Work for Change

Gen X Strategy #1: Seeing What's In Front of Your Face

Scott Mills, Ph.D.

For each generation of employees, Dr. Rodgers and I have identified some key leverage points in efforts to create change and foster innovation in organizations.   These are rooted in the generational worldview or story that I have written about earlier as well as the characteristics that we have seen across the generations.  I chose to start this series by stating what might seem obvious but doesn't quite play out that way.  The most important strategy for enlisting Gen X in change efforts is to recognize their value.

As I noted in an earlier article, Gen X has been largely invisible as a generation even as our societal contributions have continued to grow.   Where would we be without Google and Amazon?  Thank the Xers.  Gen X has grown up in a period where children were largely ignored by American culture.  We came home to empty houses as latch key kids, learned to fend for ourselves and spent "quality time" with our parents.   As a result, one of the most significant elements of our worldview tends to be a sense of being unseen or invisible.  This is especially true for institutions.

This has had direct implications for the business world.   The most obvious example is that almost all business journal articles on the generations are currently focusing on Boomers or Millennials.   While we are small in numbers, we are incredibly innovative.  Our capacity to see outside of the box often leads to creative solutions that would otherwise go unseen.   

However, our basic skepticism of authority figures means that we may not share our ideas unless we are in a place of trust.  Our ideas and innovations have become our capital with which we can move from company to company.   This can lead to a huge loss of knowledge and innovation for companies that are busy paying attention to retiring Boomers and entering Millenials.  You may have noticed that many Xers simply strike out on their own and then hire themselves out to companies that truly value them as consultants.

So the starting point for enrolling Gen X in change management efforts (as well as keeping them on the job) is to actively value the work that we do, speak with integrity making only commitments that you truly can keep and making an effort to see us.  While this may take a bit of effort at first the payoff is increased sharing of high leverage ideas and commitment to organizations that value us.

A Story for Change: Examining Gen X's Worldview

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.