Naked Generations

Join our Twibe

2009-08-24T10:33:00.002+01:00

We recently set up a Twibe for all of us interested in the Culture and Demographic surrounding Generation Y. We're now the fastest growing and biggest Generation Y focussed group on Twibes as far as we know - join us and spread the word! Do also connect with us on Facebook - all the links below:

twib.es/G3R

www.twitter.com/nakedgen

www.twitter.com/nakedgen_chris

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Naked-Generations/33391595546?ref=ts

thanks!

The Naked Team

Website goes live

2009-05-17T05:21:00.004+01:00

Hi everyone! Fantastic news. We have a brand new site. See www.nakedgenerations.com. We have tested it, made some refinements (such as allowing blog respondents to paste their own blog links into replies - giving you some traffic to your blogs too) and are now comfortable in sharing the resource with the world.

On the site you will find more than just the blog - also a story of how the business was started, a list of the growing team members involved in Naked Generations, some of the evolving services that we are offering to the global Top 200 brands, a list of locations where we are speaking at events, as well as research papers and the like.

We hope you like it, and, as ever, we really welcome your feedback - please email any thoughts to: info@nakedgenerations.com thanks!

Professional Networkers

2009-04-27T14:51:00.000+01:00

Have you ever taken a piece of paper and multiplied the number of staff you have by the number of people they are connected to globally? How many products/ services that you sell day-to-day are endorsed on these social networks? At your finger tips is a free user-endorsed brand marketing powerhouse that in most cases isn’t being used.

Isn’t it beyond belief that companies who live in the most international time in history have closed the doors on their future leaders of business accessing networking sites? Think about it for just a moment... the most interconnected generation in history is using Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, My Space and Ning and yet none of these connections are permitted to permeate into the world of work. Do all your staff even have your company name on their profiles? What would be the combined brand value of an update going out to all your staff’s contacts (the figure you came up with from the sum at the beginning) saying that they worked for your organisation?

Isn’t it beyond belief that all these connections are being kept purely for social reasons? Imagine the position a company would be in if it was able to harness the potential distribution opportunity, and knowledge gathering opportunity, that they have in their Next Generation employees all around the world. Our generation’s blurring boundaries between work and home life mean that out of all the generations they’d probably be the one most up for sharing these contacts.

Informal social information networks will continue to grow. This is a trend. Those that are on the front end of harnessing the ‘informal knowledge ecosystems’ through technological social networks of people will be the future leaders. We will go so far as to say that the companies that do not allow informal social networks and disconnect their employees from these worlds will lack the capability, through collaboration, to survive and will stagnate.

From the CIPD ‘People Management’ publication this month (23 APRIL 2009):

‘...networks are important and not only in good times. They are arguably just as important, albeit in different ways, during an economic downturn. Firms that recognise the importance of informal social dynamics and the technological platforms that power them will be more agile and better able to withstand economic shocks.’

Obama series 3/3: User Generated content and Community

2009-03-27T13:02:00.001+00:00

In the final part of the three-part series on Obama we’re looking at User Generated Content and Online communities.

Community

Obama used, very effectively, 16 social networking sites – ranging from ‘Facebook’, ‘MySpace’ and ‘Twitter’ to ‘AsianAve’, ‘Faithbase’ and ‘Eons’ – to build a community of supporters aggregated in one place to whom he could blog (well, someone on his behalf we imagine), and importantly with whom he created a two-way dialogue (as opposed to a web-based corporate bill-board of promises summed up in values, behaviours and future projects). Our generation probably learned more about Obama from social media than we did from his website, or any written document. Log on to any of these and we can rate him, tweet and retweet him, vlog in response to his vlog or offer an opinion. In so-doing we felt listened to. Furthermore Obama espoused the generation y motto ‘ask, don’t tell’. It’s genius. Generation Y wants a ‘conversation’, not just a static page of content and a load of promises. In these communities we can find out more about him whenever we want. He appears ‘transparent’.

Obama won this race with our generation because: his story had ‘viral’ quality (and we passed it round); He gave Generation Y a vision (and asked for their support to achieve it). He gave us ownership for achieving it (and used social media incredibly well to create a dialogue) with this voter demographic. Oh, and did we mention that behind every successful president is a 27 year old speech writer?

Naked Generations interviewed on BlogTalkRadio

2009-03-26T20:27:00.004+00:00

Heledd Straker, our Chief Intelligence Officer, was tonight interviewed on the BlogTalkRadio show hosted by Sarah Newton. The topic was 'How the Education System is failing Generation Y' amongst other things. Discussed were topics such as Thatcher and Blair's impact on the Education System and the possibility of Google Sponsored university blazers! Click here for the link to listen.

Obama series 2/3: Vision and Ownership

2009-03-23T08:00:00.003+00:00

We’re on a journey through the Obama campaign and in this second of three posts we’ll unpack two other big factors in Obama’s winning strategy: the way he used vision and gave ownership.

