1 / 65

GETTING ALONG WITH THE GENERATIONS

GETTING ALONG WITH THE GENERATIONS. Dr. Randy Lumpp Regis University Adapted especially from the work of Neil Howe and William Strauss. What’s a “generation”?. A social cohort shaped by common experience and common persona

baby
Download Presentation

GETTING ALONG WITH THE GENERATIONS

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. GETTING ALONG WITH THE GENERATIONS Dr. Randy Lumpp Regis University Adapted especially from the work of Neil Howe and William Strauss

  2. What’s a “generation”? • A social cohort shaped by common experience and common persona • Born over a periodroughly the same as the passage from youth to adulthood (c. 20 years) • Shares perceivedmembership, common beliefs and behaviors, common location in history Getting Along

  3. What a Generation is NOT! • NOT a recipe for individual behavior • NOT a predictor of individual values • NOT the only factor in what people do or don’t do • NOT a list of virtues and vices • NOT a stereo-type Getting Along

  4. THINK OF GENERATION AS….. • AN ATMOSPHERE • AN ENVIRONMENT • AN ORIENTATION • A MOOD • A GESCHTALT, A SENSIBILITY • A CONTEXT FOR WHAT IS CREDIBLE, PLAUSIBLE, TO BE EXPECTED Getting Along

  5. Each generation views events and the other generations from its own point of view--- Like boats floating down a river in sequence Getting Along

  6. EXPERIENCING FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, CONTEXTS • GIs: BUILD INSTITUTIONS • SILENT: RUN INSTITUTIONS • BOOMERS: REFORM OR ABANDON INSTITUTIONS • GEN-X: GET WHAT THEY NEED FROM INSTITUTIONS • MILLENNIALS:PARTICIPATE IN INSTITUTIONS • iGEN: ?? Getting Along

  7. GENERATIONS ARE IN MOTION • Childhood (pueritia, age 0–20). Social role: growth (receiving nurture, acquiring values). • Young Adulthood (iuventus, age 21–41). Social role: vitality (serving institutions, testing values). • Midlife(virilitas, age 42–62). Social role: power (managing institutions, applying values). • Elderhood (senectus, age 63–83). Social role: leadership (leading institutions, transferring values). • Late Elderhood (age 84+). Social role: dependence (receiving comfort from institutions, remembering values). Getting Along

  8. WHAT ARE RECENT GENERATIONS? NICKNAMEBORNNUMBER • LOST 1883-1900 45M • G.I 1901-1924 63M • SILENT 1925-1942 49M • BOOMER 1943-1960 79M • XER 1961-1981 93M • MILLENNIAL 1982-2002 76M Getting Along

  9. GENERATION AGES 2010 • GI 1901-1924 109-86 • SILENT 1925-1942 85-68 • BOOMER 1943-1960 67-50 • GEN X 1961-1981 49-29 • MILLENNIAL 1982-2000 28-10 Getting Along

  10. CYCLE OF GENERATIONS IDEALIST-PROPHET [NF] REACTIVE-NOMAD [NT] CIVIC-HERO [SJ] ADAPTIVE-ARTIST [SP] Getting Along

  11. CYCLE OF ERASYoung adults coming of age • AWAKENING ERA Idealists • INNER-DRIVEN ERA Reactives • CRISIS ERA Civics • OUTER-DRIVEN ERA Adaptives Getting Along

  12. GENERATIONAL LIFE CYCLE • YOUTH 0-21 • RISING ADULT 22-43 • MIDLIFE 44-65 • ELDER 66-87 Getting Along

  13. IDEALIST: BOOMER • Dominant inner-fixated • Grows up post-crisis, indulged • Comes of age w/ spiritual awakening • Matures into risk taking • Fragments into narcissistic adults • Moralistic Mid-lifers • Visionary Elders Getting Along

  14. REACTIVE: GEN-X • Grows up under-protected, criticized • Matures into risk taking, alienated adults • Mellows into pragmatic mid-lifers • Respected but reclusive elders Getting Along

