How to Manage “Us”
To our parent’s generation (read: the boomers),
You run America. (Right now)
I’m on a plane to Boston and reflecting on a few of the meetings that I’ve had this week with various friends around the Valley and San Francisco. Many of these conversations center on the state of current social network technology and move into deeper discussions around the social implications of these community environments and why our generation is so enthralled with them.
There’s a coming wave. And, it’s going to change the world of work.
Our generation is different. I say this, because I’m on the leading edge of a generation of people who have grown up with the computer. We’ve literally grown alongside the internet. From it’s inception to its current state as a confused and evolving twenty-something. We grew up being told that working on teams was important, that forming community was essential, and that we all deserve to win.
We communicate so quickly, and so pervasively that your brain simply can’t understand it. We know that multi-tasking isn’t truly multitasking, and that our brains can only consciously process things sequentially. But our brains have learned how to switch between communication platforms so quickly and efficiently it doesn’t really matter. We know this scares you. (We all talk about it, online)
We went through school collaborating and using technologies to accomplish tasks, projects, and objectives extremely fast. Because you invented, then taught us these technologies, we learned how to learn at break-neck speeds (read: we can learn your job, at incredible speed). We learned how to do all of this at amazing quality. Because that’s what America does. We win.
You may think we’re a generation born of entitlement. That we think we deserve great jobs, and great job environments. (In reality, we want to take cubes away for your sake too) The fact of the matter is that if you don’t let us work how you taught us to, we’ll search elsewhere. I just had 3 friends quit Morgan Stanley because they couldn’t send an instant message or personal email during their work day. We’ll leave your company too. I’m fortunate to work at a company that embraces digital culture.
The internet has become a part of everyone’s lives, all the time. It is the most vast network of human consciousness ever created. We all use email, instant messaging, and represent ourselves in community sites online. In the beginning, we did this all anonymously, hiding behind screen names and cryptic email addresses.
This has all changed.
Written from United Flight SFO-BOS - Published from Cupertino, California
April 4th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
In response to a few comments I have gotten about this post, I want to be clear. This is not negative, this is more of an invitation for conversation around the topic. I see opportunity in ensuring digital natives are given wings to fly. More to come soon.
April 5th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Well written Dave, I can’t agree with what you’re saying more. We will live in such a fast paced world our parents won’t even begin to understand the breakneck speeds at which information will be available to each and every one of us. Who will need to study and learn history when our PDA can pull up any fact in a nano second, who needs to slow down and write a letter or send a card when our phones communicate via IM? We will leave a stiff corporate culture for a better more efficient environment if the Baby Boom generation can’t keep up with us!
April 7th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Brilliance Dave. These words are generational poetry. Ironic because even in the world of technology support, you see the exact same boomer characteristics as articulated here. We live life in parallel, struggling in workplaces still clinging to policies stuck in serial. We abstract location from communication, yet are asked to report to offices with technology chained to power outlets collaborate with colleagues walled behind fabric lego cubicle walls. Other thoughts…
http://clifhirtle.blogspot.com/2006/03/modern-workplaces.html
June 27th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
[...] Sean pointed me at this post by Dave Morin. People who walk away from plum jobs because we won’t let them work the way we taught them to. People who expect to be able to IM and use internet mail at work. People who will expect to bring their own laptops to work, it is part of what defines them. [...]
June 28th, 2006 at 6:18 am
[...] Dave Morin - davemorin.com/blog (tags: generationM insight digital culture) [...]
June 30th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
[...] Then, later that week, JP wrote this blog after he took a look at one of my earlier posts talking about how to manage our generation (subsequently after Sean had taken a look at this one). And, he is right on the money. The world is evolving so rapidly through technology and the social connections it creates, that many firms and managers can’t keep up. Our generation connects, communicates, and moves about at ridiculously fast speeds. [...]
December 6th, 2006 at 9:28 am
[...] Dave Morin, one of the people I used to work for at Apple, has been posting lately about the generation gap between the current crop of managers and recent college graduates. Part I is a really interesting look at the differences in how we (the younger generation) and the managers (mainly our parents generation) communicate and multi-task. “We communicate so quickly, and so pervasively that your brain simply can’t understand it. We know that multi-tasking isn’t truly multitasking, and that our brains can only consciously process things sequentially. But our brains have learned how to switch between communication platforms so quickly and efficiently it doesn’t really matter. We know this scares you.” -Dave Morin [...]
May 24th, 2007 at 1:59 am
[...] probably should read this article (and perhaps also my thoughts on the subject and those of JP and Dave Morin.) Trackback [...]