Vision

Obama created a new vision and was able to communicate it such that he achieved agreement from his supporters. This inspired a generation to take ownership for communicating this to their peers. It signalled their backing for the ‘audacity of hope’. ‘We are Americans’ he said, ‘We can do anything if we put our minds to it’. Why is this clever? It’s a story that appeals to our subconscious without believing that he is trying to sell us a vision. But he is already. He’s telling a third party story, (which includes the audience), that draws them in, because every time Obama says something the audience finds themselves nodding in agreement. One of our clients recently started a ‘cultural transformation programme’ and in this document they stated that the reason why they wanted to implement this new culture was that it would enable them to ‘transform their industry’. That is a bold claim. When we saw the faces of the Emerging Talent group that would be a part of the team to help do this, their eyes lit up. They realised they were on the edge of something huge, and they wanted to be on the winning side.

Ownership

On the campaign website Obama writes this: “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington... I’m asking you to believe in yours.” He was asking for their support. He didn’t just say, “I’m going to do this”, he said “If we really want this, If you believe it, I need your support to make it happen” Suddenly Obama and the American supporters were on a journey together. This led to enormous public participation in many different forms. User generated content played one of the biggest roles it will have ever in any election worldwide (remember Obama Girl?). Looking at this you might think, well that’s just stupid, a bit of fun. But how many views did this one piece of home-made video have? In excess of 13 million! Does it have to do with the girl in the video? Most probably! And...Does it raise the subconscious, is it viral (does it have a ‘pass it on’ quality), and did it appeal to Generation Y? Three ‘Yes-es’, better still, its UGC! They felt a part of a team and they knew that their role was to create as much publicity for their cause as possible. Another great example is the Microsoft ‘I’m a PC campaign’ – which created mass UGC. The paradigm shift is in the distribution ability.

Next stop: Online Communities

Obama series 1/3: Stories

2009-03-19T12:44:00.002+00:00

In the first of a three part series of blog posts analyzing the Obama campaign in more depth we're looking at how Obama used stories to bring Generation Y closer to his cause.

As a leader of today you are unlikely to have missed the election of America’s 44th President in one form or another. In fact, you’re probably wondering, how did he do that? Or, how could we do some of that? We know the Director of Internal Communications at Virgin is already asking this question on her blog: Can we replicate that in Virgin Media?

In this series we will unpack these two core questions – what was so appealing about Barack Hussein Obama that ensured he won the highest ever Generation Y vote for the presidency? And, then, what can we learn as we seek to engage the next generation of leaders, consumers and collaborators?

Digest these statistics: the BBC reported that Obama won the votes of those under 30 by 68% to 31 %! From the US-based CNBC news channel we can further add that this was the highest ever score of the youth vote achieved by any presidential candidate ever (since exit polls began in 1976). Here’s the crunch... out of the total number of voters 10% were voting for the first time, and in this group 72% voted for Obama, and in the sub-30 (largely Generation Y) category 69% voted for Obama (compared to just 28% in favour of McCain). So, Why?

First up, stories:

‘Behind every statistic there is a story’ said the newly elected President in his weekly video log (‘vlog’) from the White House, addressing the nation. Indeed he’s quite good at telling stories: with everyone from YouTube and to the tabloid newspapers telling his story across the world. ‘I stand here knowing that my story, is part of a larger American story... and that in no other country on earth is my story even possible’ (Obama). He only met his father once for a month when he was 10; his grandparents grew up in Kansas; they were brought up during the great depression; his grandfather fought in the army; his grandmother worked on an assembly line; we know the young Barack would be woken at 04:30 in the morning to do his lessons; that he would grumble at having to wake up so early and his mother would respond saying “well this is no picnic for me either Buster”. From this perspective he’s kind of normal. Loveable, almost.

We know his list of values: from ‘treating everyone equal’, ‘hard work’, ‘honesty’, ‘self-reliance’, ‘empathy’, ‘kindness’, ‘faithfulness’ and ‘Christianity’. We know he is able to connect with the ordinary voter in the middle class (almost half of his $670 million raised came from small donors giving $300 or less); with white collar workers (in fact the top two states by ‘donation count’ were California and New York – together donating close to $150 million – two of the most influential cities in the United States, business-wise); and business executives (for example SONY BMG Chairman Andrew Lack, who gave just over $30k).

We know Barack Obama! And that’s half the point. We know so much about Obama that it almost feels as if we know him personally. The ‘Stories’ insured he was first, amiable (the little boy called ‘buster’); second, admired (surviving against the odds and winning over the system); and third, ‘normal’ (his parents raised him on school and honest values). Oh... and he was extremely talented at telling his story. Generation Y lapped this up. They love stories, they love people that are inspirational that paint big visions and they have a tendency to side with the underdog – to make them believe that maybe, one day, that will be them.

