| Every parent, educator, and manager knows that | | | | wherever they may be. Such virtual teams often |
| "Nintendo children"--those born after 1970 and raised | | | | recruit each other via messages on the Internet, |
| on video and computer games, Walkmans, the | | | | operate smoothly from widely scattered parts of the |
| Internet, etc.--are different. Unfortunately, the Gen-X | | | | world, and many never physically meet their clients or |
| discussion has focused mainly on the youths' | | | | each other. As they finish their day, software |
| supposedly short attention spans and attention-deficit | | | | developers around the globe often electronically |
| disorders, ignoring or underemphasizing what is | | | | forward their work to a colleague in another country |
| perhaps the most crucial factor--that this under-30 | | | | who is just waking up. Managers must become more |
| generation thinks, and sees the world, in ways | | | | adept at managing these connected capabilities and |
| entirely different from their parents.An example: This | | | | directing the acquisition, enhancement, and |
| generation grew up on video games ("twitch speed"), | | | | appropriate deployment of intellectual capital around |
| MTV (more than 100 images a minute), and the | | | | the world.Active vs. PassiveOne of the most striking |
| ultra-fast speed of action films. Their developing | | | | cross-generational differences can be observed when |
| minds learned to adapt to speed and thrive on it. Yet | | | | people are given new software to learn. Older folks |
| when they join our companies, we typically begin by | | | | almost invariably want to read the manual first, afraid |
| putting them in corporate classrooms, bringing in poor | | | | they won't understand how the software works or |
| speakers to lecture at them, and making them sit | | | | that they'll break something. Nintendo-generation |
| through an endless series of corporate | | | | workers rarely even think of reading a manual. |
| videos.Speedwise, we effectively give them | | | | "RTFM" ("read the [expletive] manual") is a term of |
| depressants. And then we wonder why they're | | | | derision. They'll just play with the software, hitting |
| bored.I don't mean to suggest that Sega and Sony | | | | every key if necessary, until they figure it out. If |
| have created new intellectual faculties in under-30s | | | | they can't, they assume the problem is with the |
| but, rather, that technology has emphasized and | | | | software, not with them. This attitude is almost |
| reinforced certain cognitive aspects and | | | | certainly a direct result of growing up with Sega, |
| de-emphasized others. Most of these changes in | | | | Nintendo, and other video games where each level |
| cognitive style are positive. But however one feels, | | | | and monster had to be figured out by trial and error, |
| it's important that managers (as well as educators | | | | and each trial click might lead to a hidden surprise or |
| and parents) recognize that these changes exist so | | | | "Easter egg."We now see much less tolerance in the |
| that we can deal with the younger generation | | | | workplace for passive situations such as lectures, |
| effectively.Below are 10 of the main cognitive style | | | | corporate classrooms, and even traditional meetings. |
| changes, which raise a number of important and | | | | As the younger generation progresses up the |
| difficult challenges. We have already begun to see | | | | managerial ranks, it is likely that such old-fashioned |
| the development of new business structures, ideas, | | | | managerial standbys will be replaced by more active |
| and products that take into account under-30 | | | | experiences such as chat, posting, surfing for |
| employees' cognitive changes and preferences. It is | | | | information, and interactive learning. The process of |
| likely that the full impact of these changes will not be | | | | "designing for doing," i.e., designing systems and |
| felt until the younger generation fully comes to | | | | experiences that employees can actively use, rather |
| power, just as the movies were impacted by the | | | | than things they need to listen to or be afraid of |
| coming-of-age of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. | | | | doing wrong, may become the new generational |
| That time is not far off.Twitch Speed vs. | | | | equivalent of the industrial "designing for |
| Conventional SpeedThe under-30 generation has had | | | | manufacture." Nike's "Just do it" slogan hits this |
| far more experience at processing information quickly | | | | generational change squarely on the head. It also |
| than its predecessors, and is therefore better at it. | | | | explains why Bob Dole's saying to Gen-Xers, "Just |
| Humans have always been capable of operating at | | | | don't do it" placed him so squarely in the past.Play vs. |
| faster-than-"normal" speeds (as airplane pilots, | | | | WorkWhile often derided in the press as intellectual |
