GenXwords

Posts Tagged ‘Technology’

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Engaging multiple generations in your meetings

In Technology, Uncategorized, Work Values on August 12, 2010 at 3:07 pm

MEETINGS…in all their glory, are an obvious reoccurring theme in this blog.

I’ve gotten a lot of  feedback about my critique of meetings, largely from friends in the corporate or for-profit fields.  Often their comments sound  like this  “seriously?  I would walk out of a meeting that was that pointless, time is money” or “if somebody is multi-tasking in a meeting, either the meeting doesn’t have enough focus, or the people in your meeting are the wrong ones”.   Interesting points….which makes me ask if meetings in the non-profit and public sector are different from those in the for profit world.  The ultimate goal of the for profit industry is to make more money-so naturally meetings would be a strategy to make this happen.  The goal of organizations in the non-profit sector is varied and sometimes foggy. This reality can create a meeting monster that results in confusion of the meeting purpose and varying levels of disengagement from those in the meeting.  Engaging people in a meeting with a foggy goal or purpose is difficult at best.  Add generational differences in how we define the goals and purpose of organizations and it gets uglier.

One strategy for success in negotiating this mess is good meeting management & understanding how to engage people of all generations in meetings. I’ve discussed the purpose of meetings  in other posts but how we build our agendas, what we do in meetings and how we deal with the need to engage our volunteers and staff  is worth more discussion.

How to engage gen X you ask?  Well….here is an example of how not to engage younger generations….

I recently sat through a two-hour meeting where all we did was share information about what we were busy doing, tasks people planned to do and information on things we could do.  I think eating a dirt sandwich would be more enjoyable and worthwhile.  I would rather hear about what you accomplished and how it has resulted in change or allow me to chime in with my thoughts about a decision that needs to be made. Spending valuable face to face time just chatting about information I could spend 5 minutes reading in a written report is not a good use of my time.  I would prefer to come to a meeting to make a decision, share information you are not able to get elsewhere and capitalize on the group dynamic to get discussion and movement toward a common goal.

But that is just me.

I’ve observed that some people find great value in spending entire meetings sharing information and talking about activities, namely boomers and traditionalists.  The process of sharing information is a strategy left over from days where instant electronic messages, online information sharing and anytime/anyplace communication strategies were not so prevalent.  You had to wait until you saw a person face to face to get their report-or wait for snail mail to send it to you after somebody typed it out on a typewriter.  Meeting agenda’s are still built around “old business” and “new business”, committee reports etc. . It is an unusual meeting agenda that is built around what outcomes have resulted from activities or what decisions do we need to make today in this meeting.

The solution?….. having a meeting with a good healthy mix of strategy and creative management for the group you are leading.  First, be clear about why you are meeting.  Meeting for the sake of meeting is not quite at the level of Dante’s seven deadly sins…but seriously, be clear with your purpose of bringing people together.  Second, allow for sharing time for those that prefer that process.  Third, add in decisions that need to be made and outcomes that can be reported on from activity of the group.  If possible, ask the group what amount of each process they prefer.  If you have an entire group of GenX’ers I would guess you’d want to have written reports on progress/activity and spend more time on dialogue leading to decision-making.   Big group of boomers?….more time on sharing.

At the very least…consider your meeting management in the context of  generational difference.  Discuss what processes your group prefers and how to build your agenda around it.  I would bet the result would be more engagement and better  progress toward your goal.

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Connectivity & GenX. Gift, curse or just annoying?

In Technology on June 10, 2010 at 9:06 am

A typical day in my life consists of sitting in an uncomfortable chair around a conference room table, discussing problems and solutions.  To make such meetings more bearable and interesting, I like to challenge my mind to listen (and even participate from time to time) while multi-tasking in my mind.  Such multi-tasking elicits blog post ideas, grocery store lists, emails I have to construct later, vacation plans etc.

