GETTING ALONG WITH THE
GENERATIONS
Dr. Randy Lumpp
Regis University
Adapted especially from the work of
Neil Howe and William Strauss
What’s a “generation”?
• A social cohort shaped by common experience
and common persona
• Born over a period roughly the same as the
passage from youth to adulthood (c. 20 years)
• Shares perceived membership, common beliefs
and behaviors, common location in history
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What a Generation is NOT!
• NOT a recipe for individual behavior
• NOT a predictor of individual values
• NOT the only factor in what people
do or don’t do
• NOT a list of virtues and vices
• NOT a stereo-type
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THINK OF GENERATION AS…..
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AN ATMOSPHERE
AN ENVIRONMENT
AN ORIENTATION
A MOOD
A GESCHTALT, A SENSIBILITY
A CONTEXT FOR WHAT IS CREDIBLE,
PLAUSIBLE, TO BE EXPECTED
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Each generation views events and
the other generations from its
own point of view---
Like boats floating
down a river in
sequence
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EXPERIENCING FROM DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES, CONTEXTS
• GIs: BUILD INSTITUTIONS
• SILENT: RUN INSTITUTIONS
• BOOMERS: REFORM OR ABANDON
INSTITUTIONS
• GEN-X: GET WHAT THEY NEED FROM
INSTITUTIONS
• MILLENNIALS: PARTICIPATE IN INSTITUTIONS
• iGEN: ??
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GENERATIONS ARE IN MOTION
• Childhood (pueritia, age 0–20). Social role: growth
(receiving nurture, acquiring values).
• Young Adulthood (iuventus, age 21–41). Social role:
vitality (serving institutions, testing values).
• Midlife (virilitas, age 42–62). Social role: power
(managing institutions, applying values).
• Elderhood (senectus, age 63–83). Social role: leadership
(leading institutions, transferring values).
• Late Elderhood (age 84+). Social role: dependence
(receiving comfort from institutions, remembering
values).
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WHAT ARE RECENT GENERATIONS?
NICKNAME BORN
• LOST
1883-1900
• G.I
1901-1924
• SILENT
1925-1942
• BOOMER 1943-1960
• XER
1961-1981
• MILLENNIAL 1982-2002
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NUMBER
45M
63M
49M
79M
93M
76M
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GENERATION AGES 2010
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GI
SILENT
BOOMER
GEN X
1901-1924
1925-1942
1943-1960
1961-1981
• MILLENNIAL 1982-2000
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109-86
85-68
67-50
49-29
28-10
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CYCLE OF GENERATIONS
IDEALIST-PROPHET [NF]
REACTIVE-NOMAD [NT]
CIVIC-HERO [SJ]
ADAPTIVE-ARTIST [SP]
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CYCLE OF ERAS
Young adults coming of age
• AWAKENING ERA
• INNER-DRIVEN ERA
• CRISIS ERA
• OUTER-DRIVEN ERA
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Idealists
Reactives
Civics
Adaptives
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GENERATIONAL LIFE CYCLE
• YOUTH
• RISING ADULT
• MIDLIFE
• ELDER
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0-21
22-43
44-65
66-87
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IDEALIST: BOOMER
• Dominant inner-fixated
• Grows up post-crisis, indulged
• Comes of age w/ spiritual
awakening
• Matures into risk taking
• Fragments into narcissistic adults
• Moralistic Mid-lifers
• Visionary Elders
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REACTIVE: GEN-X
• Grows up under-protected,
criticized
• Matures into risk taking, alienated
adults
• Mellows into pragmatic mid-lifers
• Respected but reclusive elders
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CIVIC: MILLENNIALS
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Dominant, outer-fixated builders
Grows up over-protected
Comes of age in secular crisis
Heroic and achieving adults
Building Institutions as mid-lifers
Busy Elders attacked by new
Idealists
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ADAPTIVE: SILENT
• Recessive
• Grows up overprotective,
suffocated
• Matures risk-adverse, conformist
• Indecisive Mid-lifers (no agenda)
• Respected as sensitive elders
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WHAT DEFINES A NEW GENERATION?
• Solves a problem facing the prior youth
generation
• Corrects for behavioral excesses it
perceives in the current midlife
generation
• Fills the social role being vacated by the
departing elder generation
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WHAT’S THE “LIFE-CYCLE” OF A
GENERATION?
• Public discovers the new youth (15-20
years after first birth year)
• Full possession of youth culture (20-25
years)
• Gets maximum public attention (25-30
years)
• Ebbing of public interest (30-35 years)
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What is GENERATION –X?
