March 2012 Newsletter

March, 2012

The Re-Generation Is Taking Shape

Youth 16 and Under Form a New Generation

In 2008, adult conversations shifted. After nearly a decade of headlines on terrorism and the resultant wars, suddenly signs of financial trouble demanded top attention. Within months, the Global Financial Crisis, considered by many economists to be the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, settled in around the world.

As the adult environment changed, a new generation began taking shape. Individuals who were 11 to 13 in 2008, those born after about 1995, have seen a world that looks substantively different than the world did to 11 to 13 year olds over the preceding fifteen or so years.

For many, the Global Financial Crisis, wide-spread unemployment, and the housing crisis are not abstract ideas.

• As of December 2009, one in seven children was living with a parent who had lost his or her job.
• In the final quarter of 2009, nearly 20% of all households reported that they had not always had enough money to buy the food they needed during the year.

These very real events will play a big role in influencing the developing characteristics of the new cohort. Early indications are that members of this new generation will be inclined to save, avoid debt and question the wisdom of major investments, including home ownership.

Already, they understand that natural resources are limited and are committed to sustainability. Most 12 year olds are aware that the polar ice caps are melting and the march of the penguins is slowing to a halt. Their geography lessons have given them a sense of the vital role water plays in politics and our future. They know about gas shortages and why the family vacations in the backyard.

And they assume information will always be available to them anywhere, anytime.  They are immersed in a world of mobile technology, wireless communication, and clouds of constant content. 

• 50% of 11 year olds have own cell phone
• Two-thirds of 4- to 7-year-olds have used an iPhone or iPod
• Kids 11 to 14 spend, on average, 73 minutes a day texting. 

 Theirs is a world in which optimism has been doused with the cold water realization that we are facing significant, seemingly intractable problems on multiple fronts. The inconvenient truths of the past half century are settling around our shoulders, and these pre- and early teens are aware of these issues and their complexity. But it is also a world in which they have seen young people make a difference.  With social technology, youth catalyzed an Arab Spring, fought a bank’s planned ATM charges, protested against Wall Street, and began tackling a host of environmental and social issues.
 
This will be a generation of realists and pragmatists. Finite limits, truth, conservation, tradeoffs, and balance will be their themes. This new Re-Generation is well-aware of the need for restraint and responsibility and challenged to rethink, renew, and regenerate.

They will change the way we market and the products we offer.  As they join us in corporations, they will ask tough questions and reshape the way we work.

You can download a paper containing several of my early blogs on the Re-Gens here.  And, I’d love to hear your experiences and questions – please chime in on our Facebook page with stories about the young people you encounter and the influences and priorities they hold.

Warm wishes,

Tammy

Become a Sponsor of Re-Generation Research

Over the next month, we are launching a major research initiative to explore the Re-Generation. Who are they? What will they bring to the workplace, marketplace and society? What does the emergence of this generation mean for you, your business and your organizational practices?

Corporate sponsors will have full access to the data from our research and on-going access to the research team. I hope you’ll join us as a sponsor of this exciting program. To learn more contact Tammy at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Deliver Popular Workshops In Your Own Organization

You asked, we answered: Now you can deliver three of Tammy's most popular workshops within your own organization. Visit our website to order all the materials you'll need for a successful workshop, including detailed facilitator's guides and accompanying slide decks, individual tools such as worksheets and participant guides, supporting materials such as card decks for break-out sessions, as well as recommended pre- and post-readings.

Choose from the following workshops:

1. What Are They Thinking: Understand how to cope with generational diversity in your organization and create a work environment that taps the talent across the ages.
2. What It Means To Work Here: Dig deep to identify what’s uniquely important to your organization and translate that into employee engagement.
3. A Values-Based Employee Experience - Crafting Our Unique Signature: Create a Signature Experience – highly visible, distinctive elements of the employees’ experience that encourage self-selection, leading to higher levels of engagement and retention.

Ask Tammy

A reader asks: Do you have any recommendations for encouraging Baby Boomers to reevaluate current management styles? How to get them interested and on board?

This is an important question and one that is of serious concern to me. I too, have found that it is very difficult to help Boomers understand that their view of the world (“our” view, I must say, since I am one) is not necessarily shared by everyone. My best solution is to ask if they have children. Read more...

Who's On Our Team?

We are excited to introduce you to the team of senior business leaders who have joined Tammy Erickson Associates. Get to know Margaret Schweer and Tim Bevins, both well-known thought leaders in the area of shaping organizations and their practices to met today’s complex business challenges.

Meet Margaret!

Margaret D. Schweer, PhD, is the Managing Principal for Tammy Erickson Associates. She has an established track record of building partnerships with leaders at all levels of the organization to create innovative, practical solutions to address their business needs. Her most recent consulting assignments have helped companies enhance collaboration and employee engagement. Her current research focuses on how successful organizations drive performance by leveraging social networks and leading-edge approaches to performance management. Follow Margaret on Twitter

Meet Tim!

Tim Bevins is Senior Research Director for Tammy Erickson Associates. Tim has managed, written, and published dozens of primary and primary/secondary research projects for companies including Decision Resources, BIS Strategic Decisions, Lyra Research, The Concours Group, and Moxie Insight. The topic areas have ranged from innovations in health care delivery and products to digital imaging markets, but Tim has focused in the last several years on talent and demographic topics, such as ways to engage and motivate employees, talent and executive development, the impact of worldwide demographic changes on companies, and how social media are changing the employment and customer relationships. Follow Tim on Twitter

Recent Articles

Margaret Schweer’s recent article ‘Building a Well-Networked Organization’ is the cover story of the January 2012 MIT Sloan Management Review. In the article, Margaret and colleagues discuss the results of some in-depth research that looks at what companies are doing to improve staff collaboration and informal networking through their talent management practices. The article discusses the results of this research and ways that companies interested in leveraging their talent and talent management programs can benefit significantly from a collaborative network approach.

Upcoming Event

Wall Street Journal Women in the Economy: An Executive Task Force (April 30-May 2, Palm Beach)

Tammy is participating in this year’s Wall Street Journal Women in the Economy: An Executive Task Force. The conference brings together about 200 influential CEOs, luminaries and subject-matter experts to create a business-based, data-driven action plan that addresses female talent to promote economic growth and competitiveness in the U.S. and worldwide. Sessions are facilitated by the Wall Street Journal’s editors and results published in a special Journal Report.

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