You've heard it all before: Millennials want flexibility, state-of-the-art technology, career development, purpose, and meaning in their work. But really ... who doesn't want these things? This isn't a Millennial problem, a Gen Xer problem, or a Baby Boomer problem. This is an organizational problem.
Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace: The Generational Secret Nobody is Talking About
1. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com
Leading 5 Generations
in the Workplace
The generational secret
that nobody is talking about
Bill Sheridan, CAE
Oct. 23 and 25, 2017
5. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 5
“Children love luxury; they have bad
manners, contempt for authority; they
show disrespect for elders and love
chatter in place of exercise. Children are
now tyrants … They no longer rise when
elders enter the room. They contradict
their parents, chatter before company …
and tyrannize their teachers.”
Who said it
7. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 7
“Nothing in life is to be
feared; it is only to be
understood. Now is the
time to understand
more, so that we may
fear less.”
Marie Curie
Marie Curie
9. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 9Marie Curie
Photo from Getty Images
Traditionalists
Born between 1925-45
Dedicated
Pay your dues
Work hard
Respect authority
Age = seniority
Company first
Loyal
10. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 10Marie Curie
Photo from BoomerCafe.com
Boomers
Born between 1946-64
Anti-government
Challenges authority
“Don’t trust anyone over 30”
Driven
Workaholics
Long hours = self worth
Team-oriented
Focused on quality
11. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 11Marie Curie
Photo from Clypd.com
Gen Xers
Born between 1965-80
Balance, diversity
Work smarter, not longer
Independent
Informal
Want structure, direction
Skeptical / suspicious
12. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 12Marie Curie
Photo from Getty Images
Millennials
Born between 1981-95
Ambitious
What’s next?
Multitasking
Tenacious
Entrepreneurial
Digital
Sheltered
13. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 13Marie Curie
Photo from Getty Images
Gen Z
Born between 1996-2012
Cynical
Private
Entrepreneurial
Multi-taskers
Hyper-aware / savvy
Tech-reliant / always on
Pragmatic
Live in the now
16. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 16Marie Curie
“The way we lead and manage organizations
is going to take on a radical new look over the
next several years.”
24. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 24Marie Curie
Keys to managing five
generations in the
workplace
1. Understand
individual differences
2. No stereotypes
3. Cross-mentor
4. Collaborate
5. Engage
25. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 25Marie Curie
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose
What do people
really want?
30. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Title of presentation 30
“None of this is true.
… (M)illennials are
the first cohort in
American history to
enjoy lower living
standards than their
parents. Not buying
napkins is a pretty
painless way to save
money.”
New Republic
33. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading Five Generations in the Workplace 33Marie Curie
Books These are among the resources that were discussed during
the our “Future-Ready CPA” programs.
The Future of the Professions: How
Technology Will Transform the Work of
Human Experts
By Richard and Daniel Susskind
www.susskind.com
When Millennials Take Over: Preparing
for the Ridiculously Optimistic Future of
Business
By Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant
bit.ly/2h7IDge
Flash Foresight: How To See The
Invisible And Do The Impossible
By Daniel Burrus
bit.ly/1SOn7FG
The Power of Moments: Why Certain
Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact
By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
heathbrothers.com/the-power-of-moments/
The Industries Of The Future
By Alec Ross
bit.ly/2fP8cnU
Thank You For Being Late: An
Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age
of Accelerations
By Thomas Friedman
bit.ly/2hag0Rg
34. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading Five Generations in the Workplace 34Marie Curie
Whitepapers These are among the resources discussed
during the our “Future-Ready CPA” programs.
What SMBs Want From Their
Accountant
From The Sleeter Group
bit.ly/2fCsvkc
Welcome to the Fast Future
From CPA.com
bit.ly/2gdHlBj
The Future of Employment: How Susceptible
Are Jobs To Computerization?
By Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne
bit.ly/1kre5T6
CPA Horizons 2025
From the American Institute
of CPAs
bit.ly/1UEN1x2
Innovation Killers: How Financial Tools
Destroy Your Capacity To Do New Things
By Clayton Christensen, Stephen P.
Kaufman, and Willy Shih
bit.ly/1JtBxfG
Ready-Now Leaders: Meeting
Tomorrow’s Business Challenges
From DDI
bit.ly/V05HQ6
35. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com Leading 5 Generations in the Workplace 35Marie Curie
Contect with
me MACPA’s blog: CPASuccess.com
Facebook.com/BillSheridan
LinkedIn.com/in/BillDSheridan
Twitter.com/BillSheridan
YouTube.com/BillSheridan
SlideShare.net/BillSheridan
Instagram: BDSheridan
Download these slides:
Slideshare.net/BillSheridan
36. #CCHUC17 | CCHUserConference.com
Leading 5 Generations
in the Workplace
The generational secret
that nobody is talking about
Bill Sheridan, CAE
Oct. 23 and 25, 2017
Hinweis der Redaktion
Look at that list. How can you live with yourselves?
