In a LinkedIn Article, 8-2-13,
What Millennials Really Want Out of Work
the author surveys and reports on the commonalities of what was once thought to be a vast chasm of differences.
This very interesting and insightful article goes a long way to dispel the Generation Gap theory and compels us to look at our "similarities" rather than our "differences." We can appeal to a younger generation by focusing on our common hopes and dreams, intrinsic and extrinsic desires. In short, we are really all looking for the same things out of life. This should link us together. Maybe the "gap" that we perceive is more a perception than a reality, more a talking problem that could be solved with more listening.
"Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." (James1:19)
MY INSIGHTS WERE:
Baby Boomers were born 1946 to1964, Generation X, 1965 and 1981, Millennials between 1982 and 2000. Next generation tag will be ...?
THE ARTICLE STATED, "This is what psychologist Jennifer Deal has found in independent research. In Retiring the Generation Gap, she writes: “All generations have similar values; they just express them differently.” We might have unique ways of getting there, but we pretty much want the same things out of work."
She said:
"The high schoolers rated the importance of various job attributes on a 1-5 scale, where 1=not at all important and 5=very important. Twenge and her colleagues grouped the questions into five categories of work values:
- Intrinsic: interesting work, learning opportunities, being challenged
- Extrinsic: pay, promotions, status
- Altruistic: helping others, contributing to society
- Leisure: vacation time, work-life balance
- Social: interacting with others, making friends
END QUOTE
But all the values are surprisingly similar.
Differences?
"Millennial generation do appear to beslightly more disobedient. When psychologists run the famous Milgram experiment today, asking people to deliver painful electric shocks, Millennials are more likely to object. They seem to care more about self-expression than social approval. Narcissism
The biggest area of debate concerns narcissism, and Twenge has authored two insightful, witty popular books on this issue: Generation Me and The Narcissism Epidemic, with Keith Campbell. Both are based on findings that narcissism and entitlement scores are higher among Millennials than any other generation on record.
"There is one place, though, where the experts agree: age differences swamp generational differences. Narcissism is driven much more heavily by age than by generation. Psychologist Brent Roberts and his colleagues have assembled an impressive body of data suggesting that “every generation is Generation Me, as every generation of younger people are more narcissistic than their elders.”
In essence, we are all made out of the same fabric, with Adam and Evenas our progenitors and human frailty as our heritage. We come from the same heritage, the same stock. At best, we are all self-centered in that we have an I ate desire to pursue life, liberty and happiness. We are really all quite the same.
What I took from the article is this:
We all have the same desires in life. Our choice of HOW to reach those desires is vastly different! However, IF we can recognize that other generations WANT the same things (even if they are woefully misguided in their path to reach them), THEN we may be able to build a common goal bridge to interact with those generations we PERCEIVE to be so different from us. Our perception of them has become our reality, and that concept builds walls instead of bridges.
Do we agree that the younger generations are on a philosophical, moral and spiritual dead end street? ABSOLUTELY!!
My question is: Has our method(s) to reach them been successful? Rhetorically, NO! Then there is an option we have not yet implemented and I contend that we can use the information gained in this study to energize our hope for success in bridging the gap BY finding the similarities in our image desires and focusing our conversation ON the desire we share and using THAT as our introductory draw bridge. After all, "If we always do what we've always done, then we'll always get what we've always gotten."
You and I do NOT disagree. We are looking at the problem from different angles. True?
We have a generational problem. No argument there. But our current course of action IS NOT WORKING! I'm all about finding detours when in road blocked. This is a huge road block that DOES have an alternate route. We can sit in traffic and road rage... Or we can go "off the beaten path." Road trip, anyone?
(Selah)
"Let no one despise your youth..."
(1 Timothy 4:12)
Until another day,
JoanElise
