Over the last few years, there’s been an explosion of information about how to manage a multigenerational workforce.
There have been countless articles, seminars and books on how to keep Generation Y (aka the Millennials) engaged, and how to help Baby Boomers and Gen-X employees work with them more effectively. I think that’s all a big waste of time.
I don’t do things because I’m Gen-Y
The big theory around multigenerational workforces is that shared experiences during a generation’s formative years creates a set of shared values that guide their behavior. Gen-Y is allegedly very influenced by 9/11, helicopter parents and exponential growth in technology.
I’ll admit that technology is something my generation is, generally speaking, very comfortable with. But I have friends who aren’t on Facebook, and I know plenty of Boomers who text and email far more than they pick up a phone.
There’s as much diversity within generations as there is between them. Given that, doesn’t it makes sense to stop focusing on differences between generations, and start looking at differences between individuals?
The Individual Workforce
The real goal of the multigenerational workforce movement is to help everyone in your organization work together effectively. Focusing on generations is divisive. It requires you to lump people into categories and teaches managers to treat everyone within that category the same. Doesn’t it make more sense to teach managers how to deal with individual work preferences?
I think organizations could manage a diverse workforce much more effectively if they took all of the “stuff” that gets taught during multigenerational seminars and ripped away the generational labels.
Teach managers why some people prefer to text or email instead of call. Teach them to have discussions with their employees about how they prefer to work, and to get out of the way and let their people do amazing things.
I envision a training that’s a lot more like Myers-Briggs training for new work teams, where people learn more about their individual work styles and how to interact more effectively. And when the training is over, everyone can get back to what really matters: doing amazing things that drive your business.
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Chris,
This is a great post. I agree with you that our strengths lie in our differences and if we can get past the gaps, we can change the world. Gen Y, Gen X and the Boomers all rebel (or rebelled) against the same thing: greed. But we each rebelled differently. Gen Y doesn’t see any benefit to working to make someone else rich. Neither do I.
We need a high purpose to our work, which is why causes like “Go Green” generate such passion. Work for money is ultimately empty. Once we have a high purpose and we’re appreciated for our strengths and contribution as you mention above, we can make a difference.
Thanks again for the great post.
Mike…
@Mike – thanks for the comment! Tony Hsieh at Zappos often talks about how a high purpose can galvanize and motivate a workforce. In his case, they unite over a desire to deliver incredible customer service. And you’re absolutely right – every generation rebels against the status quo, which is why I think these generational stereotypes are often so silly!
I do challenge your notion that Gen Y doesn’t see any benefit to working to make someone else rich. I doubt any generation is motivated to make someone else rich, but I also doubt that all (or even most) Gen Yers have an issue working to make someone else rich if they too become rich in the process, or benefit in some other way that’s important to them.
Thoughts?
I agree, no generation wants to work to make someone else rich. My (poorly made) point was that they “are” rebelling against the same thing that we all did. But they rebel in a different way because their values are shaped by the world they grew up in.
We spent the 50’s – 70’s focusing on customers and revenue and the boomers rebelled. We then spent the 80’s – now focusing on stockholders and share price and Gen X and Y are rebelling. If we ever get the guts to focus on our people, we’ll finally get it.
@Mike – Thanks for the clarification! Makes a lot more sense now. =)
Love your exchange. You are right…”The real goal of the multigenerational workforce movement is to help everyone in your organization work together effectively.” Unfortunately, there are assumptions, and perceptions about the generations that are making it difficult for organizations to work together effectively.
It’s time to find common ground, reset zero and leverage the strengths and differences to improve problem solving, and create better solutions and innovation.
@Laura – Thanks Laura! You’re right – all generations are making assumptions about each other. I’d like to see us stop focusing on broad labels and focus on getting stuff done.
I do think it’s because you are a Gen Y. There is a huge gap between Xers and Boomers in terms of their formative cohort experiences. But the gap between the Ys and Xers is not nearly is huge (it’s all about technological change – we may not have grown up with the same technology, but we did grow up with the same change). So you came into a workforce where there were people who were 10-15 years older than you that were sort of like you. Xers (like me) came into a workforce where an entirely different set of norms existed (and ways of speaking) than what we knew. It took a lot of time for the Boomers and Xers to work it out. And now that we kind of did work things out, we 1) like to talk about it and 2) are trying to not have the same thing happen as the Yes enter the workforce.
@GenerationXpert – Except there’s an even bigger gap between Boomers and Gen Y. And many of the things that are supposed to apply to me as a Gen Y person do apply, but just as many (or perhaps more) don’t. And many of the things that are stereotypically “Boomer” are things I do. I know plenty of boomers who do Gen Y things, some to a greater extent than others. The real bottom line is that everyone is different, and to lump those differences into categories based on generation makes no more sense than telling an employee he or she does something because they’re black or because they’re a woman.
