Second Prize: Engaged staff, increased retention, teamwork and trust.

First Prize: A long-term, company-wide culture of awareness of the importance of respecting and protecting corporate information. Employee-driven emphasis on its role in trust-based business relationships, legal obligations to business partners, competitive advantage etc.

In CPS’s Managing Millennials workshop, we suggest many ways to give your Generation Ys some variety in their work, to engage their interest and loyalty, and to offer some outlet for their creative minds, as they focus on routine tasks. Most of these suggestions leverage their technological and generational-specific skills, for the well-being of the organization.

We have recently added another interesting task. Please consider adding it to your list.

Large amounts of proprietary information, including details of prospective contracts and other material that falls into the area of “stuff that shouldn’t be out there” is getting onto the web through blogging, social networking and other breaches of privacy.

Let us assume:

1) that you have trained your Generation Ys, as covered in the workshop, on privacy guidelines and confidentiality.

2) that you are working towards a collaborative and trust-based relationship with your people, because you know the business need for this and the bottom-line values of engagement and retention.

3) that you know the size of the threat of the web-based privacy problem and the numbers involved (look at things like www.websense.com)

You could take a Big Brother approach to protecting your valuable information, and sign up with an information monitoring service. You could take a collaborative, team-based approach and rotate the task amongst your GenYs and GenXs. This will a) get the job done, b) give them some fun, varied tasks (and you know what that’s worth!) and c) create a deep and lasting culture of awareness of the importance of protecting corporate information. And culture change is always the first prize.

It’s not hard to do. [Remember that other generations might be interested - do not exclude them, especially if you are a small enough organization.]

• Call a meeting (remember that pizza!) or send out an email (using E-writing, people…  not 20th century Composition 101!)
• Present the problem of information security, and some information about what various companies are doing about it.
• Put your people into groups or a group to discuss approaches. (You know the drill – a time limit or 24 hours to email group leader and 24 more for the synthesized group responses).
• Take feedback and let them map most of the plan. Review your Marshall Goldsmith rules, and don’t hijack the project because you know more than them. Don’t let them run amok – provide clear guidelines like time off the main job for any one person.
• The end product must have clear objectives and metrics, clear time frames, and must be high on direction, with strong structure from a good executor. No fuzzy edges, no dependence on a “big vision with minimal direction.” The whole thing must run on a system, with short goal spans, not on people remembering things. The check-ins, check-ups and assessments must all be put in the system at the very beginning.
• Encourage your team towards continuous improvement, and ownership of the project. A Ning-based or intra-net based discussion forum for the team (with senior management on the group) would be a great idea.
• Remember to give feedback to your praise-hungry young talent. And any other generations involved. Remember? You said you kinda also like feedback, and you enjoy being praised too!

Let CPS know how you’re doing Glynis

The Emory University Professor presents his figures showing a decline in US adult literacy (40% of high-school grads in 1992; only 31% in 2003) and the many areas where young Americans lack knowledge, such as geographic, historical and political cluelessness.

Bauerlein is even more annoyed because his Gen-Yers are unapologetic about their ignorance. They dismiss the idea that they should have more facts in their heads, and call it a pre-Google and pre-wiki anachronism.

CPS’s position is that Bauerlein has a good case, and is also completely wrong. Gen Y has massive skills gaps in some areas, but is the smartest generation ever in others.

1. We’re inclined to be impressed with the anecdotal, and the growing empirical case, that technology is changing the way people’s brains process information.

2. We see fluid intelligence and life-long learning as the keys to economic prosperity. We think that the trend in European education systems (smaller numbers of facts, higher emphasis on thinking skills) is the way to go to build the cognitive skills required for higher-paying, secure work in the 21st Century. It doesn’t matter if you know the fact, as long as you have the conceptual schema, and know how to retrieve the details. If the educational process builds a love of learning, and confidence in your mind-power, this will create a life-long learner.

3.    We’re not fans of the crusty professor’s assumption of “Millennial fault”. He’s quick to blame X boxes and technology, but is the blame to be placed on the GenYs? There are plenty of other places to place it:  the deterioration of family interactions (including the decline of the family dinner conversation, ever-blaring TV, and the parochial and sensationalist, sound-byte news-that-sells?)

4.    Bauerlein has a good point that education in the USA is broken in many areas. CPS is especially concerned about the way the demand for grade averages has led, by a domino effect, to the dumbing-down of K12 systems to achieve more A results for college entrance. In an effort to ensure that “all students are above average”, teachers are often pressured towards the lower levels of cognitions and the simple recall of knowledge.  Of course this often results only in temporary learning, because the material is not processed at the level of analysis and evaluation.*

*Note: CPS provides structured, competency-based, peer-coached and behaviorally-referenced professional development processes to school districts, to develop higher order thinking skills in our students. The cost is $1 per teacher, and we obtain funding from the private sector where necessary. This is a CPS initiative to make our communities more globally competitive.