| race-car drivers, and speed-reading guru Evelyn | | | | slackers, in reality the under-30s are very much an |
| Wood can attest). The difference is that this ability | | | | intellectual problem-solving generation. Many types of |
| has now moved into a generation at large, and at an | | | | logic, challenging puzzles, spatial relationships, and |
| early age. One problem this generation faces is that, | | | | other complex thinking tasks are built into the |
| after MTV and video games, they essentially hit a | | | | computer and video games they enjoy. Their |
| brick wall--short of piloting a jet, little in real life | | | | spending on such electronic games has surpassed |
| moves that fast. This generation's "need for speed" | | | | spending on movies; PCs are now used more for |
| manifests itself in the workplace in a number of | | | | running entertainment software than for any other |
| ways, including a demand for a faster pace of | | | | application, including word processing. While some |
| development, less "time-in-grade," and shorter lead | | | | have argued that play and games are simply |
| times to success.An important challenge for today's | | | | preparation for work, I think that, for today's |
| managers is how to reassess and speed up their | | | | younger generation, play is work, and work is |
| assumptions around time, while still keeping sight of | | | | increasingly seen in terms of games and game play. |
| other key objectives, such as quality and customer | | | | The fact that the real-life games are very serious |
| relationships. They also need to create experiences | | | | does not make the player's approach any different |
| that maintain the pace and exploit the facility of | | | | than the way she approaches software. |
| "twitch speed" while adding content that is important | | | | Achievement, winning, and beating competitors are all |
| and useful. Several possible approaches include | | | | very much part of the ethic and process.As the |
| speeding things up via technology (such as by | | | | post-1970 generation enters the workforce, its |
| providing workers with the kinds of real-time data | | | | preference for the computer as the medium of play |
| that financial traders use), installing faster | | | | is already beginning to have a profound impact on |
| infrastructures with fiber-optic cable and T-1 | | | | how work gets done. Game interfaces are appearing |
| telephone lines, and creating new, MTV-style | | | | in the workplace. Financial companies are inventing |
| corporate videos. Re-engineering systems and | | | | gamelike trading interfaces in which winning the game |
| activities so that things simply move faster is | | | | means making an actual profit. New associates at |
| another.Parallel Processing vs. Linear ProcessingMuch | | | | Bankers Trust learn about the bank's policies by |
| of the under-30 generation grew up doing homework | | | | playing a nonviolent, customer-focused video |
| while watching TV and doing almost everything while | | | | game.One of older managers' most difficult challenges |
| wearing a Walkman. Many of them feel much more | | | | is to be willing to let the younger generation's play |
| comfortable than their predecessors doing more than | | | | attitude enter the "real" world of business as quickly |
| one thing at once. While some argue that this limits | | | | and smoothly as possible. Instead of resisting play by |
| attention to any one thing, this is not necessarily the | | | | removing or banning all games in the workplace, for |
| case. The mind can actually process many tracks at | | | | example, they could be supporting and funding the |
| once and often has quite a bit of "idle time" from its | | | | development of new game interfaces that help the |
| primary task that can be used to handle other things. | | | | younger generation work and learn in their own |
| Today you see young computer artists creating | | | | cognitive style. The preference for play is also |
| wonderful graphics while listening to music and | | | | influencing business in the form of pressure for a less |
| chatting with co-workers, and young bankers having | | | | formal workplace. Older managers should reconsider |
| multiple conversations on the phone while reading | | | | their resistance to such changes carefully.A potential |
| their computer screens and e-mail.This growth of | | | | opportunity for managers to relate to the play |
| parallel-processing ability appears to be acknowledged | | | | attitude of the new generation might be to |
| by Bloomberg TV News, in which the anchor person | | | | supplement traditional sports-oriented competitions |
| takes up only one-quarter of the TV screen, the | | | | such as softball with inter- and intra-company |
| remainder being filled with sports statistics, weather | | | | tournaments in video and other games. Doing so |
| information, stock quotes, and headlines, all presented | | | | would engage the minds, as well as the bodies, of |
