"Generation We"

My 17 year old daughter asks me to review a letter to the local newspaper where she protests she will not be able to vote this go around - even though she is going to be burdened with all problems her generation is inheriting. Her cousin, also 17, when asked what he would like to do next summer goes "Help out in Darfur".

Part of me admires these 17 year olds. I had never been on a plane at that age. I was spectacularly unaware of what was going on even down my neighborhood, let alone around the world. The other part of me wants to ask my daughter - "how exactly will all the texting and time on Facebook solve the problems you are inheriting?" It wants to ask "Instead of Darfur how about getting an honest summer job and helping your mom with the garbage twice a week?"

Generation We.  "A new generation is poised to seize the reins of history. It’s a generation unique in history—the Millennial generation. Born between 1978 and 2000, the Millennials currently include 95 million young people up to 30 years of age—the biggest age cohort in U.S. history." says my friend Eric Greenberg in his book on the topic (also available free in PDF format). He also has a site with a blog and a YouTube video filled with resources on the topic.

As a parent, as a technology marketer, as an employer with a young workforce, as a politician you better get to know this generation  - fascinating and frustrating as it is . We may find in 2 weeks, understanding the demographic is what helped Obama reach the White House. Or may be not.

"Yet though the Millennials lean Democratic, our research demonstrates that they’re far more wedded to progressive political and social views than to any party. More Millennials in our study described themselves as independents (39 percent) than either Democrats (34 percent) or Republicans (24 percent). And on issue after issue, from the economy to global warming to the war in Iraq, the young people we surveyed favored progressive solutions even as they rejected both “conservative” and “liberal” labels."

On a personal note, it was good to reconnect with Eric. He was the uber-salesman at Gartner who maxed every sales target and kept reaching for higher ones. He then founded Viant and Scient - and made himself and his investors billions in the last bubble. But he took a spiritual turn around 2004, and time in Peru, with Aborigines in Australia and  Native tribes in the US and generally looking after his health has morphed his outlook on life.

And it shows in the book.

Comments

[Pankaj]

Vinnie

Thanks for the pointer. Being born in '76 I barely missed them :D No regrets though.. At least I remember my tables till 20.

- Pankaj

[Jeff Nolan]

The eminently quotable Sir Winston Churchill offers this on the subject at hand: "If you aren't a liberal by the time you're 20 you don't have a heart If you aren't a conservative by the time you're 30 you don't have a brain."

[vinnie mirchandani]

Pankaj, good news is you can vote :)

Jeff, when I was growing up the quote was attributed to Francois Guisot 1787-1874

"Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head."

I guess the definition of republican has changed since :)

[Jeff Nolan]

Vinnie,
Your post is well written so I think it deserve more than glib response.

There is no new ground covered here or in Eric's book. It's a constant that every generation struggles with their evolving place on the spectrum as newer generations push them aside and different attributes are more highly valued.

It's no surprise that we are hearing more about the subject as baby boomers are transitioning out of the workforce and their affluence largely fuels an ability to broadcast their pronouncements about change.

All generations exhibit traits that align to morality, reactionism, family/sex values, affluence, education, religion, and overall confidence which correlates to generational success.

As we turn the page on history, there are two things you should look at, the G.I. Generation of the first part of the 20th century and the Silent Generation of 1925-1940. The question to ask is not what abundance the Millenials will bring, will Millenials look like the G.I. or Silent generations of years past.

[Jeff Nolan]

I have no doubt that Sir Winston appropriated that quote, thanks for clarifying.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Jeff, I did not mean to suggest I was growing up in 18th century France either :)

[vinnie mirchandani]

Jeff, I guess the difference is when I entered the workforce there appeared to be 2-3 generations of career paths to guide employers and employees. Now with all the new markets, technology, outsourcing etc both employers and employees need to be reminded it is different.

Also growing up I am not sure marketeers or politicians sliced demographics finely and targeted 15, 20, 25 year olds. Now they can and do. So the world has evolved and we can better understand layers of generations better

[Richard T Roth]

This was a recent episode of Boston Legal.Check it.

[Jeff Nolan]

Vinnie,
Again this is not a new phenomena. In 1860-1892 we saw a similar shift as we moved from an agrarian to industrial society, trains afforded an ability to travel great distances, and post Civil War America was reshuffled and economic turmoil due to inflation and social migration disrupted the status quo.

The science of demographic targeting goes back to the 1960's and was pretty fine grained. I think what you are referring to is the advancements in psychographics and more recently, technographics.

Lastly, I don't think we understand generations any better than we did in previous years, we just have better ways of describing them yet the groups are still macro in nature. To make my point, if we did understand these generations they would be a lot more predictable, which they certainly are not.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Jeff, good points - but YOU try telling the Millennials they are not different from us or their great grand parents :)

[Jeff Nolan]

LOL, that's a fair point!

[Susan Scrupski]

Following up on my comment in the EI group, if any of your readers are really interested in the GenY/Millennial cohort, nGenera has a treasure trove of data and insight here.

You may want to check out Don Tapscott's new book. He says if you read the first chapter, you'll be hooked. It's downloadable here: http://www.grownupdigital.com/ We have another book coming out by Tammy Erickson who specializes in this cohort @work. http://tinyurl.com/pluggedin. Tammy blogs quite a bit on GenYs on her Harvard Biz blog too. http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/erickson/