Scott Mills, Ph.D.
After interviewing people from all over North America for years it has become clear that each of the generations have a story of their own. While some researchers have limited their understanding to characteristics of the generations, Dr. Rodgers and I have seen that understanding the worldview or story of a group creates greater capacity for understanding and growth. Out of this comes new opportunities for innovation as well as efficiency.
In order to provide a very brief taste of this story, I have limited this series to four questions. Who am I? Who do I belong to? What shall I create? What does it all mean? Surprising to many, people from different generations have different basic answers to these questions. (Look for our book this spring if you would like a fuller version of this work.) In this article, I am looking specifically at Gen X.
Who am I?
At the root of this question is how we understand ourselves and whether other people see us. In integral psychology one of the basic needs of humans is to be seen for who they are. In the case of Gen X, we have often been invisible to the world at large. We are sandwiched between the larger Boomers and Millenials. This has meant that often our needs and concerns have largely been unnoticed or ignored. With Gen Xers often telling ourselves that those around us, particularly institutions, miss who we are, there is a great opportunity for connecting to Xers simply by making a concerted effort to understand who we are.
Who do I belong to?
Xers grew up in a time where the American family was on a decline. More women had entered the workforce and the latch key kid was born. At the same time, after school programs were cut around the country leaving many children to fend for themselves. As a result, the question of belonging shifted. We often felt missed by our families and communities and created tribes of our own. With the television as our most common babysitter, there are entire inside languages that have been formed from these cultural references. The television program Friends is a perfect example of the way that Gen Xers have formed our own communities.
What shall I create?
This has been a particularly sticky question for Xers. Raised in a time where the world seemed to be going to hell in a handbasket, left with tremendous environmental problems and an economic morass, the world has often seemed overwhelming. Couple this with a healthy skepticism of the institutions that once protected us and you can imagine that Xers are often seeking different answers to this question. And we are seeking different solutions. As Jeff Gordinier has recently pointed out in Gen X Saves the World, Xers have not lived up to their apathetic reputations. Instead, we have quietly but in great numbers worked to create local solutions to problems around the world. This is also reflected in the fact that Xers are not as tied to their workplace as our parents often were.
What does it all mean?
This question has actually driven much of my research. Across the country more and more people are asking this question. The answers that they find are very diverse and particularly for Xers, often very individual. However, this question points to our life purpose at its core. Xers have been pushing the postmodern envelope pointing to the small pleasures, connections with other people and the satisfaction of solving problems both large and small for meaning.
Obviously, this is only a very wide view of Gen X's worldview. The starting point is simply asking the questions. I can guarantee that each individual will have their own particular way of answering these questions but patterns do emerge. If we can begin to understand the importance of these questions in the way that we live our lives and connect to our answer in the workplace, we will create spaces for engaged community to emerge and innovation to flourish.