| simultaneously. It is quite possible, and even fun, for a | | | | employees in healthy competition and perhaps foster |
| viewer to take in all of this information and receive | | | | additional company spirit. Finally, the younger |
| much more "news" in the same amount of | | | | generation's play preference has implications for |
| time.Rather than admonishing their young workers to | | | | employee recruiting, as companies that go on campus |
| concentrate on only one thing at a time, managers | | | | with business simulations and other challenging games |
| should be thinking of additional ways to enhance | | | | for potential recruits tend to be very |
| parallel processing and take advantage of this | | | | well-received.Payoff vs. PatienceOne of the biggest |
| increased human capability. This might take, for | | | | lessons the under-30 generation learned from growing |
| example, the form of multiple types of information | | | | up with video games is that if you put in the hours |
| hitting employees' computer screens at once--the | | | | and master the game, you will be rewarded: with the |
| objective of so-called "push" technology and | | | | next level, with a win, with a place on the high |
| Microsoft's new vision for the corporate desktop. | | | | scorers' list. What you do determines what you get, |
| With all the information needed to do the | | | | and what you get is worth the effort you put in. |
| job--numbers, video feeds, links, simultaneous | | | | Computers excel at giving feedback, and the payoff |
| meetings, and the ability to move seamlessly | | | | for any action is typically extremely clear. A key |
| between them--it's the Nintendo worker's nirvana.This | | | | outcome of this is a huge intolerance on the part of |
| generation's enhanced parallel-processing ability may | | | | the younger generation for things that don't pay off |
| also help them slide easily into the new "boundaryless | | | | at the level expected. Why, they ask, should I finish |
| organizations," in which each worker is expected to | | | | school when elementary school kids can design |
| wear multiple hats and be part of many | | | | professional Web sites, 20-year-olds can start |
| constituencies. I remember when the requirement | | | | billion-dollar companies, and Bill Gates, who left school |
| that consultants at firms such as BCG and McKinsey | | | | for something with more payoff, is the world's |
| serve simultaneously on multiple-project teams was | | | | richest man?Young people make these |
| considered unusual and highly suspect. With the arrival | | | | payoff-vs.-patience decisions every minute, and |
| of the new generation, such parallelism is being | | | | sometimes in ways that are counterintuitive. For |
| demanded.Random Access vs. Linear ThinkingThe | | | | example, it was at first strange to me that the same |
| under-30 generation is the first to experience | | | | people who prefer "twitch" games often have great |
| hypertext and "clicking around," in children's computer | | | | patience with slow Internet connection speeds and |
| applications, in CD-ROMs, and on the Web. This new | | | | the sometimes long waiting times in a game like Myst. |
| information structure has increased their awareness | | | | I suspect it is because they have decided, or realized, |
| and ability to make connections, has freed them | | | | that the payoff is worth the wait. The challenge for |
| from the constraint of a single path of thought, and | | | | older managers is to understand just how important |
| is generally an extremely positive development. At | | | | these payoff-vs.-patience tradeoffs are to younger |
| the same time, it can be argued--with some | | | | people, and to find ways to offer them meaningful |
| justification--that unbridled hyperlinking may make it | | | | rewards now, rather than advice about how things |
| more difficult for these workers to follow a linear | | | | will pay off "in the long run."One clear business |
| train of thought and to do some types of deep or | | | | manifestation of this requirement for payoff is the |
| logical thinking. "Why should I read something from | | | | increasing demand for a clearer link between what |
| beginning to end, or follow someone else's logic, | | | | employees do and the rewards they get, leading to |
| when I can just 'explore the links' and create my | | | | the growing trend toward pay-for-performance. |
| own?" While following one's own path often leads to | | | | Another result is the increasing use of equity as a |
| interesting results, understanding someone else's logic | | | | component of compensation, along with the |
| is also very important. A difficult challenge is how to | | | | replication of equity-like compensation structures to |
| create experiences that allow people to link | | | | reward workers with a "piece of the action" for their |
| anywhere and experience things in any order yet still | | | | own initiatives and efforts. The growing realization |
| communicate s!equential ideas and logical thinking.One | | | | that this generation wants its payoff now has also |