Here’s the deal, though: None of those headlines are true. In the lingo of the day, they’re “fake news.” I’m gonna tell you WHY at the end of this presentation, but you can boil it down to this:
None of the hype you hear about generational differences is true. NONE of it. These issues have nothing to do with age, nothing to do with generations.
Here’s your first clue.
So what’s my point? Simply this:
All of this talk about millennials and generational differences? It’s nothing new. Every new generation pisses off the one that came before them. We’re all suspicious of what we don’t understand. And if you don’t believe me, think about what happened in the 1960s … or the 1990s ... or what’s happening now. It happens over and over and over again.
Do you remember what the Baby Boomers’ mantra was in the 1960s? “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” As the Washington Post put it, “They put it on buttons as they rallied against the Man. Now they ARE the Man.”
So let’s start by understanding a little more.
Who, exactly, ARE these five generations?
Let’s start with the stereotypes:
Also known as “The Silent Generation.”
Also being called iGen ... As in iPhone, iTunes, etc.
Private: Prefer semi-anonymous platforms like Snapchat and Secret to Facebook and others that leave permanent records.
Entrepreneurial: Almost 20 percent say they want to start their own businesses.
Interesting stuff about media usage: They don’t watch TV:
-- boomers 24.1 hours per week
-- Gen X 19.7
-- millennials 14.8
-- Gen Z 13.2
It starts and ends with their smartphones.
Their favorite website. Any guesses? YouTube
And they don’t watch ads. When they use media, they use a lot of ad-blocking software
More cautious, pragmatic, prefer safety. Examples:
-- a 40 percent drop in teen birth rates
-- a 38 percent drop in drug and alcohol abuse
-- a 28 percent drop in those not graduating high school on time.
Now that we’ve got all of that important information, here’s what I want you to do with it.
Why? Because it’s useless. It’s garbage. It’s a waste of time worrying about these stereotypes and how they divide the generations. They’re not the cause of our problems these days.
The real culprit isn’t these people and how they act … it’s the time we’re living in. These differences are blamed on the generations rather than on the actual culprit – an era of unprecedented change and complexity.
Let me tell you what I mean.
This is Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant. They’ve written an important book called “When Millennials Take Over.” And in it, they argue that the generational debate should focus much less on generational stereotypes and more on two key factors:
The first is that we’re on the cusp of a new, transformational era for mankind. Notter and Grant cite the research of William Strauss and Neil Howe, and what these researchers have found is VERY interesting.
They’ve tracked generations through the ages, and they’ve determined that once every four generations in this country, there is a MAJOR transition which has a deep impact on our national culture, politics, and economy.
So let’s see:
Strauss and Howe’s point is this: Major, transformative transitions have occurred in this country roughly every 80 to 100 years.
And 80 years or so from the end of World War II is … right around the corner. So what does that mean for us?
I’m not sure, but I know this: Millennials are entering young adulthood and Generation Z is getting ready to enter the workforce en masse at a time that history predicts will be yet another significant transition, from one era to the next.”
My gut tells me this transition has something to do with Moore’s Law and the advancement of technology.
Have you all heard of Moore’s Law?
These exponential advances in technology are changing everything – from business models, to the economy, to national and global politics, to society, to security, to individual morality and ethics. And our youngest colleagues were born and raised in this chaos. They embrace it. For them, it simply IS reality. They’re comfortable here, and they’re about ready to take over our workplaces.
In short, it’s a new world, and it belongs to them.
So that’s the first factor that Notter and Grant talk about in their book:
The second factor is the social Internet and its impact on business.
The social movement, they argue, has shifted power from institutions to individuals, and that spells trouble for traditional business models that rely on the centralization of power and control. “The more that individuals experience the new power that the social Internet is delivering, the more confused and frustrated they become trying to operate in traditional bureaucracies and hierarchies,” Notter and Grant write
And you can count millennials among the most frustrated. They were born into a social world. It’s all they know. And now they’re working for hopelessly outdated organizations that either don’t get or refuse to acknowledge the social movement. No wonder they’re frustrated.
But they won’t be frustrated for long. By 2020, millennials will be the largest segment of the U.S. workforce, “just as they are ascending into management positions,” the authors write. When that day comes, millennials will change business to work the way they do — and the coming shift in management and leadership will be nothing short of transformational.
So if the issue isn’t clashing personalities, if it’s not “Us vs. Them” – if this entire generational conversation has been going in the wrong direction this whole time – then how do we proceed?
It starts by restating the question: It’s not “How do we manage 5 generations in the workplace?” Rather, it’s, “How do we reconfigure our businesses when the very nature of doing business is changing before our eyes?” Because let’s face it – what got us here will NOT get us there.” We can’t keep managing the way we always have and hope to succeed when millennials and Gen Z start to take over. In fact, we won’t be able to – our new millennial leaders won’t allow it.
So it’s really a two-pronged attach in this generational battle. The first is on the individual level, and yes, there ARE some things we can do on an individual level to help smooth things over between the generations. Here are some of them:
1. Understand individual differences: Figure out: What matters to different sets of employees? If your company conducts annual surveys of any kind, add new questions to the mix, such as questions about your employees’ preferred communication style and planned professional paths.
