Wave!...Captains vs. Carvers

When I read Heather Havenstein's article in CIO on the (much, MUCH talked about) topic of GenY technology usage patterns and preferences, what really jumped out at me were the comments.
 
Of course, it's a bit sad to see a high level of disrespect for people who think/work/live differently.  But, more importantly from where I sit, it's sad to NOT see 3 things:

1. Discussion of the body of research that demonstrates how these young professionals, who grew up immersed in tech during their cognitively formative years, had their brains re-wired in several key ways.  Generations differ somewhat, in terms of cultural styles, norms, etc.  But, this generation may be (literally) wired differently.
   
   • More responsive to visuals and symbology
   • Faster scanners
   • Non-linear text processing
   • Stronger impulse to engage, comment, clarify, question -- to be actively involved
   • Faster, more discerning search relevant information (not just on Google)
   • Identity-based/relationship-based meaning inference
   • and, many more
2. Discussion of the opportunity to create competitive advantage by reshaping organizations.  This is not the first convulsion in the western corporate form, and it certainly won't be the last.  But, go back and review the list of evolutionary advances in my previous point.  If that does not look like something akin to "super knowledge workers" -- I've done a bad job of communicating.  The new information processing skills of this generation are a new natural resource from which forward-thinking leaders can create new organizational forms and new decision models -- using new tools and methods, of course -- that will make their organizations more aware, more agile, more adaptive, more informed, more collaborative, etc.  Who do you want to bet on: the company that's wedded to the status quo of top-down, centrally-managed decisioneering....OR....the company that finds a responsible way to speed up decision/information velocity within the team, using the tools and methods that have been incubating just outside the corporate gates?
   • My bet is on the latter
3. Comments from Human Resources officer(s), whose responsibility is centrally finding talent and creating a culture that develops/applies this talent effectively.  Forward-thinking HR professionals should be allying with CIO's, Information Architects, Strategy Officers -- even CEO's -- to make a case for creating competitive advantage by reshaping the 1990's organization into something relevant for the next 10 years.

The issue has NOTHING to do with "letting employees dictate how work will be done."  That's an absurd caricature of the argument, typically made by controlling captains who are afraid.  The issue has to do with corporate strategy, specifically the long-overlooked strategy domain of human capital.  Who wants to go surfing?

Comments

[Karen Lopez]

Some of the newer generations writings get a lot of the differences right, and some are just the normal generational griping ("Youth is wasted on the wrong people") and ("Old people want to do everything the old way").

As a project manager, what I see as really generational differences:

- Younger IT workers have always had better IT systems at home than they will ever have at work. They have sysadmin access to everything on their home systems. They have the latest and highest version of every piece of software(either via evaluations, piracy, or purchase). We Boomers didn't get to play with mainframe software at home, so we expect all training and learning to be provided at work. Gen Yers don't.

- Younger IT workers saw their boomer parents get laid off and suffer a great deal. They vowed to not be loyal to their employers. Many younger boomers never saw this happen to their parents, so they are more hopeful that employers will be loyal to employees...although this hope is rapidly declining.

- Younger IT workers have always had the tools to take data and information and produce it in a format the they like. So they want all their tools to spit out data in a format that they can mold and twist and import into other tools. In fact, they'd rather create their own data rather than be locked into a single format.

- Younger IT workers have always had the web as their primary source of information, so they don't think in terms of more reviewed sources such as academic papers, research, peer-reviewed articles, books, etc. Unfortunately, this leads to the younger generation putting more emphasis on thoughts from the people who have the most time to blog, tweet, forum-hop, and generally self-publish their ideas with almost no review/feedback. Many boomers see the reading of blogs, or commenting on blogs, as a waste of time. So they are missing out on some very important trends and thoughts. Both ends of the spectrum are losing out.

I'm not saying that these things are necessarily in themselves bad for the profession, but the differences sure make it hard to collaborate across generations.

[Neil Raden]

I wrote a white paper (http://www.hiredbrains.com/NextGen%20Software.pdf) about this a couple years ago for Spotfire. Here is a quote: "Unlike the previous generation, which accepted a new technology or didn’t, this new generation views technology as essential and is demanding and vocal about the experience they expect. 'Ease of use' is no longer about being 'easy'. Popular video games are not popular because they are easy, but rather because they deliver exhilarating and responsive experiences. Sensibilities are very different now. This generation at work seeks intellectually stimulating and rewarding experiences in place of routine and regularity." So I see this as much more than the tools they use. In the same way my father's generation saw longevity and loyalty to the firm as paramount, and boomers like me were always wondering "what's in it for me," these guys have a totally different gestalt. Using "greatest generation" or boomer techniques to manage and incent this generation will not work. You have to keep them interested and understand that they are part of a wider community than their employer's. Ease of use is dead. Relevance and connection are key.