Five ways Gen Y will change the way you work
Summary
Author forecasts a "big conflict" in the office, sparked by the generation of 11- to 30-year-olds who are determined to reshape the workplace in their own image. Here's how to manage, or not manage them.
Topics
The Millennials are coming - armed with Facebook accounts and netbooks, the latest generation of young workers are entering the workplace ready to raze traditional touchstones of business to the ground. Web 2.0 evangelist Don Tapscott - author of tech titles including Wikinomics and The Digital Economy - is forecasting a "big conflict" in the office, sparked by the generation of 11- to 30-year-olds who are determined to reshape the workplace in their own image.Talking to silicon.com about his latest book Grown Up Digital, Tapscott laid out five "generational firewalls" that bosses need to tear down if they want to attract the brightest and best of Generation Y.See also: Tech that Gen Y will sweep away
Understand that in their age group there is a new culture of work: the social network is the new operating system for business.The way that they work is by using networks like Facebook and Twitter to create a new nervous system.If you have a great collaborative environment, that is going to be way more attractive to them than paying them lots of money and tightly controlling the way they work.I'm talking about using wikis, blogs, social networks and collaborative filtering in the workplace.For example, US electronics retailer Best Buy has a social network for employees called Blue Shirt Nation, with 70,000 people at the electronic water cooler every day who are coming up with great ideas that are being implemented.You always see the same argument: 'Why should we embrace this new thing? The old ways have always worked.'It results in better performance and better innovation in business - that is why we should adopt these practices, because it's good for us.That also means giving employees freedom of work - having the ability to work at home and to set their own hours - and allowing employees to have custom job descriptions - as they do at Deloitte.Don't train
Rather than spending so much on training people, why not invest in increasing the learning and collaborative components at work?It's called knowledge work, where work and learning is the same activity. Why shouldn't work be fun?The training department at my company nGenera is that everybody must blog on a regular basis.Why isn't every job like that? Where working and learning are the same thing, you increase the learning component for day-to-day activities, so you get both better learning and better work.Don't retain people
There are all kinds of new ways to harness human capital without it being inside your boundaries at all times.The talent does not have to be inside: at Procter and Gamble half of its innovation team are outside the company.There is a case in Grown Up Digital of Denis Hancock, who is running the Wikinomics blog - I will have hired him five times by the time he is 32.I am creating an alumni network I can draw on, it's so good to have Denis but I don't try and retain him.I communicate with Denis on a social network and occasionally he shows up at the office. I'll take him anyway I can get him.It's about how you architect a corporation and about rethinking how you orchestrate capability.Don't hide behind security fears
At their fingertips employees have these powerful tools of social networks and what do we do with them? We ban them, we ban Facebook.There's no security issue that you can't handle - for Pete's sake, the CIA have a social networking wiki, called Intellipedia, the way you get better security is by opening up and sharing information.I heard the same arguments 15 years ago from people who did not want the internet in their company because they were afraid there would be security violations and people would be wasting time.These are called implementation challenges, they are not reasons to not do it but things that you need to take into account.Don't recruitInstead, initiate relationships with your potential employees at an early age using social networks.A corollary of that is don't spend money on advertising for recruitment - it's a waste of time, better to get a big pile of money and burn it.This article was originally posted on silicon.com.
"We do the opposite of what we should be doing, which is learning from this culture," he told silicon.com.
"The whole paradigm that you train, you supervise, you compensate and you retain - all of those are wrong."Here's Tapscott's top five ways to embrace the Millennials' working culture.Don't superviseUnderstand that in their age group there is a new culture of work: the social network is the new operating system for business.The way that they work is by using networks like Facebook and Twitter to create a new nervous system.If you have a great collaborative environment, that is going to be way more attractive to them than paying them lots of money and tightly controlling the way they work.I'm talking about using wikis, blogs, social networks and collaborative filtering in the workplace.For example, US electronics retailer Best Buy has a social network for employees called Blue Shirt Nation, with 70,000 people at the electronic water cooler every day who are coming up with great ideas that are being implemented.You always see the same argument: 'Why should we embrace this new thing? The old ways have always worked.'It results in better performance and better innovation in business - that is why we should adopt these practices, because it's good for us.That also means giving employees freedom of work - having the ability to work at home and to set their own hours - and allowing employees to have custom job descriptions - as they do at Deloitte.Don't train
Rather than spending so much on training people, why not invest in increasing the learning and collaborative components at work?It's called knowledge work, where work and learning is the same activity. Why shouldn't work be fun?The training department at my company nGenera is that everybody must blog on a regular basis.Why isn't every job like that? Where working and learning are the same thing, you increase the learning component for day-to-day activities, so you get both better learning and better work.Don't retain people
There are all kinds of new ways to harness human capital without it being inside your boundaries at all times.The talent does not have to be inside: at Procter and Gamble half of its innovation team are outside the company.There is a case in Grown Up Digital of Denis Hancock, who is running the Wikinomics blog - I will have hired him five times by the time he is 32.I am creating an alumni network I can draw on, it's so good to have Denis but I don't try and retain him.I communicate with Denis on a social network and occasionally he shows up at the office. I'll take him anyway I can get him.It's about how you architect a corporation and about rethinking how you orchestrate capability.Don't hide behind security fears
At their fingertips employees have these powerful tools of social networks and what do we do with them? We ban them, we ban Facebook.There's no security issue that you can't handle - for Pete's sake, the CIA have a social networking wiki, called Intellipedia, the way you get better security is by opening up and sharing information.I heard the same arguments 15 years ago from people who did not want the internet in their company because they were afraid there would be security violations and people would be wasting time.These are called implementation challenges, they are not reasons to not do it but things that you need to take into account.Don't recruitInstead, initiate relationships with your potential employees at an early age using social networks.A corollary of that is don't spend money on advertising for recruitment - it's a waste of time, better to get a big pile of money and burn it.This article was originally posted on silicon.com.
Talkback Most Recent of 38 Talkback(s)
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???
Sounds very much like the author is saying GenY folks want to play instead of work.
steeleweed@...27th Mar 2009 -
@Steele - Read Tapscott or the Wikinomics blog
Having read one of Tapscott's earlier books, I
believe his message is more that younger workers
are accustomed to working outside of official
channels much like water flows downhill.
When they've got 10 years of experience
communicating and collaborating directly via
Facebook et al rather than waiting on line and
asking permission, it can be very hard to do
things the slow way, even if it's in line with
organizational policy.
dpritchett27th Mar 2009 -
The generation that substitutes talk for action...
good luck with their ideas.
Richard Flude27th Mar 2009 -
In general, they are very unproductive.
I am finding they multi-task about 1/10 as well as they think they do and
continuous "social networking" destroys any real work productivity.
Bruizer28th Mar 2009 -
Ethics missplaced it seems.
It sounds like a way to chew up employees and spit them out. Hardly a way to create stable relationships. At some point an organization will have to spend big bucks to get quality work because the employees won't be loyal and won't care how well the business does, as long as they get their fix for the week or month whatever. Old school apprenticeship is where you receive the most benefit, the employees will take less pay for a more stable environment. Sure you can have wikis and blogs, but the individual needs to be good at something they need to feel that they are an expert at what they do. I will talk with my nieces and nephews and see what they think. I just believe this article describes Candy Mountain.
dcmorrow27th Mar 2009 -
They aren't going to be changing the way I work...ever.
This is one person's opinion...who really cares?
Mark-Twain27th Mar 2009 -
RE: Five ways Gen Y will change the way you work
In today's economy, for every GenY that wants to 'change' things, there are two more who need a job.
Texas841227th Mar 2009 -
RE: Five ways Gen Y will change the way you work
I see old line thinking in these replies. I am one of them. I don't think GenY will be teaching us old dogs new tricks so much as eating our lunch for us until we adapt.
zclayton227th Mar 2009 -
Skeptical...
They'll only "eat our lunch" if they have real business-related skills to bring to the table. ZDNet is great for rallying behind feel-good, touchy-feely, kumbaya causes like social networking and open source, but unless these phenomena actually improve the a business's bottom line, that business will abandon them as costly fads.
Note that I'm not dismissing either out of hand. More power to anyone who can make money on, or using, these models ? by choice and without government mandate, that is. I'm merely questioning the wisdom of adopting any fad-du-jour simply because "the kids really seem to love it."
It's a bankrupt society that thinks the young and inexperienced know more than the old and seasoned ? and I'm speaking as someone still on the young side of that divide.
God help us if "the kids" ever run the show. (Oh wait, I forgot: since January, they do run the show ... at least in the U.S., that is.)
Churlish31st Mar 2009 -
RE: Five ways Gen Y will change the way you work
This is one of the most out of touch with reality articles I've ever seen, bordering on being delusional. The world of business is all about money, much closer to a military operation than the a college dorm utopia described here... Grow up Nick.
Vistedousa27th Mar 2009 -
It wouldn't be so bad if they understood what they are doing
Gen Y think they know how things work, but they have little understanding of potential pitfalls. For a simple example, They do not understand everything in Gmail is recorded and can be used against them in a court battle. Or any email for that matter. They will network like made to get someone else to do work that they could have done in half the time they used on the internet. And last but not least, I need people that will learn, and stick around or they are wasting my time
LittleGuy27th Mar 2009 -
You are so right, and...
I can't imagine companies so loosely organized they don't care if their prime people don't stick around to complete a big project--and what about accountability?..."hey where's Zack?...oh, he doesn't work here anymore 'cause 'boarding' and 'twittering' were higher priorities....do ya think Carmen the custodian could step up?"
I think we have a better chance of seeing Osama Bin Laden on Wheel of Fortune.
Jack51628th Mar 2009 -
Sooo.... Gen Y'ers are going to be in charge from day one?
I've seen idealistic young people come into where I'm working before and try to buck the system. Their usually gone pretty quickly. Gen Y won't be any different unless they're all starting their own businesses; I wish them luck if they are. Even business owners have rules to follow if they want to do business with most companies.
jneilson27th Mar 2009 -
RE: Five ways Gen Y will change the way you work
One problem for Gen Y is social media in itself. I
know some companies have a proxy server that blocks
the popular social media sites like myspace, facebook,
and twitter. These can become time wasters. Now thats
not to say they won't make something similar for
corporate use and I think Jennifer Leggio already
touched on that subject, but I'm one of the few who
haven't seen a need for it in a corporate environment.
If someone wants to fill me on I'd be more than happy
to listen.
Loverock Davidson27th Mar 2009 -
It's About Productivity
Yawn. You do good work, produce, and benefit your organization, or you're gone. There are plenty of people standing in line to do just that, if a Gen-y'er doesn't meet those criteria. They'll adapt, get some of their style adopted if they're productive, otherwise they'll be out the door, and probably be surprised when it's not by their choice. How much they get catered to in regard to "their" style will depend on how good they are and whether they can produce.
plp2149@...27th Mar 2009
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