| approach is to set up new information-delivery | | | | led to an increased willingness on the part of many |
| systems, such as corporate intranets, that let | | | | businesses to provide seed capital and to "spin-off" |
| workers break out of the traditional boxes in which | | | | internal start-ups, allowing workers to potentially cash |
| corporate information has been stored, and then to | | | | in more quickly and allowing the firm to benefit |
| create tools to link this information to systems that | | | | long-term through an equity position.Fantasy vs. |
| provide logical and decision-making structure. The U.S. | | | | RealityTo me, one of the most striking aspects of |
| intelligence and military communities recently created | | | | the under-30 generation is the degree to which |
| Intelink, an intranet-based system in which | | | | fantasy elements, both from the past (medieval, |
| information becomes universally available as quickly as | | | | Dungeons & Dragons imagery), and the future (Star |
| it gets created, allowing users at all levels the | | | | Wars, Star Trek, and other science-fiction imagery) |
| freedom to create and explore random paths that | | | | pervade their lives. While young people have always |
| lead to new ideas. The linking and browsing | | | | indulged in fantasy play, the computer has by its |
| structures of the Internet and intranets have many | | | | nature made this easier and more realistic, in many |
| positive benefits, and managers of | | | | ways bringing it to life. Sociologists might say that |
| Nintendo-generation employees should encourage, | | | | some or all of this is due to a desire to escape the |
| rather than discourage, their creation and use. | | | | realities of today's life: fewer good jobs, more |
| Managers should also be exploring nonlinear electronic | | | | alienation, and a degrading environment. Whatever its |
| alternatives to today's reports, manuals, lectures, and | | | | cause, the fantasy phenomenon has certainly been |
| lengthy narrational videos.Graphics First vs. Text | | | | encouraged by technology. Network technology |
| FirstIn previous generations, graphics were generally | | | | allows people not only to create their new fantasy |
| illustrations, accompanying the text and providing | | | | identities but to express them to others and join in |
| some kind of elucidation. For today's young people, | | | | fantasy communities. The huge interest in chat rooms |
| the relationship is almost completely reversed: The | | | | and in individual home pages is, at least in part, |
| role of text is to elucidate something that was first | | | | another manifestation of this.Rather than admonish |
| experienced as an image. Since childhood, the | | | | younger workers to "grow up and get real" and |
| younger generation has been continuously exposed | | | | abandon their rich fantasy worlds, managers should |
| to television, videos, and computer games that put | | | | look for new ways to combine fantasy and reality to |
| high-quality, highly expressive graphics in front of | | | | everyone's benefit. One place it may be possible to |
| them with little or no accompanying text.The result | | | | do this is in the design of work spaces: Spaces |
| of this experience has been to considerably sharpen | | | | designed by the younger generation are very |
| their visual sensitivity. They find it much more natural | | | | different from those of their predecessors and from |
| than their predecessors to begin with visuals, and to | | | | those designed for them by the older generation. |
| mix text and graphics in a richly meaningful way. An | | | | Companies already run by Nintendo-generation |
| excellent example of this is Wired, whose intensive | | | | individuals generally have much more informal |
| use of graphics makes it highly appealing to younger | | | | furniture and settings, and often have special rooms |
| readers but difficult for many older folks to | | | | for games, etc. Microsoft's "campus" is full of indoor |
| read--"Why can't they just give us the plain text?" is | | | | and outdoor play opportunities.The younger |
| the complaint I hear from colleagues. This shift | | | | generation's fantasy preferences can also seen in the |
| toward graphic primacy in the younger generation | | | | growth of new "off-the-wall" job titles, such as |
| raises some extremely thorny issues, particularly with | | | | Yahoo's "Chief Yahoo" or Gateway 2000's "chief |
| regard to textual literacy and depth of | | | | imagination officer." Young workers may be willing to |
| information.The managerial challenge is to design | | | | go a lot further with their imaginations--Gateway |
| ways to use this shift to enhance comprehension, | | | | decorates its shipping boxes as cows. We are also |
| while still maintaining the same or even greater | | | | seeing an increasing debureaucratization of systems |
| richness of information in the new context. In the | | | | and procedures in many organizations. Perhaps it is |