Hey Chris! Another great post. I agree with you 100% on this topic. The generational conversation comes up a lot in the work I do with workplace flexibility. Everyone is quick to say it’s a Gen Y thing, but everyone wants flexibility in how they work and they all want it a different way. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
As you said, “Doesn’t it make more sense to teach managers how to deal with individual work preferences?” Yes! Each individual has what I call a unique workstyle and if leaders could tap into each person’s preferred way of working and then get out of the way, I think we’d see consistently high levels of individual, team, and organizational success.
@Ashley – You’re right. Individual work preferences go way beyond things like Facebook and email vs. meeting in person. Thanks for commenting!
I absolutely see the point you raise here. But (there has to be a “but”), as a Diversity practitioner, I have to point out that there is some value in these discussions.
First of all, anyone who says, “everyone from Gen Y has a Facebook account” is incompetent – just as incompentent as a person who’d say, “all black people are extraverted” or “all women want to go home at five.”
AND … there are certain cultural tendencies that accompany certain groups. Many boomer managers were unprepared for the level of technological whiz-kiddery (is that a word? it is now.) that flooded their offices when folks from Gen Y began to be hired in large numbers. Many HR practitioners were troubled when employee engagement surveys reflected growing dissatisfaction with rewards programs. Is this because every individual from Gen Y wants someone to thank him/her for showing up to work each day? Of course not. There are some Gen Y folks who don’t expect to be rewarded for simply completing their work, and there are likely a few Boomers and Gen X folks who could stand to be patted on the back a bit more often — but those survey numbers really started to change when Gen Y came to work. While it’s not reflective of every individual, it is reflective of the group as a whole.
The same thing happened when women began working in greater numbers and the frustration over the lack of work/life balance in most organizations grew in tandem. Do all women want flexible work arrangements? Nope. Do men enjoy flexible work arrangements? I certainly do. But women – not every individual woman, but women as a group – were the catalyst for making some of those changes.
No one likes to get lumped into a group. Ask any female, person of color, GLBT person, or person with a disability about the stereotypes that follow them around and you’ll get a bewildering array of stories. And yet, if organizations are going to react to changing workforces, they can’t focus on every individual and simply have to look at the cultural tendencies of groups.
AND, your point about management is an excellent one. Managers should absolutely get to know each of their direct reports and learn who they are with a minimum of assumption about who they might be based on their age, gender, race, or anything else. On that we are perfectly aligned.
@EPeterson – Thank you for such a thorough, well-thought out post! What I’m still struggling with – and would appreciate hearing your perspective on – is what the value of looking at stereotypical group trends is? Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus instead on trends throughout the workforce based on internal organizational data?
Well to extend some points I made on twitter (yeah 140 characters is tough) I agree with the general ideas presented about focusing on the individual and that within groups differ alot for generations. I would say that in psychology/management research generally we have found that individual characteristics have the larger impact on how a person behaves than group membership. So if you could only pick 1 thing to use in generating HR policies and motivating a worker than picking individual characteristics is the best choice in my opinion. However that does not mean group differences can’t add another layer of explaination/prediction assuming those group characteristics are meaninful. If you are hiring a workforce that is predominately Gen Y and they generally prefer X it could be very helpful to organize things in such a manner or at least offer that X as a choice. As someone stated earlier, how to respond to negative satisfaction surveys effectively could be different based on the reasons for the dissatisfaction and generation could be a useful piece of information in figuring that out. A first step is to figure out if generational differences due matter through careful and rigorous research. And then figure out how that knowledge is best applied. Generation differences could be valuable but to my mind the jury is still out.
@Gordon – Thanks for your insight! Always great to have someone from the research world pop in and provide some data-based aspects to the discussion.
I appreciate the dialogue.
Firstly, “stereotypical” can be a loaded word; it leads people to an assumption that the cultural trends aren’t true or are based on hearsay. AND … a lot of reported “trends” aren’t true and are based on hearsay. So it’s important to pay attention only to those cultural traits that have been vetted by some kind of credible research.
And once that has happened, organizations who pay attention to cultural trends can be prepared for more diversity in their workforce and avoid a lot of missteps. Think of it this way: if an American organization is planning to open an office in China, it would be smart and prudent to learn a bit about the Chinese marketplace, how they do business, how they hire, fire, promote, and reward people, what tends to motivate the Chinese workforce, etc. Will these cultural trends be true for every one of the billion-plus people in China? Well, no. But the Chinese culture is certainly different from ours in significant ways, and preparing to enter a new culture is a smart thing to do, no? Much better than waiting until you land in China and only focusing on those Chinese people you’re working with. The latter strategy allows for a lot of time to make a lot of cultural missteps that could have been avoided with a little preparation. (And, a few mistakes will still likely be made; we’re only human.)