Please let us know what you think: the Dumbest Generation? Yes? No? Why? All opinions welcome!

CPS now has permission to publish a highly entertaining MiIllennial’s perspective. Paul exemplifies many of the characteristics of the 21st century GenY knowledge worker: massive technical knowledge, a graduate education, and a history of entrepreneurship. Born in Tampa, he is an experienced, multi-lingual global traveler and married to a physics PhD student.  Enjoy!

Then go on www.glassdoor.com (or something similar) and see whether your organization also needs to think seriously about collaborative management, collaborative thinking, and the competitive and innovative edge your Millennials bring to the table..

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Almost all of the places I’ve worked (including some rather large companies) treat their programmers like highly trained plumbers they’ve hired to install a new toilet.. “I want all of your technical skills, and no independent thought. Just put it over there where we’ve drawn the circle on the ground.”

“Er, are you sure you want it there? I think that it would be better if-”

“No buts! See the circle? Toilet goes there. We did a user requirements study, paid the consultants (experts, all of them) tons of money for it, and this is where a toilet is optimally situated.”

“I think there might be some mistake, shouldn’t it go-”

“Damn programmers! You think you’re so smart! But you don’t know anything about BUSINESS™! I have an MBA! I’m smart! Smarter than you! I just choose not to bother with petty technical details. Now shut up and get to work!”

“Ok, you’re the boss..”

Two weeks later, when it’s done they say: “WTF, why did you put a toilet in the kitchen?”

“Well, you told me to shut up and put it where you drew the circle. You drew the circle in the kitchen, so that’s where I put the toilet.”

“AAAAH! This is horrible! Who puts a toilet in the kitchen! Programmer, this is your fault!”

“But I tried to tell you-”

“Fine, whatever, we don’t have time for this, it’s deliverable in a week! Take it out and move it to the bathroom!”

“You mean that cube over there on the side of the house with the wooden frame and no roof, electricity, or water access, because you forgot to put those things into the blueprints?”

“AAAAH! My 12 year old nephew is really good with plumbing. He changed a washer in my kitchen sink once when it was dripping AND he’s read at least 3 of those Time-Life home plumbing guides. He knows much more than you! And he’ll work for $10 an hour! Why am I paying you? You didn’t even get someone to install electrical wires a roof in the bathroom.”

“Er, I’m not a general contractor, I’m a plumber. Plumbers install pipes, not wires and roofs. And anyway, your architect drew the blueprints without those things, and you yelled at us when we pointed that out, so we all figured you just didn’t want them there for some reason.”

“OMGWTF! You’re lying!”

“No, I’m not, see, I have a copy of the e-mails right here where we discussed this…”

“*reads for a moment* Hm. ok, it’s true, you’re right. Architect! You’re fired! Plumber, you will now perform both plumbing and architectural duties (for the same pay, and with the same deadline as before.) And install some electrical wires, too.”

“But .. making blueprints takes weeks, and I’m not an electrician or an architect or a general contract-”

“Tut tut, you’re smart, I’m sure you’ll manage. Now I’m going to my club to get drunk before meeting my friends at a strip club later. Oh, and we need the house ready to go by tomorrow, the client just called
(actually 3 weeks ago, but I’m just telling you now) and the timetable has been sped up.”

“Er. I can’t just magic things up faster because the client decides to move numbers on a timetable.”

“They’re running out of money, so we have to get it done. Now get cracking, I’m off….”

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CPS thanks Paul for permission to use the above text on www.c-psolutions.com. Paul, you’re far from being the only person who has told us a story like this, but you have to be the funniest.

Paul also contributed: If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don’t have nearly enough insulation in them).

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that kitchen should be designed to accommodate, among other things, my 1952 Gibson refrigerator.

To insure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, make certain that you contact each of our children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year.

Make sure that you weigh all of these options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any choices that you make.

Please don’t bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: Get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet. However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers.

Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has. I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor’s house that he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as an interesting project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can’t happen very often.

Contact me as soon as possible with your complete ideas and plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I’ve given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can’t handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

You can guess a client’s or remote colleague’s generation from their writing, and give them appropriate service or packaged data.

Mature/Traditional: No emoticons. The writer thinks smiley faces are unprofessional and signs of lazy writing. You’ll tend to see longer, more complex sentences, and spelling is really good. Paragraphing is usually excellent, with careful punctuation.

