Millennials don’t really exist

There is a great amount of creativity and effort that goes into finding ways to sell books. Most of the time the effort is to try, through articles, media or blogs, to create some kind of pain.

Business books are notorious for this. They create more pain in an effort to make a need for their solution. Just run to the bookstore. You will never feel more inadequate in your life…you can’t sell, talk, think, write or manage correctly.

Emerging from the pop-business media dust cloud is a hot, new source of pain for business leaders – the Millennial.

There are organizations devoted to understanding millennials, managing millennials, politics for millenials, conferences devoted to millennials and ideas about how this group is going to rock the political structure of the United States.

My Gawd! It appears they will soon take over the world. Somebody alert Homeland Security.

So, what the H-E-(double hockey sticks) is a Millennial?

According to my trusty “Internet,” a Millennial is someone born between the years 1980 to 2000. Others have ’82 to ’97. Basically, it is anybody right now from the ages of 8 to 28.

I’m sure that if we got all those folks in a room that they would have the same views on politics, religious tolerance and work ethic. Yeah, right. I have a 9-year-old. When all of his friends of the same age get together, they can’t even decide on what movie to watch.

Here are some of the things that were so eloquently (do you speak sarcasm?) outlined about this generation on a recent 60 minutes spot:

• Tech-savvy. They like their iPods and Facebook. At times, this is associated with a lack of emotional intelligence or face-to-face human interaction. Really? Hasn’t this been true of every generation? Isn’t the next set of whippersnappers a bit irritating because they adopt and use technology? Try this one, though. Go to your local mall or airport. Everybody is on a cell phone, Crackberry or something…most of them are in their 30′s and older – not millennials.

• Lazy. They want to set their own work schedule and have a family/work balance. They may be pushy in asking for this. They won’t be in the office at 5:30 or looking at emails at 8pm. Really? Good for them. Somebody had to do it. Would we rather them encourage companies that want blind, open-ended allegiance? I thought we were past that. Just because they may not work 60-plus hours a week does not qualify a person as lazy. Have we forgotten about the “slackers?” Didn’t depression-era adults view their kids as lazy? I see a pattern here.

• Narcissitic or praise-hounds. Blame Mr. Rogers. He told them that they were special. Now, they think everything should be handed to them. They need constant praise and attention. Really? What is more narcissistic than pointing out narcissism in younger people? Young people need immediate feedback, praise and attention. That is the name of the game. If you are not prepared for that, then you should not be in the business of raising children or managing employees. They want to learn the ropes and they need good mentors who understand.

• Environmentally conscious and religiously tolerant. These folks care as much about how a company or a group does business as much as what it does. The how is important. People need to be authentic and welcoming to all people. Really? This is partially due to the fact that the world has not beaten it out of them yet. Don’t worry. They will lose hope soon if we keep on telling them that they fit into some manufactured generational bucket.

Here’s the problem: They may want your advice on business or life questions, or they may disdain your advice. They may IM their parents in the middle of a meeting, or they may not even know who their parents really are. NEITHER of these situations makes them of a certain generation. All of them make them human and in a Western culture.

Generation Y.2.0 or Millennials or People-Who-Lives-on-the-Interwebs are not unique…not any more so than anybody else in your organization. For the time being, they are one thing – young. People of a certain age have certain concerns in their effort to create happy and productive lives.

Much of my cynicism at the whole division into generations has to do with the fact that every generation in my family falls into some kind of gulf. I was born in ’78. My father was born in ’54. Where is our category? We have nothing with great or boom or x in the title. Maybe I just feel a little cheated. Can I make one for myself?

Here is the best analysis that I have seen of the generations.

Really want to know how to relate to the younger people on your team? Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you remember what it was like to be young and unsure of things? Who did you turn to?
• Do you remember when your friends and parents were important? How did that feel?
• Do you remember the wonder that used to surround your life?
• Can you understand an individual on an individual basis?

As soon as we look for the ways that we are similar and not how we can separate, I think that we will come to a better place as humans.

HOMEWORK

As I said, there is a great amount of creativity that goes into creating ways to sell books, conferences and other materials. What if you took that same amount of creativity and found ways to understand people on your team as people? They have fears, values, joys, etc. As a leader, your role is to grow in understanding of people, and, not to buy into half-baked ideas on how to neatly categorize them.

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Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly

A framework for innovation

As a species, it is in our nature to adapt. That, along with the whole opposable thumb thing, has lead to incredible creation and innovation.

However, there are people like me stuck in today’s world of rapid innovations that constantly find themselves saying, “I don’t get it.” If my brain has any “elasticity,” then I am feeling it stretched to the brink.

This pain point is an awesome opportunity for entrepreneurs to design ways to interpret this constant innovation.

