Strange title, eh? I was watching Memphis Belle and there was the scene early on when the navigator, Phil was thinking about the upcoming flight (their last due to a 25 flight rotation) and was thinking for sure he would die on this last flight. And thusly, he started yelling after drinking heavily, “I don’t want to die”. He yelled this in varying degrees three times as the scene faded into the plane at night and then into the daylight. So it struck me…every generation feels it is immortal; that all things will be as it is or as it will be and they will just simply be part of it come whatever. And it won’t be bad, Gen Y are all 20-something, tight? I am going to align this scene with a coming of age realization and then share some ideas about it becomes all real for them.
I know what you are thinking…how on earth is he going to link a film shot in 1990 about a B17 crew to a concept as contemporary as Generation Y? OK, consider this, no matter where you go, there you are. OK, that didn’t help. Sorry. Try this one; an 18-year old in 1943 is no different than one from 1956, 1964, 1982 or 2007. They all want the same thing in the same way. They want to matter, to enjoy, to live, love and let life be. They will never die, certainly not now. That comes in 70 years or so, right? This post will be the last effort of intertwining all the generations as a means to now starting figuring out how to manage this specific generation. I use 18 as the central age as it is when many enter the workforce. Regardless of age, they all have the same life realizations.
So they show up at the store and they are invincible at 18. You meet them at the door and you have recently decided you are more mortal than not at the age of 34. You both have a goal to be the “thing” you always wanted to be, albeit at different times and places, and now at interconnecting times at a same place. I mentioned this in my last post if you could look at yourself in the mirror? Can you admit something or anything about what you felt or how you acted at age 18? You see, the only differentiator I can come up between me in 1982 and my son in 2007 is in our periph (made-up word to align with peripheral). Nevertheless, we looked at our “it” with the same degree of vigor and absence (more on this later).
As managers of Generation Y, you must accept they are young. That is a big one and completely obvious. They view bigger than you and I did at 18. We were invincible and had 5 TV channels and Pong. They are invincible with thousands of TV channels (in fact they don’t really watch that much TV anymore) and Facebook.
You must also accept they are much smarter than you and I were at 18. Yet, smarter in a different way…perhaps more globally smarter with a wider lens. We figured out the immediate proximity in front of our face. This is why we seem a bit more in tune into making a business work and how to make it profitable. We see the three feet in front of our face (maybe as far as our P & L sheet). Gen Y sees three time zones, three bandwidths (see a previous blog post), three years ahead, but nothing more than a joy and love to be able to see that far. The P & L is not part of the vision – someone else can figure that part out (probably someone from Gen X).
Listen up manager of Gen Y. The Millennials are going to live forever, so make what you do speedy, meaningful, technological and very, very flexible. OK, let’s be real! Managers of Gen Y, you will have to deal with the exceptional ones and the ones you will have to constantly be working on and the ones that flat out suck! This is a realization for all generations, regardless of the notion of immortality. Yeah, get over it, I was 18 too! Seriously, Gen Y, suck it up. While you have been engaged by speed, meaning, technology and flexibility – you are not that unique. Why do you not pay attention to those who have been doing a whole lot longer than you have? You have so much potential given your sociological reality, and you still make me wonder “what the…seriously!”
Who wants to live forever? I just want to see my girls walk down the aisle. I hope I make it that far.
Cheers