Just yesterday, while in a board meeting, I was deep in my typical multi-task meeting mode (otherwise known as MTMM) and looked up to see the three other GenX’ers in the meeting doing the very same thing.  One was texting the other who was sitting down the table, another looking at his calendar on his iPhone, another googling a topic we were discussing in the meeting. Before you lambast us for using our smart phones while in a meeting take note of this…of the 25+ people in this meeting, 70% of those participating in the meeting were the very same GenX’ers.  We were engaged, we were participating, we were focused, we were all in MTMM.

GenerationX is the first generation to have grown up adapting to rapid changes in technology and connectivity.  Unlike the millenials who were born into a world where electronic multi-tasking (such as emails, texting, SMS, IM) is the norm, or the boomers who have had to make an extra effort as adults to adapt to using technology…generation X was the first to put connectivity to work, professionally and personally.

Paving the electronic connectivity road for younger generations while acting as a model for older generations may have a cost.  As discussed in a recent New York Times article titled “Your Brain on Computers: Hooked on Gadgets and Paying the Mental Price“, the curse of electronic multi-tasking can be high.

However, the skeptical and analytical X’er in me points out that all multi-taskers, electronic or otherwise, must always weigh costs and benefits.  Electronic connectivity has not changed the necessity for balance.  The appeal of the anytime anywhere multi-tasking that connectivity allows only amplifies what we’ve known for ages-we must weigh the benefit of being connected with the cost to authentic human connection. A topic worthy of its own blog post.

So my answer to the title of this post is…connectivity is a gift with strings. I’m proud to be a part of a generation and time that has made technological connectivity work.  If you don’t share my love for MTMM, I challenge you to consider the benefit  next time you see an X’er or Millenial electronic multi-tasking.  Ask them how they balance the benefits with the costs.  You might just learn something.

For those of you who do enjoy a little electronic multi-tasking, test your ability to focus with this distractibility test created at Stanford.  I bet you can’t beat my score.

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Headline: GenX breaks out of the 9 to 5 box

In GenX Pop Culture, Technology, Uncategorized, Work Values on March 18, 2010 at 9:29 am

Remember the Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda movie from 1980 ” 9 to 5″…I can still hear Dolly blasting out the chorus….

Workin 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
Its all takin
And no givin
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

I will certainly not admit in public that Dolly Parton has had any influence on my work life but the idea of questioning the traditional 9 to 5 work schedule certainly started in my little kid brain when I saw this movie years ago.  Even then, I asked myself from where did this idea of working in a confined space for a specified time of day come?  Whose idea was this anyhow? And why do I have to do it this way?

Well..in post WWII where typical office work consisted of controlling and manipulating information to the masses (like a Mad Men episode) and meetings required face to face contact, having a specified time of day and place to do it made sense.  Naturally, boomers being the competitive lot that they are, upped the ante in the seventies and eighties by supporting and practicing the value that the longer you work, the more dedicated and better work you were doing.  Work was life, work defined you.  The “so what do you do?” party conversation opener was born.

Enter Generation X…add in a healthy mix of telecommuting options, video & online conferencing, email, smart phones, personal computers, social networking and voilà, the 9 to 5 idea just doesn’t seem as hot as it used to.  Many industries have caught on and adapted, offering flextime, telecommuting and utilizing internet based programs like wiki to create work spaces that are not dependent on a specific time or place to participate.

The non-profit and public sectors, not so much. Some are still working from the perspective that more time spent IN your office means you are more dedicated, more loyal, a better public worker, a better non-profit executive.   The perspective breeds the idea that NFP Executives must be on beck and call 24/7, because if you aren’t, you somehow aren’t dedicated to your cause. You are a slacker, you are apathetic, you are not “dedicated to the work”.

As a GenXer who appreciates her freedom to set her own schedule, juggle more than one career at a time AND have a life outside of my work, this aggravates me.   I join my GenX colleagues in their desire to balance work with many other roles & responsibilities and the idea of utilizing technology to make me more efficient and produce higher quality work doesn’t intimidate me.  If I want to answer work emails in my robe at my kitchen counter at 5 am, go to the gym between meetings in the middle of the day or blog in the middle of the night-it’s my prerogative (and no, I’m not quoting Bobby Brown), it doesn’t equate to being a slacker, apathetic or any less dedicated.

