Wait, we’re really different?
There’s a helluvah lot of hulla-baloo about differences between generations. Consultants, managers, recruiters, bloggers of all stripes just can’t seem to wrap their heads around the fact that we are all different.
Yup, we’re different. End of story. If you don’t believe me, hop over to the folks at Pew and see some of their generational research. Let’s be real, though: are you surprised? If there weren’t differences between people, then life would have gotten boring about 10 million years ago and the prospect of human civilization would have faded away with the last, dying gasp of a vague eukaryote.
The problem is that people continue to harp on differences as if they matter. As I’ve just stated: they don’t, because saying “we’re all different” is like saying “the sky is blue.” So the dialogue needs to shift from “Are there differences?” to “How do we bridge those differences?” And by “bridge” I mean “learn about each other.” There’s a wealth of experience that Gen Y needs to tap into from the Boomers. There are new perspectives that Gen Y can show to Gen X. You can see where I’m going with this. Bottom line: the differences we observe in others are just chances to learn something more.
And what do we call the process about learning about others? Building relationships. What’s one of the major keys to career success? Building relationships! If you have the ability to seek out and create meaningful relationships, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Boomer leading a team that spans generations – if you know and understand your team members, you’ll know the best way to engage them.
Staying on point with the “generational differences” only procrastinates the real, meaningful discussion about how to harness the differences, move beyond on them, and do something greater. My Hofstra-grad-in-crime Steve Levy said it best yesterday: “It doesn’t matter if you’re Y, X or BB, we’re all part of Generation Learning – GenL – until we die.”
May 12th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
“Generations, like people, have personalities, and Millennials — the American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium — have begun to forge theirs: confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change.”
So was I when I graduated college in 1980.
Then the oil embargo came along. Then something else. And even more…
“…they are more upbeat than their elders about their own economic futures as well as about the overall state of the nation.”
Hey, so was I (we had to recover from the Carter years).
“Nearly four-in-ten have a tattoo.” You should see my older circle of friends; tattoos? Big Deal.
“About nine-in-ten either say that they currently have enough money or that they will eventually meet their long-term financial goals.” That’s simply “living in a dream” – if they think they do it’s because my Boomer friends (their parents) are leaving the kids an estate full of money.
The Millennial priorities were very similar to ours back in 1980 – what a surprise.
They might be more educated but it’s far easier to get good grades these days – back then we actually had grades other than A, B, or some other bastardized grade that focused on effort over mastery.
All of us were snookered by “Yes We Can” seeing now that it was really “We Probably Won’t”
I’m glad “they are less supportive than their elders of an assertive national security policy and more supportive of a progressive domestic social agenda”; we were at the end of the Cold War when the potential for global carnage was real. I’m guessing that 9/11 has been forgotten by the ems…
We would have been more socially oriented if we weren’t so fearful of sucking on an H-bomb…
“Generational Analysis” is warranted in that it allows us to play what-if games about the future as well as to compare ourselves to those of the past with a goal of learning how to best “grow” our society.
But “Generational Paralysis” wherein groups steadfastly adhere to their points-of-view and ways of thinking does no one any good.
Generations – you’ve had your 15 minutes of fame…now join the human race.
May 12th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I know Jon can take it because we’ve taken similar grad courses…
May 13th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Steve Levy. Steve Levy said: RT @KateRecruiter: We r a unique generation RT @BoingBoing: Statistics on millenial generation http://bit.ly/cwS3if -> http://bit.ly/bR1FSS [...]
May 14th, 2010 at 8:55 am
As always, a brilliant deconstruction of survey research. Admittedly, probably not the best example I could’ve conjured – but I didn’t feel like reading Metlay-style boorishness in some journal. As Churchill once put it, “Statistics are like a drunk with a lampost: used more for support than illumination.” If anything, Pew supported my statement that differences between people do exist – and you kindly elaborated on my central point: the differences don’t matter in the least.
I think parallels can be easily drawn between previous and current events and that again supports what I’m getting at: when you begin to understand other people, you realize how much you’re alike. Differences make us who we are, but we needn’t make them the things that separate us from others. Yes, generations, you’ve had your fame – another silly title or role to tack on to ourselves – now let’s go do something constructive.