Welcome To: “Keeping & Motivating Your Next-Gen Technician”

1. Welcome To:“Keeping & Motivating Your Next-Gen Technician” By John C. Mrazek

2. Who Are These Next-Gener’s?

3. According To The Experts: • Gen-X = • Born Between 1964-1980 • Extremely image driven, even grunge • Don’t really care • Heavily influenced by peers & perception • Play is everything and the only thing • Gen-Y = • Echo-Boomers or Millennials • 70 million plus babies of Boomers • $100 a week in disposable income • Grew up during OJ, Monica, Columbine and the 2000 Presidential Election • Heavily influenced by peers http://www.bcentral.com/articles/krotz/122.asp Marketing Intelligence / Joanna L. Krotz

4. Specifically They Are: • ..your 2 income 20/30+ something neighbors with a new baby, leased cars, and the need to look good. • ..a very diverse group and tolerant of different cultures and family situations. • ..more “Worldly” then we were but not any better prepared to handle the “real” world. • ..takers instead of givers because they grew up during the economic boom and have been given everything by guilty parents. • ..not respectful of authority or position. • ..seekers of truth and do not trust advertising • ..very lonely, looking for community and a sense of belonging

5. Why is This Happening to Us?? • Boomer technicians are retiring or have become so specialized that daily support is a waste of their big salary • Boomers have also moved into leadership positions and a vacuum has developed in the entry level positions. • X-ers are becoming professors and chairs and technology is not an add-on but integral to their teaching process.

6. Why Are They This Way?

7. Media & Next-Geners • According to Sitcoms, life’s issues wrap up in 18 minutes or less & always with everyone happy. • Translation = Short attention span & my life must always be happy and upbeat. • If you lose at a video game, you get to start over and everything is forgotten • Translation = Mistakes are no big deal & have no lasting effects so its OK to try new ideas or not always do my best. • A “successful” life looks like MTV, happens just as fast, and based on instant gratification instead of long term rewards • Translation = Short attention span, life is all about excitement and fun, and whatever the “herd” is doing right now must be right! • They have a Game boy, Xbox, Cell Phone, Super Fast PC, iPod, Digital Camera, Broad-Band, and use IM to get “hooked up” with friends: • Translation = Technology is as natural to me as a TV, VCR, Microwave Oven, and Refrigerator are to my parents and just as necessary!

8. School & Next-Geners • There isn’t only one “right” answer to most problems. • Translation = You’ve got your way, I’ve got my way and that is Ok, and I don’t want or have to do it your way. • Everyone is part of a team and there are lots of group projects • Translation = They are very good at working in teams and communicating. They also understand how to contribute enough to make the team successful but not themselves. • Everyone is a success because we don’t want to damage your self esteem. • Translation = Under achievers and don’t want to be different from the rest by excelling too much. Why excel if there is no benefit? • Even grade school homework is typed and all research is done on the Internet and not in a Library with card files and indexes. • Translation = Very familiar with computers and search engines but not research methods and finding things through deduction.

9. Family & Next-Geners • Mom & Dad are always work and I am by myself again. • Translation = I can only count on me so I have to be self sufficient and my ideas and advice comes from peers who are around more and understand me better. • Since I was 6 weeks old I’ve always gone to “school” or had a lot of “Aunts” to take care of me (except at night or on weekends). • Translation = Mistrust of older people because of inconsistency. • Accumulating lots of new stuff is what life is about: • Translation = A successful grown up has a lot cool stuff and family fits in 2-3 weeks a year or on weekends. • Mom and dad take a long time to decide stuff and are more interested in relaxing/recovering from work by doing their thing instead of having fun with me. • Translation = Grown ups are boring, slow, and not interested in me.

10. What’s the Result? • Next Gen-ers are parallel thinkers and assimilators that can absorb enormous amounts of information quickly and create solutions much faster then us. • They are not loyal to the institution or vision because they’ve seen too many lay-offs and down-sizings to trust any organization, boss, or grown-up. • They process data faster then us so they bore easily and need constant input or excitement to keep their attention and focus. • Since collecting stuff, or having fun is everything, they want and need lots of money! (which HED has little of) • Long term is 3-6 months and their short attention spans can make normal IT operations and projects incredibly boring.