Before this turns into a giant vent, I will wrap it up with a challenge.  It is up to GenerationX leaders to continue to challenge the old school ways of confining work and placing value on time instead of the quality of our work.  Meanwhile, I challenge the boomers out there to take a day off, go take your shoes off and walk in the grass, find something that has meaning in your life other than the time you work and…next time somebody asks you what you do make up something crazy.

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Information…moving away from a scarcity model

In Technology, Work Values on February 18, 2010 at 1:23 pm

I was recently told by an elder (of the traditionalist generation) that once I joined his board, my job was to be “quiet for two years, then I can talk and contribute.”

It should not come as a surprise to anyone who has read this blog that being quiet is not my forte, nor is holding my tongue when I have something valuable to add or information to share.   My response you ask?  Initially, a chuckle as surely he was kidding.

But he was serious…totally serious.   He really believed that one needed to be informed by experience.  As he eloquently stated, one must take time to learn from those who control information because this is how it was always done.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that listening and experience are very, very valuable and necessary.  The rub came with the suggestion that information I needed was controlled and certainly not accessible in other ways.  The disagreement was a difference in value of HOW the information was gained and the hierarchy it suggested.

Having grown up in the great depression, this gentleman was working from a scarcity model of information-where there truly was limited information available.  A model based on hierarchy and control.   Today,  information is much less scarce and in fact, almost anyone has access to it…good and bad information alike.

Just look at the google machine (and the recent Google Superbowl commercial ), we are beyond looking only at who controls  information, we are now at what do we do with the plethora of information available for consumption.  How do we explore all that is out there, filter what is useful and use it for the good of our groups and organizations?

The paradigm shift has already happened in how we GET information but how does one negotiate the different generational values placed on information, where it comes from and how and when to put it into action?  How can NFP organizations fully embrace this paradigm shift without loosing valuable elders?  And finaly…do I really have to wait two years before I can contribute information?  If so, I’m outta here…moving to a place where the information I share will be valued.

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Technology…game or workhorse?

In Technology on February 4, 2010 at 9:47 am

The dreaded technology issue…I had to bring it up sooner or later so it might as well be now.

I don’t pretend to be a tech geek but I am confident finding information online, manage to juggle three email accounts, a website, social networking sites and enjoy reading blogs or the NYT on my fancy iPhone.  I am not afraid of technology, but I know several folks who are and it is hurting the non-profit and public sectors.

A good friend (and very technically savvy boomer I might add) sent me an interesting article in the NYT yesterday.  It describes an online textbook business model like Netflix, offering greater access to expensive textbooks at a cheaper price for students. Essentially using technology to increase access to information and cut cost.  It is a business model making technology work for the student.

What was even more interesting was a reader comment.

“Technology is big business, so technology needs to be a workhorse, not a game. Another example are school boards – in California we have 1,000 or so school districts. Each district has 5-7 board members. In my 4 year term, it requires a full 48-feet of bookshelf space to house the materials I wade through each month to do my job. The binders, printing, assembling costs are absurd. 48-feet of information is useless. I need a computer to help me wade through the information and make use of it. A paperless board would save our district $200k per year.…. but, but, but we have board members who can barely figure out how to use email, let alone download a document. The old refuse to learn, dictating how the young will learn – oh my.

…I watch our young and older administrators. The older ones have a secretary and staff. The younger ones have a blackberry, apple this or that in their pockets. The older ones take forever to respond to anything. The young are johnny on the spot, responsive and informed. Will somebody do an analysis and get this under control?”

Here is your analysis...people use age as an excuse NOT to use technology. In the spirit of the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall…it’s over, find a new show.  Age is not a valid excuse  for not using a tool that will increase efficacy and reducing the cost of business.  Some of the most tech savvy people I know are boomers or traditionalists.  They have embraced the unknown of technology like the rest of us  and have made it work for them, as it should be.

My tolerance for looking at technology as an add on or game that you can either play or not play is waning.  Technology is here, lets work together to figure out how to use it to our advantage for the sake of our non-profit mission and services.   If you are fearful and want to change, its cool, just ask the Gen X’er sitting next to you with an iPhone in her hand, I’d be glad to help you out.

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