EMPLOYING GENERATION WHY
Understanding, Managing, and Motivating Your New Workforce
ERIC CHESTER
Published by Eric Chester at Smashwords
Copyright 2002 Eric Chester
Discover other titles by Eric Chester:
Reviving
Work Ethic:
A Leader’s Guide to Ending Entitlement and
Restoring Pride in the Emerging Workforce
Bring
Your A Game to Work (Teen Version) –
7 Values That Will Make
Every Employer Want to Hire You and Fight to Keep You
Bring
Your A Game to Work (Adult Version) -
7 Values That Will Make
Every Employer Want to Hire You and Fight to Keep You
Books
written by Eric Chester can be obtained through his official
website:
http://www.RevivingWorkEthic.com
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The Aliens Have Landed
Take Me to Your Leader!
Worlds Apart
Internal Wiring Differences: The Way We Think
Who Moved My Cheetos?Profile GW: What Can We Really Expect?
Labels, Terms, and Classifications
The Downside
The Upside
The Twelve Common Traits and Tendencies of Generation Why
Part Two – Employing Generation Why
Part Three – Connecting Points
PART ONE: Who Are They?
Why the Label Generation Why?
I’ve worked with young people all of my adult life. I was born in 1957, at the tail end of what has since been referred to as the Baby Boom. Like most Boomers, I naturally assumed everyone in America, except for my parents, was pretty much like me. I naively assumed they thought as I thought, believed in the same things I believed in, and felt about most things the way I felt.
My professional career began as a high school teacher and coach, and my naive assumption was quickly laid to rest by the graduating class of 1980. Even though they were only five years younger than me, it seemed like we were light years apart. Born in the early sixties, these students were born after the population boom and had missed out on the prosperity boom and patriotic boom that punctuated my generation. It was a much smaller generation than mine, and one that didn’t readily accept the Pollyannaish notion of the virtues of God, Mom, the Chevrolet, and apple pie. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that these students were jaded and cynical. The tenured teachers at my school and throughout the country were commenting that something weird had happened; that the new students were a strange breed apart from the norm. Something had happened allright, but no one could say what or why.
The first moniker given to them, the Baby Busters, signified an end to the U.S. population boom, but it fell short of adequately defining this strange new breed that had come into the world. Years later, the graduating class of 1980 (along with the next fifteen that followed) were being referred to as Generation Xers. They were causing a commotion, not only in the classroom as students but also in the workplace as the new labor force.
In time, I found my way with Generation X. I was forced to. I interacted every day with Xers. I started out as a teacher with Xers as my students. Then I entered the business world and managed a workforce composed almost entirely of Xers. Years later I found my calling as a motivational speaker for students, and I’m sure you can guess who I was expected to both captivate and inspire. I grew to love my work with them, and I knew that nothing in my life could ever be more challenging—or more rewarding—than connecting with, and motivating members of Generation X.
Once again, I had made an assumption that was incorrect. Even though I remained a speaker for high school and college students, the Gen Xers grew up and moved on. In their place, they left a whole ’nother breed that, in comparison, makes the Xers look tame.
Indeed, we are experiencing the effects of another significant shift in generations. We are now experiencing the emergence of post-Generation X, and they are far more difficult to reach and even harder to understand than even the Xers were. To distinguish them from their predecessors, they are being referred to with labels like Millennials, Echo Boomers, Generation Next, Boomlets, Generation Y, and the Net Generation. Although convenient and clever, these labels set the parameters of what they are but fall short of defining who they are.
In our midst there is now an entire generation whose perception of information, reality, authority, respect, privilege, rules, culture, right, and wrong is vastly different than that of those who’ve gone before them. They simply refuse to do the what before they know the why. It is as if every child born in America after 1980 has had a microchip surgically implanted in his or her forehead that filters out every command, every request, and every instruction that is not bundled with acceptable rationale. They are a generation that demands to know “why?” Whether you work with them, have tried to get service from them, or live with them, you have undoubtedly been asked questions like these:
Why should I listen to you? Why should I tell the truth, obey the rules, and do as I’m told? Why should I have a dream and set goals? Why should I go to school, study hard, and get a job? Why should I show up for work on time, wear a uniform, and treat the customer like they’re special? Why should I work hard and keep my nose to the grindstone for a promise that it might pay off down the line? Why should I believe in you, myself, the government, the future, anything? Why?
