Generational Differences

1. Generational Differences Lisa Bourget – Marathon Travel

2. Session Overview • Action item: Let’s Talk Takeaways • Understanding the Players on Your Team (who are the generations) • Let’s Talk Stereotypes • Power of Change • Closing Activity

3. Making it Personal • Flip over action plan • Write down name of someone challenging in your life 20 years younger • Write down name of someone challenging in your life 20 years older

4. What’s Your IQ? • GQ Self-Assessment

5. The Players… • Traditionalists (born 1900-1945) • Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) • Generation X (born 1965-1980) • Millennial Generation (born 1981-2000)

6. Does This Topic Matter?“It’s an Economic Downturn and everyone is so easy to deal with…” • “Generational personalities” are carried with us throughout our lives • When hard times hit…everyone wants to play nice in the sand, right??? • We entrench ourselves deeply into attitudes and behaviors that are ingrained in us!

7. What does the work force challenge mean to you: • Must fight harder to recruit and retain the best employees • McKinsey and Company “war for talent” study estimated over the next 30 years, demand for bright, talented 35 to 45 year olds will increase by 25%, supply predicted to decrease 15% • Prepare for mass exodus of know-how & experience and replacing it… • With smaller pool of talent that comes from different values and expectations • Challenges from “the gap”

8. Workplace Stats

9. Generation Gaps • Employees that don’t feel they “fit” will… ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ • What’s at your water cooler? • Few decades ago, 3 or 4 generations gathered and listened to “The Shadow” on the radio • Traditionalist: “Nothing decent on TV since Murder She Wrote went off the air” • Boomer: “…demise of thirty something” • X’er: “Melrose Place” • Millennium: “…waxing lyrical over My So Called Life.” • Translation: Communicational challenges and breakdown of bonds that hold companies together

10. Define Stereotypes

11. What do you see…

12. Again…

13. Stereotypes – by the media and you • The precocious Millennial kid • Tattooed Generation X slacker • Guilt-ridden, workaholic Boomer • Lifeless retired Traditionalist leaning back on the porch swing

14. Change – You Own It… • There is only one way • Get to know who those generations really are • Understand why they are that way • Take this opportunity not to stereotype…but to learn something you didn’t know before

15. Stereotypes – by resentment • Xers resent Traditionalists (for being resistant to change and unwilling to hand over reins) • Boomers resent Xers for finding it so easy to change jobs whenever they feel like it and demanding balance in their lives • Traditionalists resent Millennials for entitlement mentality when Traditionalists had to work for everything they’ve gotten • Millennials resent Boomers for leaving the planet a mess

16. What forms our cultural personality? • Icons • Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma, Alabama, and image of empty bus (all icons of Selma bus boycott of 1965) • Assassination of Kennedy • D-Day • Challenger explosion • Attack of September 11 • Conditions • Cold War • Great Depression (changed forever by fear of not being able to put food on the table) • Changes in divorce rate • Life stages…we have them in common (education, get a job, find a partner, have a family) – but different generations don’t approach them the same way

17. Traditionalists 1900-1945 • Came of age before/during World War II • Core needs are group membership & responsibility • Childhood of struggle • Value: Stability, security, sense of community, patriotism and God • Trust hierarchy and authority

18. Traditionalists • People – Joe DiMaggio; Dr. Spock; Alfred Hitchcock; Franklin D. Roosevelt; John Wayne; Bob Hope; Betty Crocker • Places: Sarajevo; Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Hiroshima, Iwo Jima. Back home – bread lines, Victory gardens, church pew, kitchen table with family tuned in to “The Maxwell House Radio Hour” • Things: were scarce; with 2 wars and the Great Depression, this generation did without. Symbols carried great weight – swastikas to Sputnik, flappers to flattops, drove roadsters to drive-ins, stacked a few 45’s on the record player and did the twist

19. Tips for Traditionalists! • Show respect for length of service and experience • Watch your language • Take time when discussing technology • Do your homework; prepare to be tested • Respect attention to formality • Don’t rush or pressure • Serve and honor them

20. Baby Boomers 1946-1964 • The first workaholics • Paid dues under old hierarchical rules; now redefining themselves in light of global initiatives and business restructuring • Gifted at political correctness • Traditionally found their self worth in their work ethic • Now…desperate for healthy work/life balance

21. Baby Boomers • People: Martin Luther King Jr.; Richard Nixon; Beaver Cleaver; Rosa Parks; Osmond Family; John Belushi; Captain Kangaroo; Partridge Family and The Stones • Places: Watergate Hotel; Hanoi Hilton; Kent State; Laugh-in; Woodstock. Suburbs, bedroom, boardroom, delivery room, and eventually divorce courtroom. • Things: Television (4 million in 1952 to 50 million in 1960!); Bellbottoms, mood rings, Brooks Brothers suits and Rolex watches.

22. Tips for Boomers! • Resist rushing and learn to value “people side” of business • Choose face-to-face conversation • Ask for their advice (and take notes to show you are listening) • Offer your support and partner to get job done (don’t wait to be asked) • Put priority on a business atmosphere and relationships formed there • Honor their experiences

23. Gen Xers 1965-1980 • Count on technological acuity and business savvy to stay marketable • Extremely resourceful and independent generation • Get in…get the work done…move on to the next thing • Need freedom to act without hindrance • Energies focused on skillful performance, variety and stimulation in the workplace

24. Gen X’ers • People: Bill Clinton; Monica Lewinsky; Ayatollah Khomeni, Ted Bundy, Beavis and Butt-head, O.J. Simpson, Madonna • Places: Media expanded places – X’ers could travel more; Soviet Union, Somalia, Chernobyl, Scotland, international space station to internet • Things: Cable TV, satellite, VCRs, video games, fax machines, microwaves, pagers, cell phones, Palm Pilots…

25. Tips for Gen X’ers • Stop micromanaging them • Initiate work/life balance initiatives • Teach new skills • Mentor them and ask questions. Talk with, not at, them. • When delegating, describe the outcomes (but leave the processes to the Gen Xer) • Provide immediate answers and feedback; they crave stimulation • Need help on something technical? Just ask!! • Value their need to keep learning in order to be marketable.

26. Millennium 1981-2000 • They are always on – come of age in an era of instantaneous global communication, media saturation, and material excess. • Grew up in “decade of the child” • Intellectual authority in homes and at work • High-speed stimulus junkies (just enough skepticism – like the xers – to keep them asking healthy questions) • Just enough political savvy (like the Boomers – to know who’s who) • Just enough respect for character development (like Traditionalists – to incorporate the virtue of individual responsibility in their jobs)

27. Millennium • People: Prince William, Chelsea Clinton, Kurt Cobain, Barney, Britney, Backstreet Boys, Serena Williams • Places: Virtual and tangible – ranging from chat rooms to Dawson’s Creek, from 90210 to Oklahoma City, from cyberspace to outer space • Things: • Access to cell phones, pagers and computers since they were in diapers • Took PC’s for joyrides on information superhighway; through internet they have visited every corner of the globe • Choices – hang out at local mall or virtual mall!

28. Tips for the “Always On” • Give them your web address; prepare for the improvement plan • Emphasize positives of doing right, rather than negatives of doing wrong • Be positive, simple, rational, factual, friendly • Respond quickly and move fast with this “instant gratification” generation • Mentor them and be realistic • Be prepared to offer VERY flexible scheduling

29. Meet Edna!

30. Your Action Plan • Sharing Time – who had “ah ha’s??” • What will you change the next time you: • Have a meeting • Need to ask a question • Need to change their direction

31. View of Work

32. Work Relationships

33. Rewards

34. Feedback

35. Training

36. Career

37. Grow…With Generational “Smarts” • Communicate “Smart” • Sell “Smart” • Market your business “Smart” • Build Relationships...“Smart”

38. Sources • “When Generations Collide” – Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman • Robert Lord, Training and Organizational Development Manager, Travel Guard • “Talking About Our Generations” – A Personal Guide to Mastering Generational Diversity in the Workplace; Express Personnel Services