In This Issue
Is It Time To Accept Change At the Pace Millennials Do?
Because they have seen so many truths rise and fall in their short lives, Millennials have become almost frighteningly proficient at letting go. The one thing they count on is that you can't count on anything forever. This often makes them seem callow and cynical to we older folks. In fact it is an operational awareness that gives them a huge advantage in the turbulent and unpredictable milieu that appears to be in all of our (un)foreseeable futures.
"Who To Keep" is a new consulting service team that assists companies forced into downsizing by the current economic climate. Making the right choices can give your company a fighting chance.
We are offering an "almost free" trial of our Millennials, Acknowledgment and Referral Marketing eCourses - a $4.95 initial payment and 3 payments of $30 for 3 months after you've had time to experience the value of the course.
by Scott Degraffenreid
One of my favorite quotes from the late naturalist Stephen Jay Gould is that “In nature nothing always works and nothing never works.” People of my generation usually take a minute or two just to grasp the real meaning of that phrase.
Once they do get it they have a tendency to want to disagree with it. Sure, some things always work don't they? Integrity, loyalty, hard work; aren't those infallible ingredients to success? Laziness, obstinacy, fussiness; do those things ever work?
All of the generations prior to the Millennials tend to have a rather stubborn attachment to absolutes and constants. This is far from the Millennial reality. Having been trained by both videogames and a chaotic, unpredictable environment they understand intrinsically that The Truth, to the degree that it can ever be thought to exist at all, is a fickle and capricious fellow.
Because they have seen so many truths rise and fall in their short lives Millennials have become almost frighteningly proficient at letting go. The one thing they count on is that you can't count on anything forever. This often makes them seem callow and cynical to we older folks. In fact it is an operational awareness that gives them a huge advantage in the turbulent and unpredictable milieu that appears to be in all of our (un)foreseeable futures.
It isn't so much that Millennials are incapable of trust as that their version of trusting looks like a short-term lease or even a timeshare compared to the type of major long-term investments those of us born before 1982 tend to make in our versions of reality. At 21 I wanted to furnish my worldview with art and literature that reflected the changeless nature of my beliefs. There was an unstated assumption that certain spiritual ethical and even political loyalties would serve me well throughout my life. I still cling tenaciously (and foolishly, I know) to several outmoded notions of how I should always deal with the world in spite of a great deal of evidence to the contrary. The truth is I was very fortunate to grow up in a time that supported such an archaic persistency of ideals.
Millennials have been immersed from birth in the need for a much more pragmatic reality. They have seen firsthand that things work until they don't. They know better than to count on anything working forever. They're happy to depend on something as long as it delivers but they really don't expect that to be indefinitely. Millennials have developed an operating mode I will refer to as tenta-dependence (tentatively dependent). Anything they choose to adopt is done so with a tacit understanding that they will hold onto it as long as it works but no longer.
It is both easy and tempting to mischaracterize their behavior within this principle as disloyalty. It isn't. It is in fact an expression of a fundamental over arching loyalty to what works. They are not attached to knowing the truth or being right. They are committed to things going as well as they possibly can. Having things turn out means promptly but not prematurely letting go of things that cease to provide optimal outcomes. Millennials are the new Masters of the Quick Release. They have been quietly perfecting their timing, learning to shift neither too soon nor too late. When the wind and sea changes Millennials have learned there is no time for looking back or clinging foolishly to a course that can't be steered.
As the fallout from the current economic calamity begins to settle many old policies, practices and ideas will inevitably be buried. Boomers and Xers must learn to stop digging up and trying to dust off those now dysfunctional artifacts. We need to look to the Millennials for leadership in the art of letting go. We have to accept that unless we are willing to stop clinging vainly to worn assumptions we have abdicated our accountability for the future. At the same time Millennials must recognize the truth of Santayana’s aphorism that "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."
For real change we must look not just to the future but into each other. If history has taught us anything it is that there are some lessons that can only be learned together.
Social Network Analysis Creates Solutions For Downsizing Companies
When the pressure is on, it’s even more important to “measure twice and cut once”.
Avoid sacrificing experienced employees
with key knowledge that will take
years to recover.
Conventional bean-counting approaches often focus on “top down” RIF’s, accidentally eliminating employees that are the foundations and cornerstones of unseen but crucial knowledge networks.
“Who To Keep” spotlights exactly who you need to retain and why. It gives you the tools to determine who your most vital employees are – both those who know how to get things done and those who share that knowledge. It maps your company’s social and operational networks to keep you out of the downsizing minefield.
Special Offers on eCourses by Referral Only
We are offering an "almost free" trial of our Millennials, Acknowledgment and Referral Marketing eCourses - a $4.95 initial payment and 3 payments of $30 for 3 months after you've had time to experience the value of the course. You must use these links and refer these links to access this special offer.
Millennials eCourse EZ Pay Offer
Acknowledgment eCourse EZ Pay Offer
Referral Marketing eCourse EZ Pay Offer