It
is as if every child born in America after 1980
has had a
microchip surgically implanted in his
or her forehead that
filters out every command,
every request, and every instruction
that is not
bundled with acceptable rationale.
It is for this reason that I’ve dubbed the 60+ million Americans born between 1980 and 1994 Generation Why. If you work with them, beside them, or even for them, you know the name is deadly accurate. They are questioning all the rules, all the time-honored institutions, and all the previously unquestioned questions—and they are doing it loudly!
Let us not forget that although questioning authority has historically been regarded as a lack of respect, it might also be seen as a sign of an investigative mind and individuality. Nancy Reagan ushered in the “Just Say No” campaign. Nike told Generation X to “Just Do It.” The Army tried to get eighteen-year-olds to enlist by prompting them to “Be All That You Can Be!” While these campaigns worked amazingly well with Boomers and Xers, they bombed out with the Whys. Generation Why wants answers, not commands. They demand reasons and rationale, so the traditional “because I said so” isn’t going to cut it. This doesn’t make them stupid, but rather it proves that they’re shockingly bright and discerning. It also makes them extremely difficult to understand and even harder to manage and motivate.
They
demand reasons and rationale,
so the traditional “because I
said so”
isn’t going to cut it.
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that this book is about teenagers. Rather, think of it as being about an entire generation, most of whom are currently in their teenage years. But the vast majority of the values, attitudes, and beliefs ingrained in them throughout their youth will remain with them throughout their lives, just as most of the values, attitudes, and beliefs you hold to now have their origins in your earlier years.
Mature adults are not warmly receptive to the idea of having to attach rationale to everything they ask their children/students/young employees to do. We think to ourselves, “we did what we were told, and they should, too.” When our expectations are not met, we feel angry, confused, and disconnected, and we might even start to blame them for the problems we’re having connecting with them. However, instead of fighting them, if we change the way we view them and how we communicate with them, the results are astounding.
Education is rapidly passing this baton to business, and as a result your workforce is being transformed in front of your eyes. Your emerging workforce is causing you to reexamine your hiring practices and revamp your management techniques. This is good—if you’re proceeding with insight and a practical plan. However, if you’re slow to make changes, or you are making changes without really understanding the root cause—you may be signing up for some serious trouble.
This book will demonstrate that when you and I lay our preconceived notions aside, look for insight, reach out to this generation, and sufficiently address the question “why?” (not necessarily answer it), Generation Why becomes phenomenally attentive, motivated, creative, and empowered. It’s then that you’ll discover that they can do amazing things for your business.
The Aliens Have Landed
A spaceship has landed in your company parking lot. The beings coming down the craft’s ladder and entering your place of business have assumed human form, but their clothing, their hair, and their skin adornments are obviously not of this world. Communication is a major barrier, as they speak in a language all their own and seem to have difficulty understanding your requests. They claim to have come in peace, but you see signs that they anger quickly, even to the point of aggression.
Your first reaction is to rush to the spaceship and close the door in hopes these aliens will return to their own galaxy, but alas, it’s too late and they are too great in number. You have heard tales of these creatures, and you have seen them around your town and your community, but you wonder why they have chosen to invade your domain. Suddenly it dawns on you. They have seen the Now Hiring sign in your window; they know you are in desperate need of help, and they have come to apply. Having exhausted all other options, you reluctantly decide to integrate the aliens into your workforce. You hope for the best, even if you have no idea how to bring it about.
Experienced managers thought they had seen it all. Just when they found the answers to working with cranky, apathetic Generation X (now well into their late twenties and thirties), along comes a generation that completely changes their assumptions about how young people come up in the world, and what it takes to connect with them. The managers in my seminars vent their frustrations as if they were in group therapy:
“They don’t give a hoot about my customers!”
“If you correct their mistakes, they’ll quit on you!”
“I can’t get them to show up on time!”
“They picked up the cash register functions in a snap, but when it goes down, they can’t count change back from a dollar!”
“You have to watch ’em like a hawk, or they’ll steal you blind!”
“She asked for an extended lunch hour to go shopping with a friend, and it was only her third day on the job!”
“He looked okay at the interview, but two days later, he showed up for work with blue spiked hair and a pierced eyebrow!”
“If the pizza joint down the street offers them fifty cents more per hour than I’m paying, they’re gone without a word of notice!”
“They assume it’s okay to call me by my first name, and they act as if we’re buddies. I’m fifty-three, and I’m their boss!”