13th Generation: Reactive, Nomad, born
1961–1981
• Survived a “hurried” childhood of divorce,
latchkeys, open classrooms
• Images: devil-child movies (Rosemary’s
Baby, The Exorcist), Kevin in Home Alone,
Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Ferris
Buehler.., Dumb & Dumber, Adam Sandler
• First generation legally aborted by its
parents
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What is GENERATION –X?
• Shift from G to R ratings (Sex in the City,
South Park, Beavis and Butthead)
• Came of age curtailing the earlier rise in
youth crime and fall in test scores
• Heard themselves denounced as so wild
and stupid as to put The Nation At Risk.
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What is GENERATION –X?
• As young adults, maneuvering
through a sexual battlescape of
AIDS and blighted courtship rituals
• They date and marry cautiously.
• In jobs, they embrace risk and
prefer free agency over loyal
corporatism
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What is GENERATION –X?
• From grunge to hip-hop, their
splintery culture reveals a
hardened edge
• Politically, they lean toward
pragmatism and non-affiliation,
and would rather volunteer than
vote
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What is GENERATION –X?
• Lowest Test Scores
• High rates of crime, suicide, drugs
“…an army of aging Bart Simpsons,
possibly armed and dangerous.” NYT
• Realized adults were not in control of
themselves or the country
• Many Parallels with Lost of the 1920s
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GEN-X IMAGES/PERCEPTIONS
• Tom Cruise in Top Gun
• The Breakfast Club
• In-your-face slam dunks & end zone
spikes
• “lost” “wasted” “ruined” “soulless”
• Sell themselves to the highest
bidder
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GEN-X IMAGES/PERCEPTIONS
• Gen X Steroids vs. Boomer psychedelics
• Jay Leno: “We’re not talking brain cells
here. We’re talking taste buds.”
• Computer hackers
• War Games, Red Dawn, Lone Eagle (NB:
“Lone Eagle” was Lost-Gen hero Charles
Lindberg’s nickname)
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X-er SELF-PERCEPTIONS
• Pragmatic, quick, sharp-eyed
• Quick to catch on to the game of life
(especially when they’re out to get you)
-rising costs, no economic welcome mat
-declining benefits
-money is survival
“If we don’t take care of ourselves, no one will.”
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VIEW OF SCHOOL AND SOCIETY
• Grew up with
– the critique of Dead White Males
– That there was no indispensable
knowledge
(so schools didn’t teach it)
– Urging to be self-reliant, independent,
self-actualizing
– Surviving in the aftermath of Woodstock
and being ticketed for littering
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• “All you need is love” replaced with Gangsta’
Rap
• Nightmare of self-absorbed parents,
disintegrating homes, latch-key life,
• Institutions with conflicting missions,
confused adults
• Aids and other public health crises
• Alex Keaton: the “proto-adult”
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• “stupid” “bad” “random” are words of praise
• David Elkind: “the patch-work self”
• “So many things have already happened in
the world that we can’t possibly come up
with anything else. So why even live?”
• “Teenage Mutant Turtles: “Flushed down the
toilet as children, deformed by radiation,
nurtured on junk food”
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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE
• “Born on Friday the 13th”—13th American
Generation--- Fear it or face it
• “Baby Busters”—Even though more of them
than Boomers
• 20 Million Aborted- last wave 1 in 3
• Adult women
- 1962: 50% stay married for the kids
-1980: 80% say no
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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE
• 4/5 of today’s divorced adults say they’re
happier. The majority of their kids say not.
• 1980:
– 56% had both once-married parents
– 11 w/ a stepparent
– 19 w/ one parent
• The risk of parental divorce for Gen-X kids:
– 2 times that of 60s Boomers
– 3 times that of 50s Silents
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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE
• 1960-80: Mother of preschoolers in the
workplace went from 20% to 47%
• “Latch-key” kids doubled
• Lack of parental authority
• Boomer grade inflation dropped
• School funding dropped
• Poverty benefits & wages dropped
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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE
• Most Republican generation on record
• Lower risk from disease but
– Higher risk of dying from murder, suicide,
accident
– 135,000 guns went to school each day
– Fear of physical harm in school
• College completion:
– Boomer Class of 1972
– Xer Class of 1980
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58%
37%
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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE
• Most heavily incarcerate generation on
record (number and length)
• 1 in 5 lived in poverty
• Believe if unemployed its their own
fault
• As adults, median income fell 17%
• Elders deferred debt to young
• Rise of the “cynical American”
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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE
• The experience of childhood became
“scattered” as Boomers pursued selfrealization (emulated by aging Silents)
• Experienced the opposite of sacrificedfor Boomers.
• “My Three Sons” to “My Two Dads”
• Adults were the children: children got to
deal with the garbage.
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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE
RISING ADULTHOOD
• Increased poverty especially in innercities
• Family subsidized suburbanites
• McJobs
• Less promising promotion paths
• “No Problem” see as the best to be
hoped for
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What is GENERATION –X?
• Widely criticized as “X-ers” or “slackers,” they
inhabit a Reality Bites economy of declining
young-adult living standards
• Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Michael J. Fox,
Michael Dell, Deion Sanders, Winona Ryder,
Quentin Tarantino; Mike Tyson; Eddie
Murphy; Princess Di
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TIPS FOR WORKING WITH GEN-X
• REMEMBER: “We have to take care of
ourselves, because no one else will!”
• Don’t expect concern (or even awareness) of
organization’s well-being
• Want to work-to-live versus Boomer live-towork-aholism
• Pay attention to cost-benefit ratio
• “Community Service” is a punishment
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WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS?
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High school grads of 2000
Older parents
Smaller families
40% firstborns
More educated parents
Slowly stabilizing family patterns
More diverse culturally/immigrant
parents
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WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS?
SEVEN CORE TRAITS
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SPECIAL
SHELTERED
CONFIDENT
TEAM-ORIENTED
CONVENTIONAL
PRESSURED
ACHIEVING
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http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/24/#1/1
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Millennials’ Experience:
Greater Numbers
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More Money
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Greater Diversity
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Greater Safety
Which Security Measures Do You Favor?
• Metal detectors in schools: 86%
• Regulating violent video games & TV
shows: 69%
• Restricting violence in movies & on CDs:
59%
--survey of adults and teens, in USA
Weekend
(July 4, 1999)
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Changing families
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Health expectations
Death Rate per 10,000 U.S. Births:
1946
1996
• For Mothers:
16
1
• For infants:
338
72
--U.S. National Center for
Health Statistics (1999)
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No place to hide
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Stress on health/well-being
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Attention to health issues
Child Immunization Rate (full series)
1992: 55%
1996: 75%
-- Donna Shalala, Secretary of
Health and Human Services (April 10,
1999)
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More educated parents
Percent of College Freshman Having…
1973
1998
Mother with college
Degree or higher
20%
41%
Father with college
Degree or higher
32%
44%
--The American Freshman, UCLA (199798)
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Not like the Boomers
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PERCEIVED AS CONFORMIST
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Managing the Bills
Which “Bill” might you pick as godfather
for your child?
Bill Cosby
76%
Bill Murray 11%
Bill Gates
10%
Bill Clinton
1%
--”Mom and Pop Culture Survey,”
Child (April 1999)
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Generations compared
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Generational Events
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Tracking the Boomers: Perspective
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Famous Generational Figures
Generation
Lost
G.I.
Silent
Boom
X
Millennial
Birth Years
1883-1900
1901-1924
1925-1942
1943-1960
1961-1981
1982-2002
Famous Man Famous Woman
Harry Truman Mae West
Ronald Reagan Ann Landers
M.L. King
S. Day O’Connor
George Bush
Hillary Clinton
Michael Jordan Courtney Love
Zac Hanson
Tara Lipinski
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Different Environments
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Different approaches
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Who’s in charge here?
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The changing youth agenda
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TIPS FOR ENGAGING MILLENNIALS:
(from www.lifecourseassociates.com
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TREAT THEM LIKE VIPs
CO-RECRUIT THE PARENTS
FIND THEM EARLY
LOOK AFTER THEM
OFFER STRUCTURE/TEACH
BASICS
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TIPS FOR ENGAGING MILLENNIALS:
(from www.lifecourseassociates.com
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PROVIDE TIMELY FEEDBACK
DON’T OFFER THENM McJOBS
MAKE THEM PART OF THE GROUP
BE ACTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY
TAKE AN INTEREST IN THEIR
SUCCESS
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Find out more:
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academic.regis.edu/rlumpp
millennialsrising.com
lifecourseblog.com
lifecourseassociates.com
• http://pewresearch.org/millennials/video/conference.php
• http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/24/#1/1
Other resources @amazon.com
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