11. If I Don’t Have Money, Then How Do I Keep or Motivate Them?

12. Strategies I’ve Seen Work… • Treasure them • Become their personal/trusted “Head Hunter” • Challenge them to not become their parents • Protect them from your peers • Create crusades to accelerate “binding” • Shorten all projects to “micro-deliverables” • Lavishly & creatively celebrate each milestone • Plan to get rid of them, and make them aware of it

13. Treasuring Them?? • Why? • Because God only really has one treasure and its people, and if you treasure something other what He treasures you are wasting your one and only life! • Because it’ll be a new experience for them and will help build loyalty & identity in them. • Because the rest of the world won’t • Because it doesn’t require $$$ to do it Bill Hybels, Willow Creek Church

14. Become Their Personal/Trusted “Head Hunter” • Earn their trust by helping build their resume your watch by: • Challenge them to do 2 interviews a year • Continually point out how each project, task, or daily responsibility helps their resume • Offer training as a carrot to build their resume • Mention other job opportunities to them and discuss why they are better or different from their current • Regularly discuss their 5 year career plan and how their current job and training is helping them get there (or not).

15. Challenge Them Not To Become Their Parents… • What is wrong with their parents? • Everything or nothing • Isn’t this dangerous or inappropriate? • Depends on person and their family relationship • Its not the specific person, but their mindset • Does this cross any H/R lines? • Only if specifics are used • Stay very general and point out trends or perceptions • Use reverse psychology

16. Protect Them From Your Peers… • Nobody understands Technical People • Nobody understands Next-Gen-er’s • Including you!  • Circle the wagons around them and their differences • Never record “Comp Time” • Wrap proper “business” vocabulary around their creative and off-the-wall ideas • Focus their angst about structure & rules on the magic “them” • Help them work through conflicts with your peers using an “Art of War” view point

17. Create Crusades To Accelerate “Binding”… • What is “Binding”? • Short for “binding our hearts together” • Espirit de Corp, camaraderie, Team • Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger then themselves, especially Next-Gener’s • What is the difference between normal projects and crusades? • Only spin and perception • I thought Next-Gener’s are loners? • They are by circumstance but not by choice

18. Shorten All Projects To “Micro-Deliverables”… • The days of 12-18 month long projects are over! • Think days and weeks now • Next-Gener’s do not have the attention span to stay focused for that long • But some projects take longer then 30 days? • True, but only you need to know that. • It’s the old “Eat the Elephant 1 Bite at a time” idea • Spin it to them as small bites and you manage the macro-level aspects and how they all plug together. • Great opportunity for a Gantt Chart

19. Lavishly & Creatively Celebrate Milestones! • Milestones? • Project Management speak for critical path completions • Except everything is a milestone now • Remember their MTV world? Big Party! • Does celebrating cost anything? • It can but doesn’t have to. Can you say “Staff Improvement” budget? • Try BBQ’s, field trips for Ice Cream, Kick-ball, Hawaiian Shirt & Bermuda Shorts Day, an afternoon at the movies, Donut Day, Frisbee catch, send them home early

20. Always Plan To Get Rid of Them, & Tell Them • The current trend for technical people (in a good market) is 18 months and out • If you chase or hold them they’ll run • Be bold and set a date for their departure and tell them! • Its all about reverse psychology • If they leave its OK because “Moore’s Law” is true for people too!

21. How Isn’t This Manipulation? • It is in a way, but that is such an “ugly word”… • How about behavior modification • Or helping them make healthier choices? • How can we do this and still be good people and Christian’s? • Matthew 10:16 says: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” • I believe that we need to be as shrewd as a snake in order to be as gentle as a dove. • As a Christian in a business setting, I believe that we need to show our Next-Gener a different way that honors them.

22. The $10k Question • Does This Stuff Really work? • I still chat with Next-Geners that worked for me 10 years ago • They still ask me for career advice • I’ve had Next-Gen Technicians working for me over 18 months @ Judson • I’ve had Next-Geners stay with me for 29 to over 44 months at previous jobs. • What’s the alternative? • Your budget growing anytime soon? • Are they going to become us??

23. Questions??