“When I do something extra for them, they act as if I owed it to them!”
Ready or not, here comes Generation Why. And they’re not politely knocking—they’re breaking down the door! They are entering the workforce—and society—with a whole new set of attitudes, values, and beliefs.
Gen Why numbers more than 60 million, which is significantly larger than the size of Generation X, and just slightly smaller than the Baby Boom Generation. Here are a few demographic insights:
1 in 3 is not Caucasian,
2 in 4 come from a single-parent home,
4 in 5 have working mothers, and more than 2% have one or both parents incarcerated.
When you take a statistical look at the emerging workforce, the numbers tell the story of a nation in transition.
Ready
or not, here comes Generation Why.
And they’re not politely
knocking—they’re breaking
down the door! They are entering the
workforce—and
society—with a whole new set of attitudes,
values, and beliefs.
There has been an increase of close to 25% in young managers, age twenty to twenty-four.
Jobs in retail are expected to continue to grow 14% in the next six years.
Service jobs are growing at an astronomical 47% rate.
Turnover (employees leaving their jobs at twelve months or less) among young workers is at an all-time high. For twenty- to twenty-four-year-olds, the rate is 54%. Among sixteen- to nineteen-year-olds, the rate is 78%.
Numbers only graph the outline, but when you connect the dots, all of these statistics mean that the new and emerging workforce is presenting a gargantuan challenge and that change will continue as they move up through the organization. Particularly impacted, of course, are the retail and service sectors, but high-tech firms are also struggling to integrate Gen Why into an environment that has already been challenged by prima donna Gen Xers. Gen Why has grown up with a lack of constancy, which means that your current human resource policy of rewards and promotions probably won’t cut it—and your current crop of Gen Whys probably won’t be around in two to three years, for reasons you have little or no control over. The internal chaos that results from so much turnover has monumental, most often negative, consequences for your long-time employees. This means that you not only have to figure out how to recruit, train, and manage your new employees, you have to re-examine your whole system of managing human and other resources. Business is and will be different, no question about it. The real question is—what are you going to do differently in your business?
Take Me to Your Leader!
America’s business leaders are baffled. If you’ve had any experience employing, supervising, or managing young people, you know that referring to your emerging workforce as aliens isn’t all that outrageous. After all, they do not see life—much less a job—like you or anyone from a previous generation does. However, because your success hinges on their performance, you cannot afford to ignore them or hope they will grow out of their attitudes and behaviors towards work. Because how can you lead them if you don’t understand them?
The best we can do as managers and mentors of Generation Why is to realize how different their coming of age is from the way ours was. The place to start is understanding the kinds of messages they have been receiving that can—and most often do—run counter to the lessons we try to teach them. We can impart our wisdom and our experience, but every day since birth they have been subjected to a radical counter-programming. For Generation Why, this is how the world really works.
How can you lead them if you don’t understand them?
It is difficult, to say the least, to instill in Generation Why a solid work ethic (patience, determination, integrity, persistence, ingenuity, etc.) when the world around them says that they can get what they want without it. It’s no wonder that many Gen Why managers complain that leading them on the job is like trying to push a piece of string across a table. But do not despair! As you will discover in subsequent chapters, the very forces that drive Gen Whys to question the process and to attempt to separate effort from reward can be used to bring out the best in them, creating new and exciting results for your business.
The
very forces that drive Gen Whys to question the
process and to
attempt to separate effort from reward
can be used to bring out
the best in them.
Worlds Apart
We all occupy the same basic space and have the same basic physiology. So how come they don’t seem like they’re members of the same species?
They aren’t like you, and they never will be. On Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid, Whys need and want the same things you do (food, shelter, belonging, self-actualization), but they are going to go about acquiring those things in a radically different way. This is where the differences begin.
They aren’t like you, and they never will be.
Psychologists pretty much agree that our values drive our decisions and that our decisions forge our identities and individuality and shape our lives. They also remind us that our core values are programmed into us during our first fifteen to sixteen years of life, through a combination of five major life-shaping influences: Parents/Family; Schools/Education; Religion/Morality; Friends/Peers; and Media/Culture.
The decisions you make in your professional and personal lives are rooted somewhere in your value system, and that system was predominantly formed before you got your driver’s license or went on your first date. Granted, you have matured and changed through the years, but most of your core values (what I’ll be referring to from here on out as your value programming or the way you are wired) are probably pretty much still intact.
