Adapting to a changing world

Strauss and Howe coined the term 'Millennials' and if you haven't come across this name, you might recognise the characteristics of this generation.

Millennials are people that were born after 1980 (or thereabouts). They see the world differently. They hold different values. They grew up when social media started to become mainstream, the Nokia 3210 made mobile communication accessible to the masses and the world just got that little bit smaller. They've also experienced one of the worst global recessions.

If you are reading this and think Facebook and Twitter are big things, I'm afraid a good number of Millennials have already moved on.

Employers as a source of holistic development

The impact this generation has on organisations is huge and irreversible in my mind. Millennials tend to see employers as a source of holistic development rather than a loyal secure relationship over the long term - a relationship with an employer that's far more transactional than before. Whilst the genesis of this change was already in place before the economic crisis as its a natural outcome of the values that this generation holds, the global economic crisis reinforced this behaviour as job markets are now more turbulent.

Organisations need to consider carefully how they develop and recruit from a talent pool that's much more agile and sees a career as a collection of experiences rather than technical learning and loyalty.

A changed ownership construct

Organisations need to think carefully about harnessing innovation from these employees as they tend to crave greater responsibility and accountability, have more varied experiences and want to be involved in decision making - all great ingredients for innovation. This is why I believe that employee owned organisations will become increasingly popular - inverting the traditional construct of organisations owned by the few. In doing so, innovation from spark to commercialisation, decision making from need to action, will become more agile.

Embracing the new way

One of the biggest challenges for organisations is how you effectively manage and nurture the relationships between the Millennials and the rest of the organisation. Cultural change isn't easy at the best of the times but I would contest that this isn't about blending the two generations together with a common approach.

The whole of society has changed and therefore customers, suppliers, employees and every other stakeholder hold different values and behave in different ways. Organisations need to evolve to survive in this new(ish) world and the most successful ones will already be harnessing the ideas from this generation to do so.

How are you embracing the new way?