What to do with our Yers ?

March 25, 2010 By 2 Comments

Generation Y is now an actual concern for many organizations. Some see them as a danger, other as an opportunity but everybody wonder about how to tame this new population that make organizations tremble with fear. And one question is on all lips : how will businesses  adapt.

The issue came back to my mind when I came across this deck by Julien Pouget who had the kidness to gather some verbatims and “instant thoughts” at an event where he spoke. As Julien himself says, that’s only an “instant picture” and nothing more. But I often find these kinds of verbatim useful because they show us how people perceive things and this perception, should it be legitimate or not, argued or not, objective or subjective, actually exists so has to be taken into account.

Those who can understand a few words in french may be interested in the deck, that’s why I share it all the same.

Generation Y vue des Profs et Entrepreneurs

According to my own perception of this generation, here are my takes :

• on a cognitive perspective, they are different from previous generations. They are made to work in the world we live in and intead of managing the Y case I think that businesses that will learn from them will make impressive improvements. Anyway, one day they’ll be the majority so better start now, all the more since they have the right DNA to be successful in an information world. That does not mean they should either deserve a red carpet and that they have nothing to learn from older people.

• an ambiguous relationship with work. If I rely on the informations gathered by Julien, they don’t want to work themselves to death and, most of all, they don’t understand the enterprise world. It confirms what some other surveys already demonstrated [fr] : the shift from a world of entertainement to a world of work is very hard for them, they don’t master the codes and the challenges and, most of all, they don’t care about that.

They want to work as less as possible, are more interested in holidays than in the content of their job and want everything to come to them without making any effort. They want to find a job and that’s why they are curious about integration into the workplace, but they don’t want their job to impact their private life.

I was looking at this deck with a 40yo manager, a kind of manager 2.0, networker, facilitator, who is very comfortable when it comes to working with Yers. He told me “their DNA is useless if they don’t quickly refocus and the beginning of their career may be a violent shock. If they don’t care, the future will remember them as Generation S…for Slumped”. Direct but lucid.

• Revolutionary ? Not at all. Rather apathetic. But, as I was recently told, “let’s see the impact of the crisis on a generation that have always know growth and had high expectations. You know, when they’ll find themselves as everybody, with a rent to pay and engagements to assume, when the real world will catch up with them, they’ll become pragmatic by need, as it happened to all the previous generations”.

• Should we generalize ? In my opinion, not at all. I recently gave a class at HEC (French best business school) and I can tell you the students were tonic, interested, smart and aware of the challenges they’ll have to face in the workplace. A also know Yers from overseas where I have relatives, and I don’t feel they fit this description either. Moreover, how could they demand a 35h workweek, more and more holidays, concepts that does not exist in their world. More, all the studies I read that showed their unsuitability for the workplace were european (and even worse…from french speaking countries) and it’s obvious that Yers are not the same everywhere. I could even tell you about a texbook case : the comparison bewteen a teen that spent his first 10 years in the US and then moved to Europe and his cousin who stayed overseas. Let me tell you they  are much less alike than they were a few years ago.

In my opinion, Generation Y is not uniform, neither is the attitude we should have toward it. Businesses have to learn how to take the most from their specificities while refocusing them when needed. Internships will have to become a true discovery, adaptation, acclimatizatin period. A two ways mentorship between two generations that have a lot to learn the one from the other will be essential. Many people say businesses have lot to lose if they don’t adapt to Yers…let me add that Yers have even more to lose if they don’t adapt to the constraints of the workplace. Saying that…the debate become more balanced.

Anyway, we should be aware of not adoption extreme solutions : denying what they are or adopting a submissive attitude toward the Y monster.

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Generation Y and Boomers : Together They Can

July 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

One more article that adds to the already imposing amount of Gen-Y related things. I (finally) recently came across something really worth on the subject in the latest issue of the HBR, an analysis relying on a survey conducted across 50 multinational companies and that confirms what we’ve been seing on the ground, even if it does not please those who’d like to find a generation divide where it’s not.

As surprising as it may seem, Yers and Boomers have nearly the same expectations. They want, thought their work, to contribute to something that goes far beyond the business, something that looks like what Gary Hamel called a “higher purpose” in his 12 moonshots. Both are looking for flexibility. Neither one nor they other want too much telecommuting because they value real huan contacts. Boomers are alsovery likely to be involved in networks, rather in order to give something back to the society. They are still impregnated with the ideals of the 70s. Globally speaking, both value social relationships at work. I let you read the whole article to have the whole comparison.

So, at the end, where are the differences that are supposed to radically transform the workspace ?

First, we can wonder why they are so similar. Yers have their expectations, that’s a fact, but even if current organizations frustrates them, they’re not feeling like doing the revolution. But they’ll take the most of every existing breach and use the fact they’re shown as change drivers (self fulfilling prophecy ?) to make their moves when possible, in order to build a workspace that fits their expectations.

As for Boomers, they still have some social ideals, inherited from the end of the 60s. More, they don’t have things to learn anymore from the system and clearly see its limits. They reached a point in their career where they can pull off the masks : they won’t climb the organization chart anymore, are growing away from power and competition issues. It makes them have a vision that’s more collective and less selfish, to distance themselves whose they know the limits. They are also reaching an age when people often want to give, to give back, to transmit their experience to youngers as they know their careers are close to the end. For instance, 65% of boomers like to take younger people under their wing.

Sharing many values, these generations have many things to do together. The article suggests an intergenerational mentorship (humm… reminds me of something) and quotes Cisco and Booz Allen Hamilton as examples. Strangely, these are two enterprise 2.0 successful examples (is it really luck ?). Notice, if you don’t like modernism, that Jack Welch did something similar at GE.

So, is there really any generation gap ?

There is, between Yers and Boomers, a middle generation made of people born between 1965 and 1978, called Generation Y. It’s  made of all the people aged between 30 and 40, who merged in the matrix, forgetting their own expectations, and are not very likely to approve the end of the existing system while they are so close to gets the benefits of their efforts (ie replacing boomers) after 10 or 15 years of sacrifice. More, they can’t understand why they should adapt to Yers whereas the previous generation didn’t make any effort for them. That’s why some call them Generation O, that stands for “Organization Chart”.

quadras qui se sont fondus dans le moule, enterrant parfois leurs propres aspirations, et voient d’un mauvais oeil la fin d’un système auquel ils se sont conformés et qui toucherait à sa fin alors même qu’ils sont prêts, enfin, d’en toucher les dividendes (comprenez…prendre la place des Boomers) après 10 ou 15 ans de sacrifices. D’autant plus qu’ils ne voient certainement pas pourquoi s’adapter aux Y alors qu’on ne les pas accueilli avec autant d’égards en leur temps.

In a minority regarding to Yers and boomers taken together, they are the missing link, those who stand on the brakes. Maybe most of them are also facing the “mid-managemer syndrome”. The weight of the two other generations and the beneifts of making them move forward together implies, according to the author, that companies should favor the “Y+boomers” duet.

Do you think that X will move if they are caught in a pincer movement ? Or, making them really feel alone would be like a bomb with a timing device ?

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