Do you think today’s world and the combination of those five influences that programmed you are the same as they were in the eighties, or in the nineties? Of course not! They’re not even close. Odds are, your mother didn’t work full time throughout your childhood. You probably never had to worry about a kid pulling a gun on you in school. You went to church or synagogue most weeks. Your friends lived close by, and you spent more time with them in person than you did talking to them on the phone. And you probably recall a time when popular music was more about love than hate and prime time television focused on family relationships instead of sexual ones.
My point is simple. The question here isn’t, “How old are you?” but rather, “When were you young?” Pull off your Traditional/Boomer/Xer glasses and take a look at the world from a different perspective—put on a pair of Gen Why glasses for a few minutes.
Generation Why has no recollection of the Reagan era, and they don’t remember the Challenger explosion. They were toddlers during Operation Desert Storm and Black Monday, 1987. They don’t remember ET, Mr. T, or McDLTs. They don’t remember PacMan, mopeds, or “Who shot J.R.?” They don’t remember when every young boy wanted to grow up to be just like O.J., or when being a presidential intern was a respected assignment. Mention Miracle on Ice to a Gen Why, and they think you’re talking about Tonya Harding. They’ve never walked across a room to change the stations on a television. They’ve never used carbon paper. And they’ve never lost anything in shag carpeting!
On the other hand, Generation Why has never known life without cell phones, pagers, fax machines, and voice mail. Their world has always included minivans, bottled water, cable television, overnight package delivery, and chat rooms. They would have no personal reference for a time before ATMs, VCRs, PCs, CDs, MTV, CNN, SUVs or TCBYs! And sadly enough, Gen Whys have never known a world without AIDS, without crack, or without terrorist attacks. They’ve never known a world where kids didn’t shoot and kill other kids.
Naturally, the long-term effects of these influences can only be predicted at this point in time.
Internal Wiring Differences: The Way We Think
So what mark have these influences left upon your emerging workforce? Perhaps the most profound difference, and the one that is the springboard for most of the other differences we will be discussing in the next chapter, is the way Gen Why thinks and processes information. Where our minds operate more like a VCR, theirs function more like a DVD player. Although they both process complex sights and sounds, one accesses that information in a sequential order, while the other can access and process information sequentially, in reverse, or in random order with no loss of time.
Where
our minds operate more like a VCR,
theirs function more like a
DVD player.
The latest series of interactive video games exemplifies the digital mentality of Generation Why. Players who don’t want to go through the effort of actually defeating and mastering the beginning and intermediate levels of these games can simply log on to the Internet and download numerical codes that will give them step-by-step instructions on how to jump ahead to any level. To you and me, that amounts to cheating. To Gen Why, it’s just using an external resource to accomplish a goal.
You’re probably reading this book much like you do the morning paper—from the front to the back. I bet you eat your salad before your steak, and your steak before dessert. When you took employment with your organization, you expected to begin low and work your way up through the ranks. With any new recreational pursuit, you fully expect to start out as a beginner, pay your dues as an intermediate, and consistently practice hard to move to the next level.
You and I are linear, or analog, thinkers and doers. We move sequentially from left to right, from top to bottom, from front to back. We have been taught to learn, earn, save, then spend. Our parents ingrained into our psyches that we were to work before we could play. You and I believe that there is a natural order to things, and we know that we must adhere to The Law of the Farm: cultivate—plant—fertilize—then harvest.
Generation Why doesn’t see it that way. For them, life is an all-you-can-eat buffet, offering unlimited choice, few rules, and a pay-as-you-can system. They see absolutely no reason to stick with our analog logic in this digital world. Not when they believe in their ability to leapfrog over the painstaking cultivate/plant/fertilize parts and go directly to the harvest!
For
them, life is an all-you-can-eat buffet,
offering unlimited
choice, few rules,
and a pay-as-you-can system.
How could any manager expect employees who were value-programmed over the past twenty years to be remotely the same now—or ever? How can we expect them to think sequentially, when they are wired for a pull-down menu of choices and immediate results? And if they’re not thinking like us, they’re not going to be automatically in sync with our logic, rules, practices, and procedures. Understanding this is the first step towards understanding Generation Why.
Who Moved My Cheetos?