Boomers aren’t generally that great at sharing personal stuff at work, they feel ‘Work’ and ‘Play’ are separate spaces, not so for Generation Y for whom there is significant cross-over and blurring.

Next stop: Vision and Ownership.

Generation Y and the Political Sphere

2009-03-10T09:00:00.000+00:00

In school, in business, in their online communities, Generation Y is known as optimistic, idealistic, passionate, and eager to make a valuable contribution. But not in politics it seems. In the political sphere, they are perceived to be cynical, apathetic and disengaged. This is reflected in the voting statistics: in the 2001 and 2005 General Elections, of the 18-24 age group there was only a 39% and 37% turnout, respectively (as compared with a 60% turnout in 1997 which were the younger Generation X). Additionally, in 2005 16% of those aged 18-24 were not even registered to vote, as compared with 2% of voters over 65.

What is the reason for this apparent incongruence? Some reports state that the apparent lack of political interest is down to age – as one’s age increases, so does awareness of how political policies impact life’s decisions. However, this does not explain the sudden drop in voter turn-out between the 1997 and 2001 elections. The Electoral Commission (2005) and the IpsosMORI report (2008) argue that Generation Y cares about political issues, but feels powerless to make a difference.

Indeed, Generation Y has experienced a government that appears not to listen to its needs. For example, tuition fees have been publically and widely discredited, yet they continue to create a generation debt-ridden from the outset. Another example was the 2003 Iraq War, which incurred the biggest protest march in British history - the largest participating age-group being 18-24 year-olds, at 16%.

This is a tragedy, since the passion of Generation Y, plus its considerable size (7 million in the UK), suggests that political parties would benefit from engaging with this population. In the US, President Obama used social media to empower young people during his Presidential campaign, with outstanding results: Obama won the votes of those under 30 by 68% to 31%. Of the 10% new voters, 72% voted for Obama, and 69% of those under 30 also voted for Obama. This kind of engagement sounds like the optimistic and idealistic Generation Y we know and love. And it can work in the UK too: if empowered by a political party and encouraged to vote, Generation Y could prove a formidable force in the 2009 General Elections.

Invest in a downturn

2009-03-06T09:44:00.003+00:00

Do you know what your workforce is thinking? The words (below) of ‘The Clash’ are actually about a rocky personal relationship between Jones and former Meat Loaf backup singer Ellen Foley that would soon implode. The lyrics seem to reflect the ups and downs concerning the relationship and the dilemma of sticking with or ending 'it' – whether or not you think there can be any correlation between a personal relationship and that between an individual and a company is up to you, but read these words and see if they ring any truth in what might be going round a Generation Y head in the current economic environment:

Should I stay or should I go now? Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble, An if I stay it will be double, So come on and let me know, This indecisions bugging me, If you don’t want me, set me free (The Clash, 1981)

Popular opinion seems to suggest that all that ‘infantile job-hopping stuff’ is over and Gen Y are on the back-foot. We think: re-think! If you aren’t investing in the short-term, are they likely to stick with you in the medium to long-term? But it’s not all about shelling out loads of cash.

Here’s two top tips for Managing Gen Y in a downturn: First, are you showing them that they are on a Journey. Really? Can you identify together where they are on that journey? What are the next steps? Can you find them a mentor to help them achieve these ambitions? Is their role defined? Do they know what they will be measured by?

Second, ensure you are Transparent about the future. Finding out through the papers that you are being fired isn’t great. If you know you have to let them go, let them know ASAP. We recently heard about a Y Gen who was told he was in the ‘at risk’ zone in a Baby Boomer dominated firm. What this really meant was that he was about to be made redundant. This isn’t just a relationship between the individual and the firm, it’s between you and your employee too. Who knows, this great person that you are having to lay-off today may be wanted again in 2-3 years (once they have more experience). The end can sometimes be the beginning.

Invest in Relationships, especially in a downturn.

When Cash is King, head for Social Media

2009-03-03T14:23:00.004+00:00

Have you ever considered the wealth of brand opportunity that Social Networking Sites (SNS) offer multinational corporations?

Twitter is receiving a lot of press at the moment – in part due to the £160,000 civil servant job that the government just invested in hiring a ‘twittercrat’. But what about the more community based SNS? Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace – what’s their potential?

Do some quick sums... how many people in your company are SNS-literate? This isn’t whether they know how to ‘tweet’, ‘RT’, create ‘#feeds’, or plant a ‘tweet bomb’ this is simply: do they have a profile with more than 100 friends? (An astoundingly low figure for most Y Gen profiles).

Now, if you have recruited around 500 graduates in the last 5 years - and the statistics say that most of these will have at least two SNS profiles (PEW 2009), what is the combined brand value of a 1,000 profiles updating their status to say they now work for your firm – and a little feed going to each of their networks of friends to alert the update of their job status?

If you are a product or service provider it gets much better... why not set up a competition (internally or externally) with a bottle of champagne as a prize (£60 at worst, but a healthy incentive for most Y Gen) for an individual or team to create a Facebook or Linkedin App that introduces SNS users to your company product or service.

Facebook recently had its 5^th birthday, and recently a bit of exclusive Nielson research, revealed in an NMA podcast (27.02.09), that nearly 50% of the UK population (17.6 million unique users) are now on Facebook! Isn’t it time you monetise the Social Networks of your Y gen?

What Dreams May Come

2009-02-26T11:03:00.001+00:00

“Young people born after 1982 are the most narcissistic generation in recent history”.

Dr Jean Twenge’s Generation Me (2006) marks her research into narcissism in Generation Y. As a result of over-indulgent and undeserved praise lavished on them by Boomer parents, Generation Y is apparently self-absorbed, lazy and entitled.

According to Dr Twenge, a key manifestation of this narcissism – and ironically the cause of pain and misery to Generation Y – is the pursuit of one’s dreams encouraged by parents and teachers. She argues that a lifetime of pampering has created a generation deluded in the belief that it can achieve anything without making the effort. This ‘delusion’ is revealed for what it is in business, when Generation Ys do not receive the quick promotions and recognition they expect for just turning up, causing them anxiety and stress. Life in business requires effort and dreams can fall quickly to ruin.

While controversial, Dr Twenge’s observations of Generation Y behaviour aren’t narcissism, but signs of naivety. Indeed Generation Y was brought up believing it could achieve anything, but as discussed in our last blog, educational institutions do not sufficiently prepare students for life on the outside; they don’t equip them with the business tools required to succeed.

3M empowered its employees with such tools with its “Permitted Bootlegging” policy, which enabled scientist Art Fry in 1974 to spend a portion of his working day to put colleague, Spencer Silver’s adhesive to practical use; thus inventing the Post-it Note.

Employers who recognise the pursuit of dreams as the desire to achieve can help Generation Y develop a personal vision or dream, which aligns with that of the company, and provide the tools to empower Generation Y (and so the business) to thrive.

To finish off, President Obama, arguably the mascot for achieving one’s dreams, had this to say at his address on Tuesday:

“...In my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of Americans who are anything but ordinary.”

Get Generation Y to engage with your brand

2009-02-23T15:43:00.002+00:00

One of the key complaints about Generation Y is how naïve they are about how business works. There are already concerned discussions happening about Generation Z and how they will transition from the education system to the working world. The younger generations seem to be hugely unprepared for the life that awaits them upon exit of the education system, often to the dismay of employers who have to foot the enormous bill to fill this skills void. There is a need to create transparency and visibility so that expectations are matched on both sides.

In our previous blog we left you with the story of Electronic Arts, which has a Facebook page to attract and recruit the iGeneration, onto which student Mohammed Elnaiem asked for advice about which university to attend in order to increase his chance of getting a job with EA.

This signals the eagerness of Generations Y and Z to prepare for their future, but also the distinct lack of relevant career advice or training provided by education institutions – thus defeating the object of education. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Some businesses have taken to doing presentations inside schools, or sponsoring excellent candidates (much like the British ARMY sponsoring graduates through their university degree with the guarantee of a recruit after graduation). However, this conjures up futuristic images of ‘Google/ Goldman Sachs-sponsored children’s school blazers’ – which we don’t believe is the way forward.

The answer to the dilemma is for employers, rather than waiting until students are in their final year of university before trying to attract and train them, is to get involved with this population early on, engaging them in captivating experiences (to which they can contribute), which in turn may encourage them to tailor their educational choices towards a future career with your brand. A recent example is Nokia’s ‘Dreams Workshops’, which engages children globally in ‘sustainability’ events, designed to improve life skills and raise environmental awareness. So far Nokia has reached over 30,000 young people – that’s 30,000 potential employees worldwide.

Previously we have mentioned Coca-Cola’s efforts and another example of where this has worked is the iPhone applications: within 6 months of the launch of the Apple iPhone 10,000 ‘collaborators’ had created third-party applications for the mobile device. Most recently a 9 year old boy created one! (Thomson Reuters).

Establishing an early (experiential) relationship with potential consumers and employees, will both reduce the high training costs upon entry into the business, and greatly increase loyalty in the long term. It’s a win-win situation that can be created for any business.

Olympic president recruits Gen Y evangelists

2009-02-11T20:35:00.004+00:00

Jacques Rogge is the 66 year-old president of the International Olympic Committee, firmly rooted in the Baby Boomer population you might think. But not too rooted to try a spot of interaction with Social Media. The Belgian, talking to the Times Olympic Correspondant, gave no apology for not having a Facebook profile himself.

However, rather than risk the ignominy of “poking” Generation Y and not being poked back, Rogge is enlisting the 3,500 teenaged athletes competing at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010 to spread the Olympic gospel for him. By asking each competitor to link a personal blog to Facebook, MySpace and other online networking communities, he hopes to reach the millions of under-18s more likely to play Grand Theft Auto than hockey.

The president even said that he wanted to hire more baggy panted, pink haired gen Y to work in his Geneva headquarters. The basic premise here though is that you use your own to reach your own. If you want to attract the attention of generation Y and even Z then... well, they are online, so the best and most transparent way to reach them is through the mediums and channels they are already using.

However, it wasn’t all optimism from the IOC president, saying: “Kids are attracted to visual, interactive forms of communication. It's not going to be easy for sport to counter that… You won't hear me saying sport is not fun - it is. But it requires austerity and discipline. The answer is achievement. You will never achieve in a video game. It is not really success.” I’m not sure that is necessarily a view supported by the audience he’s trying to attract.

Other examples of where organisations are starting to use online technologies to recruit and attract the next generation of supporters, or employees include political party communities (e.g. Conservatives), and corporate employers (Electronic Arts).

It seems this works as a recent post on the Electronic Arts Facebook wall read:

Mohammed Elnaiem (Saudi Arabia):

“do u employ people with game design degrees from singapore/malaysia and if u do can u recommend any universities because i want to become a games designer :)”

Medical uses for Facebook

2009-02-04T13:00:00.000+00:00

A new article highlights the benefits of Social Media for the medical world. In the article is given a description of how ‘Facebook users are coming to the aid of children who need life-saving transplants as the networking website presents its users with more serious dilemmas than they usually have to contend with as they stay in touch with friends. Campaigns launched on the site have inspired thousands of people to join groups urging them to become members of tissue transplant registers. Joining the registers helps widen the pool of bone marrow and blood donors available and increases the chance of a match being found for patients.’

Inspirational uses of Social Networking like this should at least deter even the hard-line skeptics away from thinking that Facebook is just for playing.

‘The parents of 23-month-old Iona Stratton, who fell ill with leukaemia when she was 13 weeks old, launched a Facebook appeal in October to find a bone marrow donor. The appeal attracted almost 7,000 members and they found a match in Australia within weeks’.

The Pope gets Video Blogging!

2009-02-02T10:55:00.000+00:00

The Pope, Benedict the XVI has launched his own You Tube channel in the hope of reaching the Digital Generation. In a video blog (‘vlog’), broadcast on You Tube (of course). Saying that the internet has become a ‘resource of upmost importance’ and especially for the digital generation, the Pope continued (text is linked to You Tube video): ‘Undoubtedly, wise use of communications technology enables communities to be formed in ways that promotes the search for the truth, the good and the beautiful, transcending geographical boundaries, and ethnic divisions. To this end the Vatican has launched a new initiative which will make information from the Holy See more readily accessible on the World Wide Web. It is my hope that this initiative will reach a wide range of people...’

The Vatican has committed to updating the YouTube site daily with papal news items produced by the Vatican television station CTV and Vatican Radio. They will further be translated into Italian, German, English and Spanish – to ensure its reach across language boundaries. Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, who heads the Vatican's social communications office, said the pope fully approved of the YouTube channel, saying Benedict was "a man of dialogue" who wanted to engage with people wherever they were (Source: Channel4.com)

This shows how committed the Catholic Church is to sending out its message and reaching the audience it aims to ‘recruit’. It will be interesting to see whether corporations – even in tech sectors – will follow suit, with their CEO’s reaching future employees. From our research we find that ‘viral’ communication such as this has a much greater impact on the ‘Digital Generation’ as it is reaching them using one of their preferred consumption mediums (youtube), which is also easy to share across networks, and uses visual media (pictures, stories, and moving images) which are much more likely to capture their attention than a page of traditional text. It’s considered to be more ‘transparent’.

Jon Favreau: boY GENius

2009-01-29T09:00:00.001+00:00

In the struggle to cut costs and grab what little resources are still available, many businesses are tightening their belts and changing their management strategy, from a ‘looser’ style, as preferred by Generation Y, to a more ‘authoritarian’ approach - thereby exerting maximum control relieving the feelings of fear of wasting precious time and money. Jobs have also suddenly dried up for Generation Y: 40% of the predicted three million unemployed at the end of 2009 will be under 25[1]. Does this mean that Gen Y needs to both ‘pipe’ and ‘knuckle down’, at least until the storm has blown over?

Well, how does this sound? Working most days till 3am and doing vast amounts of research in personal time, breaking only to spend a few hours gaming;-[2] This is the work pattern of Jon Favreau, the 27-year-old speech writer for President Obama. Hailed as ‘boy genius’[3], Favreau is the youngest Director of Speech writing to the White House on record. As a Generation Y, by all accounts he should be making ‘unreasonable’ demands of an employer; flexible hours, Facebooking his friends during work, and generally openly questioning the command of authority. Instead, Obama’s ‘mind reader’ works day and night for his ‘master’[4]. Jon organised a team of talented researchers, spending weeks gathering information from which he worked into the early hours crafting Obama’s speeches. And the result? From a little-known politician, Barack Obama succeeded against all odds in winning the Presidential election in November 2008 and is now taking his throne as, essentially, world leader.

This should send a strong message to employers that if their Generation Y really believes in the organisation, and that they feel trusted, they will reveal themselves to be an incredibly loyal, productive and all-round powerful workforce.

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/10/graduate-employment-crisis-rescue-package

[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us-speech

[3] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/adaf9610-e708-11dd-8407-0000779fd2ac.html

[4] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us-speech

Inside the Knowledge Generation Brain

2009-01-26T08:48:00.003+00:00

Lifelong learning is a known characteristic of Generation Y, manifested in business as a persistent thirst for a challenge and a demand for continuous training and development. Surprisingly, the cause of this approach to learning is not often discussed in popular blogs and literature.

Earlier this week I attended one of the RSA’s lectures, which explored the Science of Lifelong Learning. According to speaker Usha Goswami, Director for the Neuroscience in Education at Cambridge University, the brain is like a bank and investment from an early age can significantly increase learning ability later in life. She argued that babies brought up in a supportive environment are positively affected in terms of learning capacity and complexity.

Indeed, Generation Y is known by Strausse & Howe (2000) as the most watched and protected generation[1], where ‘helicopter’ parents packed their children’s lives with a myriad of learning-based hobbies, such as musical instruments, sports and extra-curricular school activities. Technological advances, such as the internet, have further increased this ability and desire for learning.

Now eager Generation Y has entered the workplace, expecting the same level of mental simulation from its employer. This can be highly beneficial to the alert employer, as when provided with a supportive environment, this population of young workers can be highly efficient and creative problems-solvers and aggregators of information in what we call ‘online knowledge ecosystems’ - thereby helping to reduce costs in the downturn and increase participation, ownership and innovation in the next boom.

‘The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled’
- Plutarch

[1] Strausse & Howe (2000), Millenials Rising. Pg9

President Barack ‘Hope’ Obama

2009-01-22T13:10:00.002+00:00

President Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office as the 44^th president of the United States of America on Tuesday. Amongst the buzzing crowd of more than a million faces in the Washington DC Mall there was an air of anticipation and ultimately ‘hope’.

But, as you would imagine, we aren’t here to comment on the political accolades of of Obama, but the motivation of a Generation to support him to get to the position of, arguably, the most powerful man on the face of the earth.

Grab a hold of these statistics: the BBC reported that Obama won the votes of those under 30 by 68% to 31 %! From the US-based CNBC news channel we can further add that this was the highest ever score of the youth vote achieved by any presidential candidate ever (since exit polls began in 1976). Here’s the crunch... out of the total number of voters 10% were voting for the first time, and in this group 72% voted for Obama, and in the sub-30 (largely Generation Y) category 69% voted for Obama (compared to just 28% in favour of McCain).

So, Why? Here’s our analysis. What caused the best part of a generation to support Barack Obama over McCain? We see three elements: Vision, Ownership, and Community.

First, Vision: Obama created a new vision and was able to communicate it such that he achieved agreement from his supporters. This inspired a generation to take ownership for communicating this to their peers. It signalled their backing for the ‘audacity of hope’. Second, Ownership: Obama, whilst able to paint the picture, then actively sought the involvement of his supporters. He maintained, throughout his campaign, undertones of ‘You got me here’; ‘This is your doing’; and ‘Thank You’ – creating now almost iconic images of Obama clapping stadiums full of supporters: ‘It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy [and] who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep’ (Obama, Illinois, November 4, 2008). Thirdly, he used, very effectively, 16 social networking sites – ranging from ‘Facebook’, ‘MySpace’ and ‘Twitter’ to ‘AsianAve’, ‘Faithbase’ and ‘Eons’ – to build a community of supporters aggregated in one place to whom he could blog (well, someone on his behalf we imagine), and importantly with whom he created a two-way dialogue (as opposed to a web-based corporate bill-board of promises summed up in values, behaviours and future projects). In so-doing he listened to supporters, fence-sitters and cynics and espoused the generation y motto ‘ask, don’t tell’.

There’s one final thing. A sub-story perhaps, but one that is worthy of note. Obama has been using a generation Y speech writer – Jon Favreau. At 27 years old he has become the youngest ever director of speech writing to the White House. Significant? We think so.

Naked Generations addresses leading Energy Industry executives

2009-01-21T15:16:00.004+00:00

Get Energy Events, a global conferencing company, providing education and insights into the Energy industry, has invited Naked Generations to run a workshop at their annual Exploration and Production conference in London. The slot will be delivered by Christopher Lomas (Naked Generations CEO) and will be entitled: ‘Explaining Y: Understanding, Creating and Managing strategic relationships with Generation Y’. The session will ‘lift the lid’ on Generation Y and take attendees into the mindset of the generation. We will be explaining why it is critical for company leaders to understand this generation not just as Employees but as Consumers and Competitors too.

The conference will be held from the 23-25 March 2009 at the Business Design Centre in North London, United Kingdom. For more details see the Get Energy Events website.

Accidental Betrayal

2009-01-15T09:00:00.001+00:00

Michaela (a Generation Y) began working in a company after university, with an idealistic view to how she could create a successful career, based on the promises made by the company. She soon discovered that the reality was different to her expectations: espoused corporate values were not adhered to and her eagerly anticipated career opportunities were not as she had imagined. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Michaela left.

In late 2008 Naked Generations worked with a client, who was genuinely upset at their Generation Y turnover rate. They had made both a financial and emotional investment into their graduates, many of whom were leaving. The client felt hurt and betrayed.

From the outset the trust has been accidentally broken on both sides, creating a culture of distrust which is incredibly costly to business. The economic climate is tempestuous and treacherous, meaning that more than ever that employer and employee must unite in order to steer through the storm.

It must begin before graduates join, with employers setting crystal clear expectations about the job and of the employee. They also need to fully understand the expectations of their Generation Y in order to attract, retain, and leverage their skills into the business, thus rebuilding trust between employer and employee and strengthening a company from the inside out.

The Grass is Greener Where you Water it

2009-01-12T09:00:00.003+00:00

I recently had coffee with the MD of a significant fine jewellery company and we were discussing the retention of Generation Y and the costs of training this group. Although keen to leverage the skills of Generation Y, he repeated a line which I’ve often heard from older generations: “train them and they’ll leave”. Indeed, if an employee is well trained, they become more valuable and so more employable. And many businesses have suffered the blow of up-skilling graduates on training schemes, only for them to take their skills elsewhere shortly after.

There are two things going on here. Generation Y sees learning as a lifelong process[1], so if training stops, they will seek it somewhere else. Indeed, PwC’s 2008 Generation Y report revealed that training was three times more important to this population than cash bonuses, with 98% believing that mentors were an important part of their development. On top of this, the training will cause Generation Y to seek trust from the company to allow them apply what they have learned to their daily work.

Unfortunately, too often Generation Y is given a whiff of what they can have, such as increased responsibility and the opportunity to make a significant contribution, but are then informed it will be a number of years before this can happen. This is training for the sake of training, which serves no purpose in business. It’s like learning to drive and then being told you will have to wait five years before you can get behind the wheel of a car. What would this motivate you to do? Leave.

The moral of the story: keep them challenged, fulfil expectations created by the training, and in return they will give you loyalty, improved productivity, and a great return on your investment.

[1] http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=191002&d=pndpr&h=pnhpr&f=pnfpr, http://www.grb.uk.com/generation_y.0.html

Make ‘Flickr’/ MySpace/ Facebook your office!

2009-01-07T12:51:00.002+00:00

A recent article in the Financial Times (‘Social Networking sites elevate geeks to online gur us [1]’) illustrated how three young forward thinking and entrepreneurial individuals started making cash by having something as simple as a ‘Flickr’ [sic.] page! “Cant’ have been making much” I hear the pessimist say. Well an extra £9,000 p.a. worked okay for Kevin Meredith (a.k.a ‘Lomokev’). In February 2009 he will also release his first book (‘Hot Shots’) and it’s already on pre-order in Amazon! His clients now include shoe manufacturer Dr Martens.
Let’s try another example: Paul Griffiths (21) sold £500,000 worth of tee-shirts, hooded tops and badges from humble beginnings 24 months ago through a MySpace profile see: Babycakes Clothing (the profile has sound effects when we last checked, try http://www.bbycks.com/ if you’d rather see the site without sound!) and now he has a shop in Manchester, and employs 10 people! From what we can see though, this isn’t just a tee-shirt printing business, it’s a kind of ‘following’. There’s a blog; buyers can upload their photos of them wearing the clothing and they have BabyCakes parties... OK, so it’s not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’ but... for 21 it’s no bad effort.
So what can we learn? First, Naked Generations will be the first to say that we predict a trend: As the cost of higher education increases and the uncertainty of what were ‘permanent jobs’ continues, we predict that a noticeable portion of Generation Y (and Generation Z beneath them) will not enter traditional jobs or training programmes like the generations before them. Instead they will capitalise on the mediums of sites such as facebook, flickr, Ebay, and YouTube to sell home-grown ideas to the masses.
And if you’re still thinking (to quote Boris Johnson) “that’s a load of boulder-dash” and, it will never cross over into the real world listen to this:
Ms Lauren Luke (27) launched a series of video tutorials through YouTube about applying make-up to copy the styles of the likes of Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and Leona Lewis. They were watched, the styles were copied, she received a whole lot of attention and now writes a column in the (UK’s) Guardian Newspaper weekend magazine. Oh, and just before Christmas she flew to New York to begin designing a make-up range for Barry M. Our guess is the Guardian is attracting the next generation of readers by using the leverage that Ms Luke has created for herself online.