| training area, creative groups such as Corporate | | | | not too far off when some companies will sport their |
| Gameware, my unit of Bankers Trust, are presenting | | | | own "Klingon," "Borg," or "Wookiee" divisions doing |
| important but not especially "sexy" or exciting | | | | serious business while decked out |
| material in ways that conform with the preferences | | | | appropriately.Technology as Friend vs. Technology as |
| of younger employees by using the highly graphic | | | | FoeFinally, growing up with computers has |
| style of video games. Another promising | | | | engendered an overall attitude toward technology in |
| development is data visualization, in which large arrays | | | | the minds of the younger generation that is very |
| of information are presented as colorful, | | | | different from that of their predecessors. To the |
| ever-changing graphic images that visually accent | | | | older generation, technology is generally something to |
| different characteristics of the data. These tools are | | | | be feared, tolerated, or at best harnessed to one's |
| beginning to make serious headway in data-intensive | | | | purposes. No matter how easy we make it, this |
| business fields such as finance and marketing. | | | | generation doesn't want to program its VCRs or |
| However, they should be considered by managers in | | | | even, for the most part, surf the Net (though there |
| all industries as an approach that fits the new | | | | are, of course exceptions, such as the Internet's |
| generational style.Connected vs. Stand-aloneWhile the | | | | becoming a useful way for the retired generation to |
| previous generation was linked by the telephone, that | | | | stay connected and productively use their leisure |
| system is synchronous (i.e., both people have to be | | | | time).Yet even if the older generation comes to |
| there). The under-30 generation has been raised with, | | | | technology willingly, or is forced by a changing culture |
| and become accustomed to, the asynchronous | | | | to learn and embrace technology, it will never be as |
| worldwide communication of e-mail, broadcast | | | | entirely comfortable and trusting of it as are their |
| messages, bulletin boards, usegroups, chat, and | | | | children. To the younger generation, the computer is |
| Internet searches. As a result of this "connected" | | | | a friend. It's where under-30s have always turned for |
| experience, young people tend to think differently | | | | relaxation and fun. For many in the generation, |
| about how to get information and solve problems. | | | | owning or having access to a computer feels almost |
| For example, if I need a question answered I'll | | | | like a birthright. Being connected is a necessity. The |
| typically call the three or four people I think might | | | | huge generational reversal in technical skill, where |
| know. It might take me time to get to them, and | | | | parents must turn to their children for help in using |
| take them a while to get back to me. When my | | | | their expensive equipment, is now legendary. "What |
| 22-year-old programmer wants to know something, | | | | technology will I have?" is often the key factor in a |
| he immediately posts his question to a bulletin board, | | | | young worker's decision about what job to |
| where three or four thousand people might see it, | | | | accept.How can an older generation of managers |
| and he'll probably have a much richer answer more | | | | relate to and help employees who see computers |
| quickly.The challenge for managers is to invent ways | | | | and related technology in this way? One way is to |
| of taking advantage of this connected mode in their | | | | empower them to create new business |
| interactions with the younger generation, as the | | | | elements--computer applications, structures, models, |
| younger people do among themselves. The more we | | | | relationships, Web pages--that make sense for their |
| help connect these employees to each other and to | | | | generation. Another possible approach is to continually |
| customers, the quicker they will invent positive ways | | | | seek ways to communicate, transfer needed |
| to take advantage of it. The "connectedness" of the | | | | information, and build desired skills via the media the |
| generation has also made young workers much less | | | | younger generation willingly engage in, such as |
| constrained by their physical location and more willing | | | | computers and games.Rather than forcing the |
| to work in the so-called "virtual teams" that are | | | | younger generation to use the methods of the past, |
| becoming more useful in a variety of businesses and | | | | managers should be offering them the resources to |
| industries.Workers who have grown up online tend to | | | | create their own approaches that will work in their |
| be much more comfortable with seeking out and | | | | new cognitive environment. |
| working with the best, most knowledgeable people, | | | | |