Some things never change. There are the constants of youth: the rebellion, the self-doubt, and the frustration with the status quo. But every generation has its variables, too. Every generation faces a world that is different from the one their parents and their grandparents inherited. With the dawning of the Information Age, Generation Why has collided with a reality that is radically different than the world of your youth or your parents’ youth. The change in their reality is as dramatic as the changes in society and culture that took place when the Industrial Age changed the face of the world about a hundred years ago. The Industrial Age moved people out of rural, agrarian communities and into big cities and industrial centers where the tone and pace of life were radically different from life on the farm.
The
change in their reality is as dramatic as the
changes in society
and culture that took place when the
Industrial Age changed the
face of the world.
Think about how you struggle as an adult with a dynamic, global marketplace of ideas, where technology, mass media, and the New Economy can change your existence in an afternoon. Think about the pressures of an uncertain workplace, or the speed at which you live your life, always running at full pace just to keep up.
Now imagine if you had never known life any other way. Today the changes brought on by the Information Age affect the mind far more than the body. Whereas older generations have had to learn to cope with the Information Age, Generation Why has grown up with it. For them, all this speed and change and uncertainty are normal. Big city, small city, inner city, small town, uptown, downtown, even in the remotest of areas—parents can run, but a high-tech, media-dominated universe means that they can no longer hide their children from the pervasive and persuasive messages that reverberate through our culture.
These messages may be hard for adults to decipher because our opinions and values are already formed, but step outside the framework of your own life and look at this postmodern world from the viewpoint of Generation Why. You will quickly understand exactly why Gen Why is so different.
Profile: GW—What Can We Really Expect?
We’ve already established that Gen Why is different than any previous generation. We’ve seen how culture, technology, society, media, and the events of the modern world have powerfully influenced Gen Whys, causing them to approach life—and subsequently the workplace—with a completely different set of attitudes, values, and beliefs. Now it’s time to get a better handle on the common characteristics of Generation Why—their specific values, attitudes, and behaviors—so that we can more effectively manage and motivate them in the workplace.
Labels, Terms, and Classifications
I realize that I’m treading on dangerous ground in this section. I am about to run the risk of stereotyping more than 60 million of our fellow human beings. This is the slippery nature of generational analysis, which tends to paint large groups of people with a broad brush. Making generalizations always raises the question of the exception to the rule, and there are plenty of exceptions—in your workplace, in your neighborhood, even in your own family—to the twelve characteristics we’re about to discuss. While many members of Gen Why display several of these traits, not every Gen Why displays all of them, and in each case, it is definitely a matter of degree.
But making observations about the behavior of a generation, even the negative behavior, is a powerful tool for understanding because, make no mistake, Generation Why is different, and the older generations’ difficulty in dealing with these differences is already causing friction in the workplace. And that friction shows no sign of stopping.
Generation
Why is different, and the older generations’
difficulty in
dealing with these differences
is already causing friction in the
workplace.
And that friction shows no sign of stopping.
The Downside
Six of the twelve following characterizations of Gen Why are not necessarily flattering terms. They are, however, frank and honest, and are an essential prerequisite to helping managers understand their new workforce. These negative characterizations are not intended to condemn or malign anyone, much less our nation’s youth. There is a lot of hope and promise in Gen Why, but we also have to confront the ways in which their attitudes and opinions don’t jibe with a stable and productive workplace. The better that Boomer and Xer (and even Gen Why!) managers can understand these differences, the more effective they’ll become in dealing with them.
Among the pages that immediately follow, you’ll discover the less desirable traits of Gen Whys. You’ll see them described by such terms as impatient, desensitized, disengaged, skeptical, disrespectful, and bluntly expressive. You might be tempted to say that these are traits of any young American in the throes of puberty, but the difference is that for Gen Why these aren’t just the results of adolescence. These modes inform their behavior and their larger attitudes about the world. Any normal adolescent rebelliousness has been magnified by the cultural influences described in the previous chapter. Gen Whys have been imprinted to be independent, and rather than receiving counter-programming from their parents and from society, their independence and individuality have only been reinforced.
Boomers, and to a growing extent Xers, tend to view Gen Why with dread. Part of it has to do with the natural distrust older generations have for the young—those people who have the audacity to come along, just when adults have everything the way they like it, and upset the apple cart with new fashions, new music, new heroes, new attitudes, and new morals. Part of it has to do with the inherent faults in Gen Why. But this generation, perhaps unlike any before in history, has been demonized.