[1] Bradshaw, T., http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/68d9ef4c-d86f-11dd-bcc0-000077b07658.html Financial Times, 2 January 2009 (p.10)

British Government invites Naked Generations to Collaborate

2009-01-05T06:47:00.000+00:00

In a recent report, entitled: ‘Collaborative Partnerships’ the Foreign and Commonwealth Office sought to understand in depth how they could improve the relationships between the Government, NGOs and ‘Big Business’. Having been invited to the table Naked Generations was asked to write the Y Generation ‘Point Of View’ (POV). Referenced three times in the document Naked Generations was commended by the FCO in saying: ‘the work done by ...Naked Generations, in support of this report, highlights how big the gap [is] that governments and business have to close in engaging with younger generations... Governments and businesses that seek collaboration must provide a focused context or subject matter around which to base discussion. And should operate in the spirit of “Ask- Don’t Tell”, and should expect push-back.’
Naked Generations’ full submission was also selected to be included in the report which is being sent out to 100 organisations globally, including 20 governments, 9 international institutions, 19 high profile leaders, and distributed within the British Government (including No. 10 Downing St., the MoD and the Department of Health).
Chapters in the study included Understanding Collaboration; Effective Collaboration; Collaboration and its impact on organizations; Social Collaboration; and, a future thinking chapter on ‘Collaboration and its possibilities'.
For more information, or to understand how we could help your business/ organisation on a similar piece of work, please contact Christopher Lomas info@nakedgenerations.com.

Everybody is talking about it

2009-01-01T09:00:00.004+00:00

According to the media, the impending recession is here, and it’s likely to get much worse, leaving many employers wondering how Generation Y will handle this phenomenon, as they haven’t seen “hard times” like this before. However, this generation has been coping with a host of dilemmas from a very young age: innumerable school subjects (introduced by the National Curriculum), university courses, career choices, and a cliff-face climb onto the property ladder. Generation Y has suffered from overwhelm prior to this economic period, struggling with the “where-am-I-going?- -what-am-I-supposed-to-do?” syndrome, which has been referred to as their Quarter Life Crisis[1], the predecessor to the better known Mid Life Crisis - although without the Volvo estate to be traded in for the sports car.

In this environment, Generation Y employees will be a true asset for all managers: They have a sense of flexibility, while not “emotionally attached” to any employer, they are very committed employees. They have moved away from the ‘civil service’ attitude and their expectation for their work is for a more meritocratic approach that values talent. Furthermore they take redundancy in their stride, unafraid of change, for some they are facing redundancy for the third time before turning 30.

These younger workers are also said, in what is a back-handed compliment, to seek control of their own career development, which is an empowering state of mind in this present climate. They will also stay with an employer that values their hard work: The notion that they are serially disloyal and constantly at the ready to jump ship for their own career progression is flawed. This is supported by recent research which argues that 50% of Generation Y intends to stay with their employer for the next five years (although some Baby Boomers would still gall at this ‘lack’ of commitment)[2].

The younger workforce may not have lived through world wars or rationing, but they are ready for these uncertain times; they have been prepared by their own challenges and they will grasp with both hands the opportunities arising from the recession.

[1] Originally the term Quarter Life Crisis was coined by two Americans, Alexandra Robbins & Abby Wilner, who interviewed thousands of students for their book(“Quarter Life Crisis – How to get your head round life in your twenties”). They defined Quarter Life Crisis as a response to overwhelming instability, constant change, too many choices and a panicked sense of helplessness
[2] http://www.management-issues.com/2008/9/10/research/why-it-doesnt-pay-to-pigeonhole-gen-y.asp

Youth, Risk and the Virtual Realm

2008-12-29T09:00:00.003+00:00

High risks can reap high rewards, but they can also end in costly failure. So should employers welcome or shun risk-takers? Research has shown that Generation Y has a seemingly high risk profile. For example, Beck & Wade (2006) observe that online game-players are strongly encouraged to take risks, with trial and error seen the best strategy for success. They also argue that risk aversion accrues with age, following an increasing number of unpleasant experiences following failure.

So does this make Generation Y a liability to employers? While the evidence suggests that this population is naive around risk in the real world, it is important to observe Generation Y’s approach to risk-taking. An oft-used strategy for success, game-players mitigate risk by ensuring a transparent flow of information through the team and distribute responsibility amongst the other players according to their skill sets.

This demonstrates that, in order to succeed as a team, online game-players must take individual accountability for their actions and the risks they take. This implies a level of understanding, perhaps by even the youngest players, of responsibility distribution as an effective risk management strategy.

Indeed, the virtual world is not the same as the physical realm, in which Generation Y may not have the experience of older generations, but their risk-facing attitude combined with a strategic understanding of risk mitigation learned from online games could reap big rewards for businesses too.