I ran across an article in Seed magazine that discusses the importance of elasticity and design as it relates to creativity in today’s culture (I know it’s a bit long, but, dammit, it’s worth it):

Adaptability is an ancestral distinction of human intelligence, but today’s instant variations in rhythm call for something stronger: elasticity. The by-product of adaptability and acceleration, elasticity means being able to negotiate change and innovation without letting them interfere excessively with one’s own rhythms and goals. It means being able to embrace progress, understanding how to make it our own. One of design’s most fundamental tasks is to help people deal with change. Designers have the ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores and to convert them into objects and ideas that people can understand and use. Without designers, instead of a virtual city of home pages with windows, doors, buttons, and links, the internet would still be a series of obscure strings of code, and appliances would be reduced to standardized skeletons of functions.”

What does this mean for leaders of businesses and organizations?

To thrive in today’s marketplace of ideas – entrepreneurs, leaders and professionals need to understand the importance that design language plays in relation to innovation and creativity. The sheer amount of innovation is too much. If you can offer people a framework through which they can view, categorize and better understand it, then you will thrive.

I don’t think that this means that we need to run out tomorrow and become “designers.” What this means is that the framework is actually equally important to the content of innovation. Teach someone how to interpret all this data in a different way that helps them solve problems or achieve greater success, and you are bound to succeed far better yourself.

Great companies that I talk with have an interesting view of change. They understand its importance in sustainability, however, even more importantly, they had a purpose – a clear design – that allowed for change to be interpreted. The struggle is in making the design clear and understandable – making it sticky enough so it can be applied.

HOMEWORK

If you want to see someone who is really shaking things up with visual thinking, then check out XPLANE CEO David Gray’s blog. Through visual thinking, people are given a framework to interpret change. My friend, Matt Homann works there are well and doesn’t do such a bad job at blogging either.

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Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Pink socks, Cheerios and your most annoying habits

As I stoop down in the hallway to pick up the dirty pink sock, I plant a foot on top of a plastic dinosaur.

While science is not yet completely certain of how dinosaurs looked, the manufacturers of plastic toy ones are sure to build all of them with plates, spikes or sharp teeth.

After grunting in acute pain, I move my foot, only to bury it in a pile of sticky Cheerios. For the record, I want to say that I adore my children. Their attitudes and approaches to life are an inspiration to me daily.

With that disclaimer in mind, I am often surprised at how easily they find ways to tick me off. Rarely are these annoyances huge offenses. Sure, there was that time my 9-year-old son took a bat to the side of our shed. Just a few weeks ago, my 4-year-old daughter jammed quarters into my now unusable car stereo. These more costly errors are not very common and are usually dealt in a reasonably calm manner.

More often, what occurs are little irritations – forgetting to close the door, talking with their mouth full of food, leaving water on the bathroom floor.

Bad habits are annoying, and, for some reason, they are even more irritating when they are done by somebody else.

Don’t you just hate that guy that won’t shut up in the sales meeting? How about that prospect or business partner that won’t return the phone call? Some people just have the nerve.

I see these annoyances cloud the vision of business leaders all the time. A friend of mine who is successful salesman with a large territory has grown his company’s business by over 40% over the past year. He landed two large accounts and has developed key partnerships across a region. But, what does this guy hear when he goes in to the meeting with his manager and the company CEO?

“Gosh, Bob, you’re the best salesman we’ve ever had…but you need to make 5 more cold calls a day, and fill out your records using some different metrics. Also, when are you going to get us your expense report for the trip you took last week? We need that in ASAP!”

Does this really motivate the employee to make more sales? I would venture to say that, by nitpicking away at these details and making them more important than making more sales, my friend feels paralyzed by the constant little reprimands for a job that he is excelling at.

I remember when I interviewed Kent Schien at Innoventor when he won Small Businessperson of the Year. He said he was inspired to lead a company similar to how it is done in the Silicon Valley, “These companies were not concerned with how employees dressed, commuted to work, or whether they brought their animals or kids into the facility. They did not care when employees worked. What they cared about was: Did you get the work done? Was it quality work, and was it done on time? That is all they cared about.”

Schien’s company recently expanded and is having tremendous success due, in part, to the fact that he allows for people to be people. They are going to do things that you may get annoyed with, but, as Schien tells his employees, they can do anything that is “not illegal, immoral or unethical.”

Here is the real kicker:
You know that thing that really gets on your nerves?
You know that close talker at networking events?
How about the guy who always misplaces his presentation?
The client who can’t pull the trigger?

Those are all the things that you do, buddy. The very thing that really irritates you about someone else is a reflection of the things you do.

I know this, because, next to the dirty pink socks in the hallway, there is a pair of Jeremy-sized black ones.

HOMEWORK

Take a notebook with you and write down all of the irritating things you see in others. At the end of the day, you will have a nice self description. That should help you begin to gain in humility – a quality that will set you apart from other leaders.

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Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly