Unlocking Generational CODES: Understanding What Makes the Generations Tick and What Ticks Them OFF by Liotta Anna

Author:Liotta, Anna [Liotta, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aviva Publishing New York
Published: 2011-11-15T16:00:00+00:00

Millennials: As Millennials engage in the workforce, they have high expectations of the welcome they will receive, the options they will have to continue growing, and the opportunities for new and exciting experiences. Millennials want to achieve amazing results quickly, be celebrated for them, and then move on to the next adventure.

Millennials have been the participants and recipients of customized lifestyles from Baby Einstein Learning Programs to Select Soccer Leagues to College and Life Coaches. Their Boomer parents have plotted, policed, pressured, and politically maneuvered their children into schools, internships, and elite programs to create custom experiences for their whole lives.

Don’t Assume You Know Their Plan

The reserved parking space, vacation house, and status of a multi-word title do not have the same Pavlovian effect on Xers or Millennials. Here are two examples:

Gen Xer Alex is the next in line for the CEO position at his international economic development firm. The Baby Boomer CEO is two years away from retirement and the Board of Directors’ succession plan includes Xer Alex stepping up. The one small problem is that Alex is planning to leave and start his own consulting firm. He’s not interested in taking over the CEO position because it’s currently designed to be mostly politics and schmoozing with financial backers. Alex doesn’t want to spend his talent navigating politics, so he’ll make new plans, unless the Board starts negotiating a new alignment of the accountabilities.

Boomer Bob is perplexed and stunned. A high-level executive at an international banking company, Bob shared,

“Millennial Rachel is a Regional Director. She is only thirty and she has reached a level most people never attain, but she just told me her plan to retire is to retire in the next ten years. She is going to have two kids over the next eight years using the company maternity leave and then leave. She’s in a position most people from my generation would have killed for, and she is already planning to give it all up!”

The Entitled Generation—Fact or Fiction?

Got Game

In John Beck and Mitchell Wade’s book Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever (published by Harvard Business School Press), we see how being a “Gamer” influenced Gen Xers and Millennials’ views and consequently affected the way they see business and beyond. Beck and Wade outline the rules and lessons that games are “teaching” Xers and Millennials about “the world.” Here is a short sampling:

The WAY IT IS in the Gamer World

The Individual’s Role:

You’re the star—you are the center of attention of every game.

You’re the boss—the world is very responsive to your every choice and wish .

You’re the customer, and the customer is always right—the experience is designed for your satisfaction and entertainment; the opponents are tough, but never too tough.

You’re an expert—you have the experience of getting really, really good at something.

You’re a tough guy—you can’t be hurt no matter how many crashes and spills you take.

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