Understanding the Millennial Mind: A Menace or ... - Big Business Zoo

Given that, the question arises: What qualifies
me, a 52 year old, childless mathematician
to talk to you about Millennials?
My answer is I have been working with
them for eight years. I have been observing
them in the workplace. I’ve been talking
to them. I’ve been looking at a lot the
objective data.
There has been a lot written about them
but most of it has been from a perspective
of theory. I don’t really do theory. I’m a
working consultant and no one has ever
offered me $50,000 for my best theory.
They basically want to know “What can you
do to ‘fix it now’?” So, for the last seven or
eight years, I have been “fixing it now.” So,
that is a bit of background for my perspective
and how I’m using real science to build
bridges for Millennials and all the generations
who work with them.
When I speak to groups, I ask who in the
room is under 26 years old. Then, I tell
them to stop me if I say anything that
offends them or is inaccurate to point it out
and then shut up because I’m their elder
(No – I’m just kidding). Seriously, the
Millennials I interact with are amazed how
these conversations help them understand
why things occur the way they do.
One of the things I have noticed is that I
am in disagreement with most of the people
writing and speaking on this subject. There
is one book out right now and the authors
are fond of the theory that Millennials need
more discipline. I ask people in the Millennial
group if they feel what is lacking in
their life is discipline and no one raises their
hands (except people in the older generations
who want to vote).
My point is that there are a lot of people
UNDERSTANDING THE MILLENNIAL MIND: A MENACE OR AMAZING? | 13
with a lot of theories on what should
happen, however, most of them are based
on the idea that Millennials need to be
fixed. I disagree, there is absolutely nothing
wrong with them and they don’t need
fixing. Get used to hearing me say this!
Before we dive into understanding what
created the Millennial generation and what
to do next, understanding the timing factor
and making sure we are looking at them in
the same context will wrap up this Chapter.
Timing
The problem with most problems is people
don’t start to think about them or even look
at them until they’ve become a problem.
Then, once a problem has their attention,
they tend to only look at the current condition
and consequences.
In order to have any chance of effectively
dealing with most problems, you need to
look back as far as you can before it was a
problem. That is a lot of what Root Cause
Analysis is about. Not necessarily problems
but conditions.
When it comes to Millennials, people tend
to focus on how they are right now without
any consideration for how they got to be
that way.
FAA Plane Crash Investigations
An example I like to use is the response of
the FAA when there is a plane crash. There
is always one very serious looking, small
team sent to the crash site. They are photographed
by news teams charting wreckage
and cataloguing whatever is retrieved.
At the same time there are at least two
other teams researching the Crash. One is
going all the way back to the manufacturer