2. Don’t dwell on stereotypes, because they’re subjective, and they’re usually wrong. Help your team move beyond the labels. Get to know your folks individually.
3. Cross-mentor: Studies show that colleagues learn more from each other than they do from formal training, which is why it is so important to establish a culture of coaching across age groups.
4 and 5: These last two are big: Engage your people. According to Gallup, almost 70 percent of your workforce is disengaged. 30 percent of those are ACTIVELY disengaged. That means they hate you and they’re plotting a coup from within. We keep wondering why they don’t leave? And they don’t – they just keep recruiting more people. “I hate this place. Come join me.” I call it the zombie apocalypse – 70 percent of your people are coming to work with just their heads. They’re not giving you their heart.
There’s a huge opportunity here to engage your people. It’s about co-creation and collaboration. Get them involved in the future of your firm. Get them involved in fixing the workflow. Get them involved in figuring out how you can save time. Get them involved in how you can create a flexible workplace – god forbid. And then try things. And adjust. And try some more things. And adjust again. That will engage them and you will get their heads AND their hearts, and suddenly, they will work a lot harder for you.
Everyone keeps saying, the millennials don’t want to work hard. That’s not true. They just don’t want to work hard for YOU – that’s the problem. If you create the right environment for them, they’ll work their tales off.
By the way, there’s a myth about millennials and job-hopping. All the research we’ve seen and done shows that their top priority is job security. No. 2 is flexibility, No. 3 is career development. If you do those things, they’ll stick with you.
Put another way, let’s turn to Dan Pink. Dan is a best-selling author and a really deep thinker about what motivates people, and according to him, it all boils down to these three things.
Autonomy: Give people REAL control over various aspects of their work. Self-direction is a key to meaningful engagement.
Mastery: Give your folks room to grow. Give them stretch assignments that will push them a bit out of their comfort zone and let them master those, then push them some more. The idea is to foster improvement, continual mastery, and growth. (Most important skill is the ability to learn new skills.)
Purpose: We already talked this one. Connecting to a cause that’s larger than yourself drives the deepest motivation and engagement. Does YOUR organization’s purpose motivate people in that way?
OK? So the bottom line is, this isn’t a generational thing. This is a PEOPLE thing. We all want the SAME things. It’s up to business to give us those things. The generations don’t have to change to do what WE want. WE have to change to do what the generations want.
This is a business problem, not a generational problem.
So this comes from a new book by Chip and Dan Heath, called ”The Power of Moments.” They cited research by Berkeley professor Morten Hansen, who explored the impact of purpose and passion on performance.
Low passion, low purpose: Lousy, but not surprising.
High passion, high purpose: Great, but again not surprising
So what if you could only have one or the other?
High passion, low purpose: Kind of shocking, right? Still poor performers if they lack a sense of purpose
High purpose, low passion: The outcome is clear: Purpose trumps passion.
How do you find your purpose? Keep asking why.
Why do you clean hospital rooms? ”Because that’s what my boss tells me to do.
Why? ”Because it keeps the rooms from getting dirty.”
Why does that matter? “Because it makes the rooms more sanitary and more pleasant.”
Why does that matter? “Because it keeps the patients healthy and happy.”
Boom.
Now let’s talk about the REAL issue, which is our outdated business models.
Incoming generations are entering the workplace with brand new tools. This presents unique challenges for leaders.
1. Your physical workspace. Is it collaborative? Is it time to consider an open workspace that encourages interaction and collaboration?
2. The cloud.
3. Your infrastructure. Are you still relying on old, stodgy, outdated software and databases that will cost you huge amounts of time and money to update? Or, are you considering a more fluid, flexible, and security app-based approach for things like finance, accounting, payroll, expenses. This type of approach will give you much more flexibility during these changing and complex times.
4. Mobile. Have you adopted a mobile-first mindset? Because that’s the direction we’re headed. We’re already there, in fact.
These types of things will be huge differentiators when it comes to recruiting and retaining top young talent and keeping them engaged going forward.
Marriott has turned its hotel in downtown Charlotte into an “Innovation Lab,,” where it’s trying out new ideas that it hopes will appeal millennials and Generation Z. What’s your version of an Innovation Lab?
The key to all of this: Escaping the pull of the past. Overcoming the gravity of success.
Jim Collins: Sometimes you have to change what you do to preserve you you are.
The point here is this: Much of this generational debate isn’t so much about differences between the generations. It’s about our businesses’ inability to keep pace with the rate of change. It’s well past time to change that.
The bottom line:
People want to do self-directed, self-improvement work that ties directly to their organization’s purpose – regardless of which generation they belong to.
Period.
Forget about the generations. It’s all about career development, really – making sure our business models encourage that, and that we’re helping people find their own paths. And if we offer that to ALL members of our team, regardless of which generation they belong to, we’ll kill the competition.