Boomer: A few emoticons. The writer thinks that emoticons solve the time-consuming problems of conveying tone in text, and prevent costly misunderstandings. Homophones are correct. Their/there is always right, but sometimes insure/assure/ensure are confused, as are effect/affect. Apostrophes are usually correct.

GenXer: Quite a lot of emoticons, but none in formal documents like reports, resumés etc. The writer sees emoticons as valuable communication devices in a world of global communication, second language users, and lots of quick written messages. The classic GenX error is that the opposite of “a little” is “alot” instead of “a lot”. This generation may muddle homophones: break/ brake, aloud/allowed, bored/board, or even flower and flour.

GenY/Millennial. The writer considers emoticons part of punctuation. Smiley faces, hearts and creative symbols clarify the writer’s intentions. Text message abbreviations appear, sometimes with all-lower case letters. Another common sight is text without paragraphing. Your and you’re may be used interchangeably. GenYs may not know how to set out a snail-mail business letter, or even a business envelope.

These are, of course, merely general pointers. Some matures can’t string a sentence together, and many Millennials write and edit with an elegance and precision I envy.

1.     What your customers say:

Generation Y is a worldwide phenomenon. In the USA, our 80 million Millennials are a daily challenge to how we strategize, manage, and market.

Open a business publication.  Organizations are constantly criticized for poor service that is specifically blamed on disengaged GenYs. I tested this today: the St Pete’s Times listed AOL, Comcast, Sprint, Abercrombie & Fitch, Qwest, Capital One, Bank of America, Time Warner Cable, HSBC Finance, and Cox Communications as examples: http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article749365.ece

There are well-researched solutions to these issues. There are specific management skill-sets and behaviors that prevent or cure the problem.

The most successful companies are helping their loyal and innovative Gen Y employees to create new solutions to product and service delivery. They are turning their customers into fans, (think of Apple) and then into an unpaid marketing army. These techniques have also been analyzed, documented and can be reproduced.

2.     What your employees say:

Are your people paying lip-service to the talent squeeze, the Boomer exodus, the global skills race, or the effects of the operator-manager who keeps doing more and more, with less and less?

When you ask about your employment brand, do you get a blank look and a “Huh? What’s an employment brand?”

If you have even a single manager who says, “our strength is our people… you can’t succeed in business without good people” but doesn’t walk that talk, visit the world of the Millennials. Start any place where Gen X and GenY talk – www.glassdoor.com is a good example of the explosion of organization transparency and employment brand sites.  (Also see http://blog.glassdoor.com/)

CPS uses custom surveys (www.ManagingTheMillennials.com/survey) to explore or validate key points that differentiate successful management or business processes from those that give less effective results.

3.     The Millennial guarantee

We live in an uncertain and high-risk economic climate. Maybe there’ll be a tremor near a Californian nuclear energy plant tomorrow. Nigerian oil fields might come under attack. Bananas might develop a new disease.

Can you be sure of anything? Certainly. There are nearly 80 million Millennials in the USA alone. They have predictable traits and characteristics that will affect your organization for years to come. They already have more than $200 billion in spending power. They have billions more dollars in spending influence. The organizations that understand them, in the private, public and non-profit sector, have a massive advantage in hard numbers on the bottom line.

CPS receives good support from those who promote prosperity in our economic community.

Our highly qualified, creative Millennials work together with deeply-experienced older specialists, and we have alliances with national companies that specialize in Gen Y issues. Together we support our client organizations as they build on their Millennial advantages. We ensure that they know how to fix systems with potential Millennial-based problems, before these even have a chance to affect their business process.

4.    County funds for CPS custom workshops, organizational development or other CPS support:

CPS is an authorized provider to entities like Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, the High Tech Corridor, Pinellas, Pasco Career Central etc. These EDCs will match investment in training your managers, or other staff, to create measurably more profitable, productive and stable enterprises.

If you are in another county, please let us know. We have all contact details and will provide your local Economic Development authority with CPS’s supplier diversity and other credentials.

CPS finds that a lot of companies don’t have comprehensive strategies to manage this generation in their business world. They are paying heavily with low productivity, high turnover, weaker business relationships and brand problems. They are also failing to make good use of the many innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities the Millennials offer.

Some managers want a more strategic approach to this challenge, whereas others simply want the hands-on skills for dealing with Ryan, Ashley, Jessica and Daniel now.

CPS therefore offers Managing the Millennials workshops that have a more strategic management approach, or an operational management orientation. One major favorite is a 1 – 2 hour jigsaw workshop (our largest being with 150 Tech Data managers).

We offer half day or full day programs too. Each has videos, and all the hands-on tools, and competencies required. We offer competency-based coaching workbooks as requested for training Millennials too (e.g. Business Etiquette for Millennials). For more details please see the voice-over presentation at Services. http://c-psolutions.com/category/services/