Talking About My Generation

Over the last couple weeks, I have been talking about the generations. My Maine keynote on the topic was covered by writer Jim Baumer: {Live Blog of Generation NeXt Keynote}. I also did a pre-keynote interview with the gang from JobsInME.com:

When I talk about this topic I talk about my own experience set.  I talk about My Generation. The Millenials dominate this conversation. For good reason.  They are about twice the size of my generation and coming of age in a time of accelerated transformation and technological change. They bring a whole new set of expectations about an evolved work experience that is simply going to require organizations to advance work style design. That is part of the story. Ironically, my generation is incredibly suited to this new world of work.   Ferociously independent, adaptive, creative and resourceful, we are prepared to lead through a time of disruptive change. We also like to invent and don’t expect anyone to take care of us.  We realized quite some time ago that we would be responsible for our own career trajectory and wouldn’t be relying on a company to manage that for us.

A simple review of some recent leading Gen X business writing and thinking provides an interesting prompt for those clinging on to the traditional corporate structure and hierarchy.  Have a look: Escape from Cubicle Nation The 4 Hour Work Week Career Renegade Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It Crush It! Why Now Is The Perfect Time To Cash In On Your Passion It will clearly prove more challenging for traditional companies to optimize and engage a generation of escape artists. The generations do want many of the same things.

But I can tell you both from my own experience set and from the research that we define them quite differently.  I’ll shed some light on a few of those differences, the next generation drivers and what to do about them in my dinner keynote tonight at the AT&T Generations & Leadership event. They asked me to keynote dinner.  They asked me if I could be funny.  This could be interesting. Just don’t call me a slacker!