cazh1 » Diversity

Vintage Technology

Jim MacLennan — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:29:03 +0000

Here’s one of those videos making the rounds via eMail. I found this in my inbox at work, from an observant friend who apparently likes the same web sites I do (although I had originally this as a great example of minimalist site design).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdSHeKfZG7c

It’s interesting to note how the magical becomes the mundane. I did find it interesting that certain “timeless” concepts (a deck of cards? a marbles game?) have more resonance than these artifacts of a bygone age.

Yet we are still surprised when new technology comes along, with the younger generation and their newfangled ideas supplanting our familiar, tried and true tools that we use every day. Not many music fans want to go back to 8-tracks – so why do we resist the next version upgrade, the next user interface paradigm?

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Post tags: generational diversity, Technology, video, YouTube

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Three Dimensions of the Conversation – Millennials and Web 2.0

Jim MacLennan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:43:00 +0000

Catching up on some old links – all related to the impact of Web 2.0, and especially the incoming Millennials, on the workplace.

At internetnews, Kuchinskas has laid out a pretty good summary of concerns about the philosophy of information sharing on the public Internet – this doesn’t translate well to many corporate environments (see previously). Most of the article frets about the inevitable introduction of malware to the trusted network, but I think the hidden danger is the possibility of sensitive corporate information getting out. Publicly traded companies especially need to be concerned about this; the distinction between copyrighted artistic expression and corporate intelligence may be lost on those fresh out of college.
Via Kottke.org, an interesting concept from Kevin Kelly; folks whose professions have been Turing’d (ie. outsourced via computers / technology advances) are generally more open to working with new technologies. This is a bit contrary to my previous post, and it makes sense – they’ve already been hit by the train once, and are certainly not going to get hit again. Besides, it’s fun to extend the list of theories you never thought could be automated (like real-time driving directions) or eliminated (like newspaper classifieds) …
… which leads me to this list (from SEOmoz) of things that the Millennials have never seen. Variations on this theme appear almost every year, the kind of world events or social movements that incoming college freshmen have never experienced. Nice to see one that puts the relative pace of technology change in the same perspective.
We’re finally seeing corporations like IBM and SAP working to add Web 2.0 and mash-up [clown-suit] capabilities into their major products. Another article calls out some research work that IBM is doing with current college students. I thought it was cool because I did some work like that in my senior year on a project sponsored by IBM. We wrote a virtual disk interface for the IBM 370 (yes, I had a PC XT with a mainframe for a floppy disk …)
In Computerworld, Thibodeau writes about the introduction of texting into the business world. I have this functionality right now with my Blackberry, and had it in the past running MSN Messenger on the iPAQ – so I know that texting has value to business. However, I don’t think you’ll get rid of IM for the folks still working at the desktop. I validated this with my teenage daughters – they favor texting because they’re not in front of the computer as much as they are walking about with a phone in their pocket. However, I do note that my oldest prefers texting even when she’s surfing the web in between social engagements. At best, there will be a nice mix of these styles, and hopefully we’ll see e-mail traffic (and useless attachments, Reply All, and unmanageable inboxes) fade away.

There was a recent Q&A thread from LinkedIn Answers on the general topic of managing the Millennials – a representative sample of the three dimensions the topic encompasses:

Millennials are new elements in a threat matrix
Consumer technology entering the business
Communication challenges between the generations

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Post tags: Art, artistic expression, clown suit, Collaboration, Communication, creating understanding, diversity, Execution, Gen-X, Generation Y, generational diversity, innovation, LinkedIn, managing change, millennials, People Management, Social Networks

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The Innovation Generation – Communication Styles

Jim MacLennan — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:38:00 +0000

I’ve seen many articles in recent weeks about the tech-savvy Millennials and their impact on future work. I concede, even welcome the changes that business will need to introduce in response to these new expectations, but I don’t see the massive change that some writers seem to think is inevitable. The world will not change to accommodate the Millennials, but relevant and effective new working styles will definitely be adopted where they make business sense.

I will certainly agree that communication styles will change. For example, there will be a greater reliance on (and expectations of) instant and ubiquitous connections – with people, information and technology. IM is already on the way out, and texting is the way to go; my high-school-aged daughters think nothing of racking up thousands of text mails every month.

Unfortunately, this kind of freewheeling message content is going to run headlong into the litigious real-world. Many companies are still struggling over records retention standards and expectations. Public companies will need to maintain some control over messages that could contain proprietary or inside information. Corporate survival and protection from liability are clearly not on the minds of students as they post embarrassing pictures on Facebook pages, and even adults get trapped by unfortunate text messages that come back to haunt them.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge believer in alternative messaging styles and flexible collaboration. I’ve managed and/or participated on multiple “collaborative” teams – people from different companies, zip codes, time zones and countries. Separation by time and space has been a business challenge for years, but you could set up a shared FTP folder, or swap e-mails about projects, as long as I’ve been working. The teams that succeeded understood the differences between working across the hall and working across town, and moderated their communication styles accordingly, using the best tools available.

The value the Millennials bring is a de facto openness to collaboration tools. To them it’s not something new that they need to learn; they expect the rest of us to already be there. Their rude awakening will come when they need to invest some change management time getting us “old folks” to catch up to their fast twitch messaging style; they won’t be able to pass us by because we’ve got the organizational and process knowledge. (that’s why we’re on the team, right?)

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© Jim MacLennan for cazh1, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Change Management, collaboration tools, Communication, Facebook, Gen-X, Generation Y, IM, innovation, millennials, People Management, records retention, texting

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Consarned whippersnappers (Generational Diversity)

Jim MacLennan — Sun, 20 May 2007 17:56:00 +0000

An interesting thread, started by VC guy Fred Wilson, on the overweighting of youth vs. experience when it comes to entrepreneurial activity. Clay Shirkey weighs in with a thoughtful analogy to Bayesian theory, basically saying that the young are blissfully ignorant of the trials and tribulations of the Real World.

For investors, entrepreneurs, and corporate hiring managers, it pays to have a sensitivity to the different mindset of the coming crop of college graduates. I got a chance to sit through a Hiring Diversity study recently that made some pretty interesting observations about generational differences in the workplace. The Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are “in charge”, holding the majority of the corporate management positions, while the Millennials (1980-2000) are just venturing out into the working world.

The difference that jumped out at me was around how they view time on the job. For us Boomers, success is measured in hours worked; we invented the term “workaholic”, and face time is critical. The millennials, on the other hand, don’t define themselves by what they do. They challenge traditional time and space scenarios of the workplace. Their job is not who they are, merely a means to support their lifestyle.

This rang so true when I took my daughter, Erin, on a college campus visit a few months ago (previously). I asked some current students there “what they wanted to be when they grew up” (a benign question – I ask it of myself and my teams all the time). The common thread, honestly and openly given, was that they wanted to make a difference, leave a mark. If you asked that of my peers in school, we’d all have said something like “rich, successful, comfortable, & retired”.

I like how Erin put it in a school assignment last week (emphasis added is mine) …

… our answer had nothing to do with money or finding a good job, as one would typically define success. Instead, we all replied that we wanted to make a difference or that we wanted to leave our mark on this planet, no matter how small it might be …

… Millennials do not find success in going to work and earning a living, but found in other ways. Getting a paper published in a medical journal, … a photograph in a magazine, … [or] their design for a watch chosen are all things they consider to be success. People may never know who designed that watch, but the person who designed it will still feel successful knowing his product is out there.

… Baby boomers define success as money; Millennials, happiness. As Adlai Stevenson said, “That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another.”

(from Success in America, by Erin MacLennan (2007))

The younger generation’s higher energy around entrepreneurship and startups may also be fueled by a less cynical, more altruistic sense. That, or they aren’t worrying about their childrens’ college and wedding funds (says the father of two young ladies).

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Post tags: Art, collaboration environments, creating understanding, diversity, Execution, Gen-X, Generation Y, generational diversity, managing change, millennials, Social Networks

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