I borrowed this slide from a presentation by Tony Perkins, founder of AlwaysOn, at his recent OnHollywood conference. Tony’s presentation and this one slide capture succinctly the major shift in the use of technology that is occurring along demographic fault lines.
The shift is not just a matter of kids chasing new technologies, but a shift in how young people interact with each other. I know that I personally use more technologies such as IM, Facebook, and texting just to stay connected with my kids and increasingly with younger colleagues.
a major shift in the use of technology is occuring along demographic fault lines
Richard Leyland of Unwired, notes in his article, Prepare for the Next Generation – Today’s Teens will Change the Way We Work, that young people actually use technology in their daily lives like no generation before them. They process tasks at incredible speeds while relating to friends both real and others whom they’ve never met. They don’t hang out at the malt shop or the mall but at MySpace. The sheer volume of technology use plus the embedding of digital technology into the very fabric of their lives is changing society, organizations, and how business is done.
This generation is just now beginning to enter the workforce. So what can you expect? Leyland paints the picture for us with four questions. Let me highlight a few points.
What to Expect from the IM Generation
1 How do they use technology?
Blogs, wikis, and collaborative sites such as Flickr, MySpace, Technorati have been driven by the influence of this group. IM is the backbone of their communications for both chat and file swapping. Digital communications in all forms are foundational to their lives. Whereas older generations will use these tools as extensions of their professional lives, this generation uses the technology as an extension of their personal being.
I love this image by Sanjesh Sharma, an assistant principal:
“They’re surfing a wave of information and connections, and their skill is in absorbing the most relevant snippets.”
2 What skills will they bring to the workplace?
- Multitasking
- Making complex, immediate connections
- Quickly access, create, swap, manipulate information on many levels
- Fluid use of technology to communicate at one-to-one, one-to-many, and collaborative levels
- Highly suited to work in today’s knowledge economy
3 What won’t work?
- Traditional authority structures and hierarchy. They want to contribute and influence. They either know everything or can find out. Traditional authority often depended on one person knowing more than the other. This barrier is breaking down.
- Formal communications styles. Their style is informal and immediate.
- Requiring them to report to the office every day. Work life balance is important. Their own style is nomadic. They are used to instantly connecting to each other “on the pause” from wherever they happen to be.
- Dull, repetitive, linear jobs. They want technology to handle the strain of the routine, while they focus on accessing information or applying their knowledge. Think about what is happening in sales with CRM packages or research with the advent of Google.
4 Should you be worried?
- No. Their skills are perfectly tuned to the emerging knowledge economy.
- Yes. Can you and your organization adjust to the realities of the new economy and then take advantage of the skills and abilities of these young people to help your company succeed?