The same media that has programmed them and undermined their values also constantly portrays them in a negative light. They are taken to task for wallowing in violent music and video games; their tattoos and piercings are sensationalized to the point where they are seen as freaks; and they are shown as disconnected, lazy, even dangerous. Every time the tragedy of violence strikes another school, the papers and news magazines wonder what is wrong with these kids. They have been frequently pictured being led away from a courthouse in an orange prison jumper.
This
generation, perhaps unlike any before in history,
has been
demonized
While Gen Why’s faults might appear easy fodder for casual Boomer conversation, the “whole truth” often goes unspoken. This generation shows an infinite amount more promise and hope than they have been given credit for. Call it a testimony to the indomitable human spirit, or the adaptability of youth, but for all their negative traits, there are counterbalancing attributes that make Gen Why the ultimate paradox.
The Upside
The good news is that Generation Why is adaptable, innovative, efficient, resilient, tolerant, and committed. They have the time, the tools, and the talent to create a better world for us. They have more information available to them than any previous generation—and they aren’t afraid to use it. They’ll research products before they buy them, investigate colleges before they enroll, and do background checks on prospective dates so they won’t end up in a dangerous predicament.
They
have the time, the tools, and the talent
to create a better world
for us.
Studies show they place a much higher emphasis on marriage and family than their parents do and that they will not allow a career to upset a happy home life. I’ve been told by countless teens that they are not going to make the mistakes their parents did and that their family will always come first. I firmly believe that Gen Whys will be better parents because of what they and their friends have had to endure.
Volunteerism is at an all-time high, thanks to the unprecedented involvement of Generation Why, who are putting their time where their hearts are. It is hard to find an organized student club, sport, or activity where participants aren’t involved in some type of community service as a part of their credo. Soccer teams stick around after their games to clean up the park. Student councils visit nursing homes, paint homes for the elderly, and hold canned-food drives. Cheerleaders volunteer to take underprivileged children trick-or-treating. As a part of her graduation requirements, my sixteen-year-old daughter, Whitney, is required to do a minimum of sixteen hours of community service each semester and report her efforts back to her high school counselor.
Both Sides on Your Side
As you read the descriptions that follow, you’ll see how they are all interrelated. For example, the fact that Gen Why has been programmed by this ever-changing world to be inherently impatient has led them to be more readily adaptable to change. In other words, for every downside characterization, there is an upside. It is therefore necessary to comprehend the macro view of your Whys rather than arriving at a hasty stereotype of their pluses and minuses, relying solely on the sound bite ramblings of the word on the street.
Twelve Common Traits and Tendencies of Generation Why
With that in mind, let’s examine the twelve common traits and tendencies that serve as a snapshot profile of Generation Why.
Impatient Complete these clichés:
Patience is a ___________
Good things come to those who _________
I’ll bet if you scored your results on paper, you got 100%. If you scored using your life as the example, the results would not be pretty.
Life in the new millennium is all about speed. We want everything faster today than it was yesterday. Faster commutes. Faster connections. No waiting in service lines. Express delivery. Fast. Quick. Instant everything.
Gen Why has grown up in an instant world, and they don’t buy in to the old “patience is a virtue” and “good things come to those who wait” axioms. Many, if not most, people realize that making big changes in your life—buying a house, getting married, starting a new business—takes time, effort, and patience. But Generation Why has not learned those life lessons yet. To them, patience is a sign of being out of step. The patient are glanced over, passed over, and run over. Patience means you might not get what you want. Time has become the ultimate commodity, and success is measured by the speed with which goods and services are acquired.
Part of this has to do with the natural impulsiveness of the young. But where the Great Depression taught a nation of people to make sacrifices and to be patient, the Information Age has taught Generation Why that you never have to wait for anything. First there was FedEx, then E-mail, and then Instant Messaging. The message our Information culture and economy sends Generation Why is that you never have to wait, and if you do find yourself waiting, there’s always another company waiting to give you what you want faster, better, and cheaper.
Boomers don’t like to wait, and their Gen Why offspring have learned that waiting is bad and that patience is for someone else. We have spawned a generation of Stress Puppies who are in a perpetual rush to get the goods before time runs out. This is a generation best summed up by the kid that will stand in front of a microwave oven shouting, “Come on, I ain’t got all minute!”
We
have spawned a generation of Stress Puppies
who are in a
perpetual rush to get the goods
before time runs out.