I’m not suggesting that Gen Y is as different from Gen X and the Baby Bommers as the Americans are from the Chinese; I chose an extreme example to make a point. And here’s why I think we agree more than we disagree: Organizations set policy and high-level strategy, and managers manage individuals. As a manager, I need to know the people who report to me. But if I’m leading a large and diverse (and, let’s hope, inclusive) organization, I need to know what kind of diversity exists in the organization and what credible research is telling me about how to create an organizational environment that works for those groups, as much as possible.
And even if I’m not leading a large organization, there’s a good chance that I’m interested in a larger, more diverse customer base. Knowing what appeals to Gen Y as a group (or African-Americans, or women, or GLBT consumers) might help me develop products and services that will sell well among those groups. Unlike a manager with his/her direct reports, an organization can’t know every customer as an individual, but it can learn as much as possible about market segments and act accordingly.
@EPeterson – Thanks so much for the follow up. I particularly like that you distinguished between organizations and managers, and the role of each.
When we talk of generations – we should realize no generation is any different than the other except from the perspective of the other generations. A famous quote…
“The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence [respect] for their parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint; They talk as if they alone know everything and what passes for wisdom in us foolishness in them. As for the girls, they are foolish and immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.”
Written in AD 1200 by Peter the Hermit and similar in content to one authored by Socrates even earlier.
We’re the same – just different!
@Paul – I’d actually not heard that quote before. How funny that over 800 years ago we were seeing the same types of generational conflict that we see today. Thanks for the perspective!
There’s as much diversity within generations as there is between them.
That is MONEY, buddy. I like how you go beyond what some brazen Gen Y “experts” say and show the clearer and more subtle view. Really great article.
Thanks Frank, and thanks again to everyone who commented for adding some interesting perspective to the conversation.
What I like most about this article is the fierce commitment to treating people as individuals, rather than someone from a particular generation.
Too often we get caught up in stereotypes and completely miss the mark for what a particular person is trying to communicate or simply needs to do his job well. That said, understanding our differences play a huge role in providing a space for our commonalities to surface.
When our differences, regardless of what they are, get in the way of sharing with and getting to know each other, it’s difficult to focus on our commonalities. The benefit of understanding the generalities is a greater sense of curiosity and acceptance.
Perhaps not all people fit into a particular paradigm, but understanding that people are different and having some notion of why is incredibly beneficial in letting go of our righteous and embracing our differences.
A comment from one of my clients that articulates the importance of understanding the differences:
“Both managers and employees tend to blame ‘communication’ for bad working environments or as major contributors to the underachievement of a mission…your gift to them is in helping both groups, management and nonsupervisory, learn how to hear each other and themselves, and, therefore, develop the skills to then translate goals and desires into accomplishments that ultimately effect the business’ financial bottom line.” – Tim Overstreet, Associate Dean, U.S. Army Logistics Management College
As a speaker, author and executive coach who focuses on creating a bridge between generations, I have seen the difference it makes when professionals of all generations understand there is another perspective. Yes, there are many perspectives, generations being one. The more we learn about these differences, the more we can use our differences to propel each of us to a new level.
Spending our time and energy focusing simply on what makes each generation different and learning how to communicate in general terms with all people of a particular generation IS a waste of time.
On the contrary, understanding why the differences among generations exist can aid greatly in letting go of the “right” vs. “wrong” conversation and allow us to refocus on what matters most – the vision/mission of both the organization and the individual. A lack of understanding can lead to disaster resulting from egos crashing into each other.
Offered with Respect,
Misti Burmeister, author of “from Boomers to Bloggers: Success Strategies Across Generations” (Book and Workbook).
http://www.MistiB.com
@Misti – thanks for the really thorough comment, as well as the post over at your blog!
Chris:
Love this post. I totally agree that there is as much diversity within generations as between them, and categorizing us this way makes no more sense than categorizing us by hair color, how tall we are … or dining preference. There are more exceptions than there are rules.
We at the Compensation Cafe have chosen this post to highlight for this week’s Friday Special at the Cafe!
http://compforce.typepad.com/compensation_cafe/2009/06/friday-special-at-the-cafe-3.html
Cheers!
@Ann – Thanks so much. I’m honored!
Chris,
This article was so refreshing to read! I am only a student beginning to learn about HR, but I was puzzled at everything I read about how to manage certain generations as a whole as if all young people know how to completely build a computer from scratch and come out of college with no patience and expecting to be hired as a VP. Of course some do these things…and some don’t. Although my career experience is limited, from what I can see it seems much more productive and efficient to focus on specific ways to better manage individual traits and qualities…rather than the group as a whole.
L.A.
@L.A. – Thanks. Hope you’re enjoying your first foray into HR. You’re in good hands with the folks over at Starr Tincup!