  15. CIVIC: MILLENNIALS • Dominant, outer-fixated builders • Grows up over-protected • Comes of age in secular crisis • Heroic and achieving adults • Building Institutions as mid-lifers • Busy Elders attacked by new Idealists Getting Along

  16. ADAPTIVE: SILENT • Recessive • Grows up overprotective, suffocated • Matures risk-adverse, conformist • Indecisive Mid-lifers (no agenda) • Respected as sensitive elders Getting Along

  17. WHAT DEFINES A NEW GENERATION? • Solves a problem facing the prior youth generation • Corrects for behavioral excesses it perceives in the current midlife generation • Fills the social role being vacated by the departing elder generation Getting Along

  18. WHAT’S THE “LIFE-CYCLE” OF A GENERATION? • Public discovers the new youth (15-20 years after first birth year) • Full possession of youth culture (20-25 years) • Gets maximum public attention (25-30 years) • Ebbing of public interest (30-35 years) Getting Along

  19. What is GENERATION –X? 13th Generation: Reactive, Nomad, born 1961–1981 • Survived a “hurried” childhood of divorce, latchkeys, open classrooms • Images: devil-child movies (Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist), Kevin in Home Alone, Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Ferris Buehler.., Dumb & Dumber, Adam Sandler • First generation legally aborted by its parents Getting Along

  20. What is GENERATION –X? • Shift from G to R ratings (Sex in the City, South Park, Beavis and Butthead) • Came of age curtailing the earlier rise in youth crime and fall in test scores • Heard themselves denounced as so wild and stupid as to put The Nation At Risk. Getting Along

  21. What is GENERATION –X? • As young adults, maneuvering through a sexual battlescape of AIDS and blighted courtship rituals • They date and marry cautiously. • In jobs, they embrace risk and prefer free agency over loyal corporatism Getting Along

  22. What is GENERATION –X? • From grunge to hip-hop, their splintery culture reveals a hardened edge • Politically, they lean toward pragmatism and non-affiliation, and would rather volunteer than vote Getting Along

  23. What is GENERATION –X? • Lowest Test Scores • High rates of crime, suicide, drugs “…an army of aging Bart Simpsons, possibly armed and dangerous.” NYT • Realized adults were not in control of themselves or the country • Many Parallels with Lost of the 1920s Getting Along

  24. GEN-X IMAGES/PERCEPTIONS • Tom Cruise in Top Gun • The Breakfast Club • In-your-face slam dunks & end zone spikes • “lost” “wasted” “ruined” “soulless” • Sell themselves to the highest bidder Getting Along

  25. GEN-X IMAGES/PERCEPTIONS • Gen X Steroids vs. Boomer psychedelics • Jay Leno: “We’re not talking brain cells here. We’re talking taste buds.” • Computer hackers • War Games, Red Dawn, Lone Eagle (NB: “Lone Eagle” was Lost-Gen hero Charles Lindberg’s nickname) Getting Along

  26. X-er SELF-PERCEPTIONS • Pragmatic, quick, sharp-eyed • Quick to catch on to the game of life (especially when they’re out to get you) -rising costs, no economic welcome mat -declining benefits -money is survival “If we don’t take care of ourselves, no one will.” Getting Along

  27. VIEW OF SCHOOL AND SOCIETY • Grew up with • the critique of Dead White Males • That there was no indispensable knowledge (so schools didn’t teach it) • Urging to be self-reliant, independent, self-actualizing • Surviving in the aftermath of Woodstock and being ticketed for littering Getting Along

  28. “All you need is love” replaced with Gangsta’ Rap • Nightmare of self-absorbed parents, disintegrating homes, latch-key life, • Institutions with conflicting missions, confused adults • Aids and other public health crises • Alex Keaton: the “proto-adult” Getting Along

  29. “stupid” “bad” “random” are words of praise • David Elkind: “the patch-work self” • “So many things have already happened in the world that we can’t possibly come up with anything else. So why even live?” • “Teenage Mutant Turtles: “Flushed down the toilet as children, deformed by radiation, nurtured on junk food” Getting Along

