It's no secret that the pace of change is accelerating. The more innovations we create, the faster the next ones will come. And we're now even innovating the process of innovation itself, with companies doing "experiments" with small subsets of customers to test new ideas and bring things to market so much faster. Cycle times are accelerating, inventions get to market faster, and life continues to speed up.
Observing this from my own perspective as a man in his 50's, it occurs to me that as the pace of innovation has picked up, the distance between the generations has also increased. That is, our own children are much more different from their parents than we were from our parents. And I suspect, as the pace of change continues to increase, our children's children will be even more different from their parents.
A very interesting example of this widening, technology-induced generational gap can be seen in the different attitudes that people of different ages take toward the issue of privacy. There is a noticeable difference between the way the younger generation - people under, say, 25 or 30 - and older generations view privacy. For older types, privacy invasion is an evil to be warded off, a danger to be shunned. But for the younger generation, privacy is just not an issue.
Your can try this for yourself: Ask any 20-something with online experience about his or her view of privacy protection, and see if you can elicit anything other than a polite stare of incomprehension. Privacy? WTF, dude? You mean we should NOT post those swimming suit photos on Facebook?
This doesn't mean that the younger generation is reckless, however. In fact, I would say just the opposite. The social media generation has grown up to be suspicious and cynical when it comes to commercial uses of their attention span. They trust their friends way more than they trust their parents' companies trying to sell them things, or their parents' government trying to "protect" them. And one of the key ingredients of trustworthy behavior is straight-talking transparency - a quality that has never been very common among 20th Century advertising, marketing, or public relations professionals (and I'm one of them, so I am free to say this).
But you know what? When you only do business with people and companies you trust, then you really don't have to worry much about privacy protection, do you? And what the younger generation is saying is, why should we ever deal with someone we don't trust?
Given the release of the pew study on privacy and reputation, would you revise your claim that privacy is not an issue for young people?
According to the study, 71% of young adults have changed their default social network privacy settings to limit the information they share with others, compared to just over half of the users aged 50-64. Additionally, 47% of young adults said they have deleted comments from their profiles, and 41% say they have removed their names from photos that they were tagged in.
Don,
Great post - and another of the glaring differences that exist between generations. I have maintained for a long time that the coming generational divide we will live through as Gen-Y enters the workforce and evolves is going to be dramatic. And, as they gain power and decision-marking in these organizations, the change we think we are seeing now will evolve in magnitudes we cannot even imagine right now.
forget some 20-something year old entering the workforce after being trained on how to use Lotus 1-2-3 on a PC as we saw in the 80s. We are talking about a persona that is shaped by both technology and the loss of privacy -- by their own hand and with gusto!
The next 10-12 years are going to be so interesting...
Don, your post appears like a clarion call to new kinds of circles where no brains are left behind. That will come only if we shift our business and leadership style to more interactive roundtables where we creativity trumps criticism, and different kinds of thinkers from all generations find consensus on key issues from pools just outside of the prevailing thought. Our stagnant, broken systems would likely release their hold on the outmoded rules for all generations that hold back genius. Thanks for stirring up thought on such a keen need for narrowing the gaps between generations and creating a finer whole together:-) Inspired!
Don, your post appears like a clarion call to new kinds of circles where no brains are left behind. That will come only if we shift our business and leadership style to more interactive roundtables where we creativity trumps criticism, and different kinds of thinkers from all generations find consensus on key issues from pools just outside of the prevailing thought. Our stagnant, broken systems would likely release their hold on the outmoded rules for all generations that hold back genius. Thanks for stirring up thought on such a keen need for narrowing the gaps between generations and creating a finer whole together:-) Inspired!
Don, I think we had all better embrace GenY's insistence upon "straight talking transparency" if we want to market to them, partner with them, and compete with their businesses. And they really are becoming a force to be reckoned with on the entrepreneurial front. They're the first generation to grow up with rock star entrepreneurs, so they have great role models; they have tremendous resources at their disposal; corporate scandals and layoffs have made them skeptical about corporate America; and the recession and high youth employment has given them the push they need to start their own companies. They are also an extremely innovative generation. If you want to see a great example of "innovating the process of innovation", check out Rob Walker's column in the New York Times Magazine today -- it's about a company called Quirky, whose CEO, Ben Kaufman, is 22. See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06fob-consumed-t.html
But to circle back to your point about distance between generations, I actually think that there is less of a divide between us Baby Boomers and our GenY kids than there was between us and our own parents. And one of the things that I think we're going to see happening in the coming years is some very powerful inter-generational business partnerships. I think the Ben Kaufmans of the world may need some grey hair eventually to scale their companies. Baby Boomers who understand the GenY mentality (we raised these kids, after all) and who are (or should be) fairly disgusted with corporate America, will be in a perfect position to partner with these young entrepreneurs. Through my own research, I'm seeing it happen already. The result is solid, sustainable companies that will have a competitive edge for years to come.
More than that, Jim. I think the ONLY way for a modern company to maintain any kind of competitive edge in the future will be by involving an increasingly diverse mix of both very young and very experienced managers in their planning and decision-making processes. Not taking into account this tectonic generational shift will likely be fatal for many companies doing business today.
If what you are saying about generational differences being accentuated by technology, it seems to me that the gap can be reduced by the "older" generation adopting more technology.
Perhaps I should write a letter to my son to get me hooked up with more technology next time he is in my area.
You're right, Stuart, of course. In my own family, we keep up with our five kids, ages 16 to 32, with a mix of email, Facebook, Skype, and cell phones. Our 16-year-old, who attends boarding school in Virginia, responds mostly to Facebook, while our 19-year-old, attending university in Europe, is on Skype with us (and with her siblings) regularly. So definitely, technology brings us closer as a family, no question.
Still, our kids are far more proficient with these technologies than we are. Their attitudes are being shaped by this new environment of close, social communications and peer trust, while our attitudes were shaped in the era of junk mail, telemarketing, and interruptive television commercials.
Don,
While I don't disagree that the viewpoint of generations has changed greatly due to technology, I think that there is also the opportunity that the technology can pull generations together. Families used to all live in a local geography, but now families are often dispersed. Getting an entire family together can be difficult, but Skype allows for video calls around the world for free, pictures can be shared on Facebook or Flickr and status updates on a number of platforms can let parents and grandparents know some of the day-to-day things that are going on. The younger "internet native" generations may have technologies more deeply embedded in how they do things, but hopefully they'll leverage the tools to enhance communication rather than cutting them off from real connections.