Gen Whys are perpetual Stimulus Junkies. Where you and I might believe the world is moving too fast, for them it’s not moving fast enough. What intrigues us bores them. Their mental diet consists of an endless stream of visual, auditory, and sensory stimulation where everything moves at the speed of light. This presents a huge challenge to managers, teachers, trainers, parents, and anyone else who is trying to get them to focus on that which does not come prepackaged with high-speed graphics and an adrenaline rush.
I use the term Junkie because it implies a compelling desire. Generation Why doesn’t merely want sensory stimulation—they’re addicted to it. When they aren’t receiving their minimum requirement for stimulus from a single source or in a given situation, they switch into another mode, foreign to most non-Gen Whys: multitasking. Their brains are programmed to consume information in bulk and process it simultaneously, and they will shut down or go into sleep mode if they experience any degree of sensory deprivation.
Beyond mere stimuli they also crave change. In fact, if change is not a part of their work environment, they will instantly create it. The irony is, Generation Why does not really know what change is. How can they, when they have no real comprehension of what stability is? After all, to truly understand change, you first have to know what constancy is. You’d have to know rules without exceptions, principles without variables, and a world with absolute truths, guarantees, certainties, and constants. Those who were born in the eighties and raised in the nineties have heard about these concepts, but have little or no experience with them.
If
change is not a part of their work environment,
they will
instantly create it.
Life for Generation Why is a never-ending sequence of events where nothing stands still. In their world, news that is more than a few minutes old is not considered news, technology becomes obsolete the moment it is introduced, and what was a red-hot trend this morning will be painfully out of style tonight! They have been conditioned to the quick fix and the speedy solution. For them, frustration is what happens when they cannot get an immediate answer or an instantaneous result.
Whys Up! Don’t waste the unique talent your Gen Whys have for multitasking and digesting information quickly. Be on the lookout for new trends in training and keep feeding their need to be stimulated by continuing to teach them new skills. Provide them with the freedom to explore new methods for doing repetitive tasks, and they’ll show you how to increase productivity and efficiency. Ask them for suggestions to improve processes and shorten learning curves. Let them be involved in the design of new training systems. Keep meetings and internal communication short and to the point and vary the methods for delivering the necessary content. When change happens, let your Gen Whys ride the wave and help you adjust. After all, change doesn’t scare them the way it may tend to rock your world. They love change, and they’ll help you embrace it and use it to your advantage.
Adaptable Gen Whys thirst for change and are programmed to readily accept and adapt to the constantly changing world they are a part of. My dad, a WWII veteran, hates change. He even has trouble understanding why the price of gas constantly fluctuates. He often refers to the good old days when the neighborhood service station (When was the last time you heard that term?) advertised regular gas at 29.9 cents per gallon, and they didn’t have one of those big signs with the removable letters. They had the price painted on their exterior wall!
Being born at the tail end of the Baby Boom, I learned to cope with change. I still tend to be mostly conservative in nature, but I know some change can be good. I take change in stride, and I try to make the best of it. My younger sisters, both Xers, actually enjoy change. They tend to be drawn to progressive, forward-thinking ideas and are more open to new ways of doing things than my peers or I seem to be. My children, all Gen Whys, are at the opposite end of the spectrum. They demand change and they will gravitate towards it. They thrive in the type of whirlwind environments that repel my dad, scare me, and shock my sisters.
Even though Gen Why didn’t create this sped-up world—they inherited it!—it is encouraging and mind-boggling to realize that instead of complaining or withdrawing, they are making the most of it. The impatience we talked about in the previous section can actually work to their advantage. They know change is coming, and rather than sit back and wait for it to come and then freak out about it, they rush to it. It may seem like they’re addicted to change, but often they’re just impatient to get through it. And their incredibly adaptive skills let them. A Gen Why is hungry for the latest version of software so they can learn it and put it to use. They aren’t so much addicted to change itself as they are especially equipped to process it, and they just don’t want to waste any time. They know that life is short and to be enjoyed, and that the people who can adapt quickly can spend less time fretting over what they can’t control and more time enjoying life.
The pace of change is not slowing down much, either! Life is only going to get quicker in the years ahead. Business desperately needs to tap into the mind-set of a generation that can think, adapt, and embrace change before it happens. Leading organizations are searching for people who dream in color and are capable of seeing the future before it unfolds. Gen Why brings the ability to instantly react positively to change. Think about the implications of that: faster roll outs, faster training, faster product launches, faster rebounds from a bad year. And they do it happily. That is the power present in Generation Why.