Understanding the generations

Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you anymore.

I’ll keep it short and sweet. Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. C. Montgomery Burns The Simpsons

Bill Gates: 11 things you won’t learn in school

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it. Rule 2: The world won't care about your self- esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure. Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity. Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time. Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Why ‘Mend the Gap.’ ‘For the first time in history, four distinct generations – matures, boomers, Xers and millennials – are employed side by side in the workplace. With differing values and seemingly incompatible views on leadership, these generations have stirred up unprecedented conflict in the business world. Effective management of this generational divide is vital to longevity and success. In fact it’s the most important demand your company can make of its leaders.’Cam Marston

Mend the Gap: in a nutshell

1. Youth Culture is unique to 20 th/ 21 st century west. We stopped kids working and put them in education – more time spent amongst peers. Psychological focus on teen years creates ‘adolescence’ Post war consumerism identifies new target groups.

From uniform consumerism to pursuing icons of independence – the sixties shrugged off the fifties and with its revolutions in sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, gave youth a whole new language with which to vent spleen against their elders.

‘You have to try and kill your elders.. we had to develop a whole new vocabulary, as indeed is done generation after generation. To take the recent past and restructure it in a way that we felt we had authorship of.. that was our world, not the hippie thing. It all made sense to me it was a uniform for an army that didn’t exist’ David Bowie on Ziggy

Were you a hellraiser? ‘In terms of girls? Not unlike any other young guy at the time. The pill had just come in. That was a very handy thing. Suddenly women were prepared to sleep with a fellah with no great risk of pregnancy. Now we could all have some fun..

everyone started looking sharper, had a little bit of money in their pockets, there were clubs to go to, good music to listen to… it was like a paradise had been created for young people – a time when everything was switched on at once. There were all these possibilities opening up that our parents could only have dreamed about. Suddenly, our entire world was bright colours.’ Paul McCartney

Advance of ICET creates an ‘incanabula’ from which we haven’t yet emerged.

‘When it comes to understanding and using the new media and technology, many parents are falling woefully behind their children. We’ve shifted from a generation gap to a generation lap – kids outpacing and overtaking adults on the technology track, lapping them in many areas of daily life…’ Douglas Tapscott

2. The Church was too ‘inward’ focused to be able to meet the challenge of rapid cultural change. ‘Youth is constitutionally hungry to envelop with religious significance the yearnings aroused by natural beauty, by artistic experience, and by sexual love. Because there is no living Christian mind to interpret this hunger and to show how it may be fed, the young are led astray.’ The Christian Mind Harry Blamires

3. The Churches solution to managing generational differences ‘youth work’ has inadvertently helped to perpetuate the gap between young and old.

‘When one part of an organism is treated in isolation from its interconnections with another, as though the problem were solely its own, fundamental change is not likely. The symptom is apt to recycle, in the same or different form, in the same or different member. Trying to ‘cure’ a person in isolation from his or her family…is as misdirected, and ultimately ineffective, as transplanting a healthy organ into a body whose imbalanced chemistry will destroy the new one as it did the old. It is easy to forget that the same ‘family’ or organs that rejects a transplant contributed to the originally diseased part becoming ‘foreign.’ Edwin Friedman, generation to generation

Youth culture indicates the existence of a generational ‘wound’ that does not exist in many non-western cultures. It cannot be healed in isolation but only through treating the body as a whole.

4. Youth work will only ever be a sticking plaster solution to the problem until the core of church culture changes. To make disciples of the young we need to make disciples of adults first.

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Silent’ or ‘Builder’ 1920’s – 40’s

A relatively conservative generation who both protected and built on their parent’s achievements – ‘building’ a ‘future’ after WW2 ‘Silent’ or ‘Builder’ ‘I work hard because it’s my duty to do so.’

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Boomer’ 1940’s -60’s

Children of the 60’s they espoused largely liberal progressive ideals, throwing off the constraints of previous generations. ‘Boomer’ ‘Work is self – fulfilling; it makes me feel important.’

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Generation X’ 1960’s -80’s

They challenged the progressive optimism of previous generations. Saw huge rise in divorce rates, unemployment, the spread of Aids. -Disenchanted with ‘progress’.’ ‘Generation X’ ‘I work to fund my lifestyle.’

Brief Guide to the Generations. ‘Generation Y 1980’s -2000’s

A generation adept at multi – tasking, focussed on pleasure seeking but also entrepreneurial with a ‘can do’ attitude. ‘Generation Y’ ‘My work will help to change the world.’

Focus on Gen Y ‘Generation Y’

New Philanthropy? ‘… students from the Millennial Generation are increasingly interested in jobs where they feel they can make a positive difference—whether that's building solar panels, running a food bank, or making microfinance loans in Africa. ’ Businessweek.com

‘Millenials want to end the culture wars; move America’s foreign policy toward a more cooperative and multilateral approach; rebuild a strong, positive role for government; achieve universal healthcare; reform and expand America’s educational system; start the transition to a clean energy economy; and much more.’ Demos ‘An Anatomy of Youth’ Report 2010

New ‘can do’ attitude? ‘They combine the teamwork ethic of the Boomers with the can-do attitude of the Veterans and the technological savvy of the Xers. At first glance, and even at second glance, Generation Next may be the ideal workforce – and ideal citizens.’ Demos ‘An Anatomy of Youth’ Report 2010

Digital Natives? We shape our culture and in turn our culture shapes us…

‘Purpose is an intention to accomplish something that is at the same time meaningful to the self and consequential for the world beyond the self.’ © LICC All rights reserved In need of purpose?

‘The postponements of many young people today have taken on a troubling set of characteristics, and chief among them is that so many youth do not seem to be moving toward any resolution. © LICC All rights reserved

Their delay is characterized more by indecision than by motivated reflection, more by confusion than by the pursuit of clear goals, more by ambivalence than by determination.’ © LICC All rights reserved

‘what does matter for happiness is engaging in something that the person finds absorbing, challenging, and compelling, especially when it makes a valued contribution to the world beyond the self. Scientists dedicated to discovering natural truths, artists dedicated to creating new forms of beauty, are often happiest when they are in the midst of solving a wrenchingly difficult problem.’ William Damon ‘Path to Purpose’ © LICC All rights reserved

Ricardo Semler ‘The Seven Day Weekend.’ © LICC All rights reserved

RELINQUISHING CONTROL It's our lack of formal structure, our willingness to let workers follow their interests and their instincts when choosing jobs or projects. It's our insistence that workers seek personal challenges and satisfaction before trying to meet the company's goals. It's our commitment to encouraging employees to ramble through their day or week so that they will meander into new ideas and new business opportunities. © LICC All rights reserved

Challenges of working with Gen Y ‘Generation Y’

Challenges of working with Gen Y. Aspiration Deficit: What happens when you’re not Bill Gates, David Beckham or Beyonce by the time you’re 25?

Challenges of working with Gen Y. Issue of Generational Distrust: Gen Y: ‘They can’t adapt.’ Boomer: ‘They’re not resilient or committed.’

Challenges of working with Gen Y. Creating an atmosphere of peer generated and passed down wisdom. Has church acknowledge the shift from teacher centred to student centred learning?

Challenges of working with Gen Y. Providing accountability and ownership: Youthwork ‘empowers’ and gives ownership – does the rest of our church culture support this?

Challenges of working with Gen Y. Positional v Personal Authority: Gaining authority through relationship & modelling.

Model the way ‘leading means you have to be a good example and live what you say.’ Kouzes and Posner © LICC All rights reserved

Kouzes and Posner first law of leadership. ‘If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe the message.’ The Leadership Challenge © LICC All rights reserved