  30. THE X-ER X-PERIENCE • “Born on Friday the 13th”—13th American Generation--- Fear it or face it • “Baby Busters”—Even though more of them than Boomers • 20 Million Aborted- last wave 1 in 3 • Adult women - 1962: 50% stay married for the kids -1980: 80% say no Getting Along

  31. THE X-ER X-PERIENCE • 4/5 of today’s divorced adults say they’re happier. The majority of their kids say not. • 1980: • 56% had both once-married parents • 11 w/ a stepparent • 19 w/ one parent • The risk of parental divorce for Gen-X kids: • 2 times that of 60s Boomers • 3 times that of 50s Silents Getting Along

  32. THE X-ER X-PERIENCE • 1960-80: Mother of preschoolers in the workplace went from 20% to 47% • “Latch-key” kids doubled • Lack of parental authority • Boomer grade inflation dropped • School funding dropped • Poverty benefits & wages dropped Getting Along

  33. THE X-ER X-PERIENCE • Most Republican generation on record • Lower risk from disease but • Higher risk of dying from murder, suicide, accident • 135,000 guns went to school each day • Fear of physical harm in school • College completion: • Boomer Class of 1972 58% • Xer Class of 1980 37% Getting Along

  34. THE X-ER X-PERIENCE • Most heavily incarcerate generation on record (number and length) • 1 in 5 lived in poverty • Believe if unemployed its their own fault • As adults, median income fell 17% • Elders deferred debt to young • Rise of the “cynical American” Getting Along

  35. THE X-ER X-PERIENCE • The experience of childhood became “scattered” as Boomers pursued self-realization (emulated by aging Silents) • Experienced the opposite of sacrificed-for Boomers. • “My Three Sons” to “My Two Dads” • Adults were the children: children got to deal with the garbage. Getting Along

  36. THE X-ER X-PERIENCE RISING ADULTHOOD • Increased poverty especially in inner-cities • Family subsidized suburbanites • McJobs • Less promising promotion paths • “No Problem” see as the best to be hoped for Getting Along

  37. What is GENERATION –X? • Widely criticized as “X-ers” or “slackers,” they inhabit a Reality Bites economy of declining young-adult living standards • Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Michael J. Fox, Michael Dell, Deion Sanders, Winona Ryder, Quentin Tarantino; Mike Tyson; Eddie Murphy; Princess Di Getting Along

  38. TIPS FOR WORKING WITH GEN-X • REMEMBER: “We have to take care of ourselves, because no one else will!” • Don’t expect concern (or even awareness) of organization’s well-being • Want to work-to-live versus Boomer live-to-work-aholism • Pay attention to cost-benefit ratio • “Community Service” is a punishment Getting Along

  39. WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS? • High school grads of 2000 • Older parents • Smaller families • 40% firstborns • More educated parents • Slowly stabilizing family patterns • More diverse culturally/immigrant parents Getting Along

  40. WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS? SEVEN CORE TRAITS • SPECIAL • SHELTERED • CONFIDENT • TEAM-ORIENTED • CONVENTIONAL • PRESSURED • ACHIEVING Getting Along

  41. http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/24/#1/1 Getting Along

  42. Millennials’ Experience: Greater Numbers Getting Along

  43. More Money Getting Along

  44. Greater Diversity Getting Along

  45. Greater Safety Which Security Measures Do You Favor? • Metal detectors in schools: 86% • Regulating violent video games & TV shows: 69% • Restricting violence in movies & on CDs: 59% --survey of adults and teens, in USA Weekend (July 4, 1999) Getting Along

  46. Changing families Getting Along

  47. Health expectations Death Rate per 10,000 U.S. Births: 1946 1996 • For Mothers: 16 1 • For infants: 338 72 --U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (1999) Getting Along

  48. No place to hide Getting Along

  49. Stress on health/well-being Getting Along

  50. Attention to health issues Child Immunization Rate (full series) 1992: 55% 1996: 75% -- Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services (April 10, 1999) Getting Along

More Related