Forrester Pins the Tail on the Millenials
October 26th, 2005 by Adam Cuothe
Forrester sent out an e-mail of nonsense bits on Friday. It’s quite entertaining, not as good as Edward Lear, but a fun read. I particularly liked the informative bit on millenials. Millenials are what some have penned the generation after X–Forrester latched on. Here’s a sample, I quote
The “Millennials” — born between 1980 and 2000 — have an innate ability to use technology, are comfortable multitasking while using a diverse range of digital media, and literally demand interactivity as they construct knowledge. Millennials lack the workaholic drive of their burned-out predecessors, but they compensate by using many technologies — often simultaneously — to get the job done quickly and have a personal life as well.
They demand interactivity as they construct knowledge! I’d like that expanded. Knowledge construction is a weighty pasttime, might they also be capable of managing it? Probably not yet because they require some experience in life. We’re told to respect what presumably will amount to their ideas on constructing knowledge, because they really do need respect. If you must have a personal life, interactivity is useful. Actually upon further reading,
Forrester’s data shows that they like social networking tools and learning online (for example, blogs, IM, Friendster-type sites, and eLearning), which mean jobs must connect people with each other and to the Web.
It’s explained. Because an employee likes blogs and instant messaging and social networks, it follows in this extraordinary leap, that the workplace must connect people with each other. I wonder if they meant by “connect” that the workplace connect people using those same internet sizzling pans of gadgetry they called out. Because if they only meant people need to “connect” like, “I’m totally connected to my cubemate, we have this intense reciprocal understanding of when to tell marketing to twiddle their dodils.” People in the workplace need to connect just via the regular course of the workday, if you cannot communicate, you’re probably not going to be able to work very effectively–that’s true even for jobs that require intense alone time, at some point you’ve got to divulge your work or talk to people. Here I am blogging, and I’ll tell you straight up, it’s not really something that does a lot to connect you with other people. It does a little. Rutting does a lot.
The American Bar Association has a similar reading on some of this, with its quick guide published on mentoring millenials.
Mentoring Do’s: Structured, supportive work environment, personalized work, interactive relationship, be prepared for demands, high expectations
Note the “interactive relationship” part.
I found Generations at Work‘s excerpt from a Claire Raines piece more informative though corroborating the general ideas.
Let me work with friends. Millennials say they want to work with people they click with. They like being friends with coworkers. Employers who provide for the social aspects of work will find those efforts well rewarded by this newest cohort. Some companies are even interviewing and hiring groups of friends.
It’s nice to work with people whose company you enjoy. I suppose that is subtly different than working with friends outright. Still it’s interesting, can a company harness the creative energy of a group of friends that already are a proven collaborative unit? There is a sinister side to this: can the tribe be subverted to the will of the corporation? Lastly,
Be flexible. The busiest generation ever isn’t going to give up its activities just because of jobs. A rigid schedule is a sure-fire way to lose your Millennial employees.
I’ll say but it’s not just the millenials–why does anyone think it’s ok to submit one’s own life to the workplace? Except for a few, most of us would much rather pursue our lives with less slavery. If the millenials can do nothing else (a name improvement wouldn’t hurt but that’s usually not up to the be-labeled generation), maybe they can spread this mindset among the employer, dictator, and despot classes (also known as the C-level). Maybe the Forrester writers need some friends to interact with, their e-mail missives might multitask as more than mollusk maquillage.
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