despite these differences; Why millennials?, because they are here and therefore they are the next generation of decision makers regardless of current alignment between generations. Additionally, X’ers and Boomers are their current leaders, and as their leaders, are vested with the responsibility to find effective ways to develop Millennials into the great leaders we ourselves aspire.

What do Millennials bring to the game? Let me name just a couple….

Despite the cultural clashes, Millennials actually accept and follow rules. The best example may be the historic Z.T. rule. For those boomers and X’ers that have been out of school for a while, Z.T. stands for ‘zero tolerance.’ It was/is an attempt to make the schools safe for everyone by establishing a zero tolerance across the board for any hint of disturbance that would threaten the student body at large. Just find a few 20 something’s in your work environment and ask them about their Z.T. school policies. Further corroborating this point, movie titles that inspired Boomers such as “A Rebel without a Cause” will not be on the Millennial’s top-ten list of movies. Furthermore, Millennials are the most watched over generation in history thus far and appear to better value education; participate in social causes and their development, and appear to be far more hopeful than their respective Boomer and X’er counterparts.

Lastly, Millennials are effective team players. Successful stories inspiring the Millennial generation; whether in book or movie form have emphasized the team model. Stories such as “Harry Potter” or others that break from traditional Myth structure such as “Ender’s Game,” clearly exhibit how teams do better than the stories portraying the “lone ranger type” that inspired the Boomers and some X’ers. The Millennial’s team orientation must be understood, developed and optimized for a business unit or organization that plans to integrate the millennial generation into its current structure and continued productivity. Any company, regardless of industry and market position in that industry that ignores this fact, will quickly be consumed by the companies that do not ignore this unique and potentially powerful component of the next great generation.

Dr. David NieKamp is a clinical psychologist and organizational consultant. He especially enjoys helping others achieve excellence through creating sustainable productivity in individuals and teams. He can be contacted at Signatureconsulting2005@gmail.com