E-Tips: Multi-Generational Solutions Archives
06/2007 Reorienting Orientation
Firms and companies are still trying to figure out the newest generation in the workplace. As more of the Millennial/Y generation continue to enter firms for what they expect will be very short term stays, partners and managers agonize. They attend conference sessions and webcasts, and they bring in generational experts for seminars. They are looking for the secret sauce that will turn the young recruits into the more traditional, driven professionals they knew and could count on to work hard, aspire to partnership, and stick around for three to five years, at which point they will have made money for the firm.
05/2007 Change Through Facilitated Dialogue
A few days ago I read a post on a blog, Employee Evolution, that I recently discovered and now read regularly. The post was titled “Change” Is a Dirty Word, but the main point as I read it was about dialogue, facilitated dialogue.
04/2007 "BEING PRESENT": An Issue Now for 3 Generations
A Washington Post Op-Ed article by Georgetown Law School Professor David Cole caught a lot of attention among young and older lawyers and student bloggers. Actually it was about attention. The issue is whether to allow laptops in law school classrooms. This goes beyond the legal profession to an issue of more general concern. The broader issue I see is: Are the tech tools in the professional workplace or school on balance an asset, a distraction, or evidence of a generation's attention deficit?
03/2007 How Organizations Can Engage Generation X
There is a widely held perception that members of Generation X are not joiners and don't care to spend their time in organizational activities. A study by Arthur Brooks, PhD, associate professor of public administration at Syracuse University and director of its Nonprofit Studies Program at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs found that not to be the case if these individuals, now in their 30s and early 40s, see real benefit to their careers.
02/2007 Parents As Managers, "Helicopter Parents," and the "Boomer Flexibility Paradox"
I've always had a knack for spotting patterns, making connections among various trends before most other people see them. An intriguing set of factors I am ruminating over now – set out in the title above – raise some provocative questions.
07/2006 Baby Boomers’ “Flexibility Paradox”
Baby Boomers cite flexibility as one of their highest needs and wants, yet they make it hard for Generations X and Y, who are more vocal about their desire for it, to gain flexibility in their work/life...
06/2006 Mutual Mentoring Across The Generations
There has been a spate of articles on young adults' (Generation Y and youngest Generation X) travel lately. The themes have been on the young travelers' resistance to settling down and getting started with serious careers, their spirit of adventure, and the benefits of travel to careers (as I have written previously).
05/2006 Workplace Adjustments To New Concepts Of "Retirement"
How the older half of the Baby Boomers will change our concept of “retirement” is an unfolding story. Putting aside financial issues for the time being – “to earn money” is only the third ranked reason Boomers say in numerous surveys they want to keep working – they are looking most for continued intellectual stimulation and the camaraderie of colleagues in the workplace.