I had the honor and the pleasure to collaborate on a presentation with Johnson Controls and Haworth at the recent CoreNet Global (corporate real estate professionals) conference in Dallas.  Johnson Controls and Haworth performed global research recently — called OXYGENZ — to find out what Gen Y (aka the Net Generation, Millenials) is looking for in a workplace.

The preliminary results are not particularly surprising, but very interesting.  Visit the Johnson Controls OXYGENZ site if you want to learn more.  In the meantime according to OXYGENZ:

• There are 1.7 billion Gen Yers aged 18 to 25 — that’s 26.9% of the world population
• 95% want an environmentally aware workplace
• 64% prefer to work flexibly and choose when to work
• 78% prefer mobile rather than static work
• They choose a company because of meaningful work, quality of life and work colleagues

I believe these issues will force companies to adapt their old ways of doing business to accommodate this new and exciting generation.  We should start now!

If you’ve followed my blog, you know that I’m a big fan of the Net Generation (aka Gen Y or the Millenials).  In many cases they get a bum rap in the press, but I believe that overall their skills and attitudes make our future look bright.

And while the press can be negative about this cohort, there was a terrific article in USA Today yesterday.  Called Millenials a force for change, it articulates how much this young generation is giving back.  They experienced 9/11 and Katrina during their formative years — and what was formed was a civic-minded group who puts aside some of their personal advancement to improve society.

Read the article.  It will make you feel good about yourself if you’re a young person and it will make you feel good about our future if you’re a Baby Boomer like me.  And, this reinforces my wish to be a Net Gen when I grow up!

I can remember being somewhat dismayed when I realized I was too old to be Miss America. Perhaps an immature way of looking at the opportunities I had to look forward to, but it was a milestone for me. I can also remember my father being upset when he realised that he was older than the Pope (actually, John Paul was a young Pope, but he was the Pope nonetheless).

Now I can say that the President of the United States is considerably younger than I am. And I will tell you honestly that I’m perfectly okay with it.

I’m excited about having a member of Gen X in charge. While President Obama is technically a Boomer, most of his tendencies reflect Gen X. Plus, a lot of what he’s bringing to the White House is actually Net Gen (Gen Y or Millennial) behavior.

And that’s what I’m excited about. New ways of approaching old problems, exciting use of technology to communicate more effectively, a commitment to community service and an attitude of total inclusiveness.

As an aging Baby Boomer who wants to be a Net Gen when I grow up, I’m looking forward to what the next four years will bring.

I had the privilege of traveling to Mexico City last week to speak to a very large number of HR professionals. The subject was the Net Generation (aka Gen Y or Millenials) and how HR should be preparing to recruit and retain this fabulous, very large generation.

I won’t bore you with my entire presentation — because there isn’t room here. But the gist is that this generation’s use of technology is one of the foundations for everything they do. And while the Net Gen has gotten a lot of bad press, I firmly believe that we can all learn from this cohort and should embrace many of their characteristics:

• They value integrity.
• Doing meaningful work and giving back to their communities is important
• Work/life balance is not just a phrase — they want to actually live it.
• Utilizing the ubiquitous, 24/7 technology for entertainment is something they do, but they also want to leverage technology to collaborate on a global basis.

I could go on and on, but the real point of this post is that whether I’m home in the U.S. or down in Mexico, we are all the same. Generational issues cross borders, languages and cultures. While I believe this has always been true, technology and the shrinking world have made our similarities more obvious.

Is there a diversity lesson in here? Don’t we all want the same things? Aren’t we basically the same — no matter our color or gender or national origin?

I found a recent Harris Interactive survey to be quite interesting — and in some cases counter-intuitive.  In their Widely Held Attitudes to Different Generations, they asked 4,000 Americans what they thought of people of various ages:

• Baby Boomers are most widely viewed as having a positive effect on society, followed by Generation X.
• Traditionalists (Silent Generation) are the most widely admired.
• Traditionalists and Boomers are viewed as the most generous.
• Baby Boomers and Gen X are seen as the most productive (counter-intuitive to me).
• Generation X is seen as the most innovative.
• And Gen Y is the most self-indulgent (they are seen as self-indulgent by themselves).

Interesting food for thought that might change some of our attitudes about the different generations.  Take a look.

PR: wait…  I: wait…  L: wait…  LD: wait…  I: wait… wait…  C: wait…  SD: wait…

Last evening I had the privilege of being a guest lecturer at an MBA class at a local university (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee).  The subject was all about the generations — how to lead and manage a multi-generational workforce.  Their textbook is Generations at Workby Ron Zemke, Claire Raines and Bob Filipczak.  I didn’t use the textbook.  Rather we talked about our experiences working and living with the different generations.

Not surprisingly, the class was all Gen X and Gen Y — so I was an aging Baby Boomer among the youngsters.  I was impressed with their sensitivity and insight into the characteristics of the different generations.  Their questions and comments were thoughtful and always on point.

My point?  The future looks bright if all Gen X and Gen Y are as intelligent and aware as this class!

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that’s the number of Americans who quit their jobs every day.  That gets me thinking about what is important to us at work.  Because if we’re not getting what’s important, we may be among the 83,000 who quit each day.

It won’t surprise you to know that what’s important is different among the generations.  I stress different.  Not bad, just different!

• If you’re over 63 and part of the WWII generation, you work hard, respect authority, follow the rules and you feel that you’ve paid your dues.  You are loyal to your employer and in your eyes, the customer is always right.
• If you’re a baby boomer, you’ve (we’ve) worked hard and long — some may accuse you of being a workaholic.  You’re competitive and you want to be respected and rewarded.
• Gen Xers, age 30 to 45, work smart, not hard — but that’s not a criticism because you get the job done.  You work to live, you don’t want to be micro-managed, you want to be thanked (often) and you want all the boomers and WWIIers to lighten up.
• Finally, if you’re a GenYer, born after 1978, you want important and interesting work.  You want goals and direction — and a mentor rather than a manager.  Finally, and this is a lesson we should all learn, you want to have fun.

Message to employers:  Understand what the different generations want and work hard to give it to them.  Be creative!

Another message to employers:  Since we’re all working together, help your employees understand and embrace the different generations.

Message to the members of the different generations:  Don’t judge your co-workers just because they want different things.  Respect the differences and learn from each other. 

What generational diversity issues do you face at work?

For the first time in history, four generations are working together.  Is that good news?  Or bad news?

It can be bad news if we haven’t learned to get along.  I’ve talked with people who are critical of other generations — but very complimentary about their own age bracket.  So if people think their generation is the only one that ‘knows the score,’ work won’t get done effectively.

But I will argue that generations working together is good — actually great — news!  Here are a few reasons why:

• A diverse team makes decisions that take all points of view into account — and those decisions are generally the best decisions.
• Smart companies make sure their workforce — particularly those who are customer facing — reflect the demographics of those customers.
• We can each learn from the other generations. 

Why else does it make sense to mix generations at work?