With the New Year and moving into the year 2025, it was announced that anyone born in 2025 would be the start of the new Generation Beta crew. If Gen Alpha were nicknamed the “Honeybadgers,” I hate to think what the next generation will be nicknamed.
As a child of the arguably best generation, Generation X, where we grew up in an analog world and had to adapt to more change ever seen in a single lifetime. During a recent conversation, one topic kept injecting itself: “What the hell do we do with Gen Z?” Realizing that Gen Alpha is right behind.
How do we continually lead and manage those that have never had a phone conversation tethered to a wall because the cord didn’t reach past 6 feet? Live through constant transitions that boggle the mind like our music: Vinyl, Reel-to-Reel > 8-Tracks > Cassettes > CDs > MP3 > Streaming? Or like my own kids, who literally struggled after renting a car: ” What is this crank handle for on the inside of the door!” “Uh… to open the windows with.”
How do we as the Gen X “Analog-Digital Managers” get the most from the upcoming “Digital Disruptors” without fearing their different way of thinking about problems or being innovative in the business environment? If one steps back, you will find the problem is not “us” against “them”; it goes much deeper than that.
There is a more transitional generational gap that isn’t being discussed. That of mid-level management who grew up with a foot in both worlds. Raised “Analog,” but embracing the “Digital.” That is where I find myself.
Inspired and motivated by the possibilities of technology but frustrated by the challenges in dealing with senior-level executives who fear the unknown and the assumed risks that the digital age brings to a work environment transitioning from a legacy approach to technology. We are approaching an era of either a technology-driven ‘culling’ of the top-level workforce or the death of those companies who are not led boldly into change by forward-thinking leaders.
Forget about the Baby Boomers, Generation X,Y (Millennial), or Z conversations; this is about all of us being the new fusion of future progression. This is a time of transformation which spans and affects all ages. Right, wrong, or indifferent, we are being led there by the youth who live, eat, and breathe change at a pace and breadth possibly never seen before.
With that, here are a couple of catchphrases I will leave you with:
- Embrace maximum flexibility without going limp.
- Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
- Get hard or get out.
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