Bridging the Generational Gap:
Leveraging the Powerful Strength of
Gen Y
Tuesday April 29, 2014
1:45 PM to 3:45 PM
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Speakers
• Lorilee Medders, PhD
Research Professor in Risk Management, Florida State University
Lorilee serves as Director of the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center,
focusing her work with graduate students on catastrophe risk management and
international risk management and her work with undergraduates on decision making
under uncertainty by individuals, businesses and society. She has more than 20 years
teaching experience in finance, risk/ insurance and decision sciences at three universities,
and has researched, lectured and conducted workshops for more than a decade on the
challenges and opportunities posed by generational diversity in the business environment.
• Donna Thomas
Senior Vice President, Marsh
Donna Thomas joined Marsh in 2001 as a Client Executive/ Senior Client Advisor and is
responsible for the design, marketing, implementation and servicing of property risk
management programs for energy accounts in the Washington, D.C. / Baltimore office.
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Speakers (continued)
• Shannon Morse
Corporate Risk Manager, Engility Corporation
Shannon joined Engility in July 2012 after working as Risk Manager at Booz Allen Hamilton
in Washington Metro Area for 4 years. Prior to working as Risk Manager, she spent 10 years
with Marsh as multiline insurance broker in Boston and Washington DC.
• Yelena Urcia
Sr. Global Insurance Analyst, AES Corporation
Yelena joined AES in May 2009 as a Global Insurance Analyst. Prior to AES, she had
interned part time with the Southern Company in Atlanta, Georgia while completing her
graduate and undergraduate degrees at Georgia State University.
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What to Expect
• Identify Baby Boomer, Gen X, and Gen Y
characteristics and the potential generational
differences
• Provide examples of typical work scenarios
involving multiple generations
• Learn specific strategies that will help you
build a stronger company as you work with
Gen Y
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Background to the Generations
• Baby Boomers
• Generation X
• Generation Y
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Background- Baby Boomers
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Born between 1945 and 1965
30% of the US population
35% of US workers
65% are married
28% are college graduates
In general, healthier and wealthier than
previous generations
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Background- Baby Boomers
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Competitive
Idealistic
Non-conformists
Loyal
Materialistic
Focused on personal fulfillment
Value titles and the corner office
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Background- Baby Boomers
• Major Influences:
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Birth of Suburbia
Vietnam
JFK/MLK
Television
Watergate
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Background- Generation X
• Born between early 1960s to early 1980s
• Major Influences
Fall of Soviet Union
• Rise of personal computers
• Internet
• MTV – mass media
• Social Diversity
• Increased Divorce Rates
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Background- Generation X
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Independent upbringing
Emerging technology
Entrepreneurial
Diversity as a positive
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Background- Generation X
• Dislikes micromanagement
• Learns through hands-on experience
• Adapts well to using new and changing
technology- though not necessarily
comfortable as a producer of technology
content
• Expects and values emphasis on respect in
the workplace
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Background- Generation Y
• Born between early 1980s to early 2000s
• Major Influences
Terrorism Events - 9/11, Columbine, etc.
• Social Media
• The Great Recession
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Background- Generation Y
• Helicopter Parents/
Child Focused Lives
• Busy/Scheduled Lives
• Born into Information
Age
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Background- Generation Y
• Protagonist Identity – “follow your passion”
• Good at Multitasking and Teamwork
• Technologically Savvy
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What are the Potential Differences?
• Life Purpose and Values
• Hierarchy/ Transparency and Access to
Information
• Work and Family Life
• Access to Technology/Social Media
• Ethics
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What are the Real Differences?
The Evidence from Research is Somewhat Mixed
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Pew Research Center
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Center for Creative Leadership
The Institutes
Others
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What are the Real Differences?
How a Millennial May Differ with respect to
Life Purpose and Values
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Cause/purpose driven
High expectations of self
Strong sense of family/community
Not as religious as prior generations are, or were at the same age
More comfortable with diversity than were prior generations at
the same age
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What are the Real Differences?
How a Millennial May Differ with respect to
Hierarchy/ Transparency and Access
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Question askers
Desire to be included in information exchanges
Want immediate responsibility
Resistant to authority?
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What are the Real Differences?
How a Millennial May Differ with respect to
Work and Family Life
• Seek not just a balance but a mix between work and personal life
(social, community and personal development)
• High expectations of self and employer
• Want to be valued for individuality and outcomes rather than for
presence, punctuality, appearance and activity
• Want to learn transferable skills
• Money oriented?
• Entitled / self absorbed?
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What are the Real Differences?
How a Millennial May Differ with respect to
Use of Technology/Social Media
• Definitively more text and social media friendly than older
cohorts
• Do not necessarily want technology to drive their professional
development
• View technology as a tool for flexibility and creativity
• Older Gen Y’ers not very different from Gen X but younger Gen
Y’ers may be entirely different
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What are the Real Differences?
Use of Technology/Social Media
Research strongly indicates that individuals who have grown up with
high speed computing and social media actually may have different
brain strengths from the rest of us
The advantage: Incredible ability to take in lots of information and
catalog it
The disadvantage: Difficulty making “executive decisions”
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What are the Real Differences?
How a Millennial May Differ with respect to
Trust and Ethics
• A higher percent do not generally trust others than older cohorts
today, but no higher % than for Gen X’ers at same age
• Loyalty is to specific people and ideas, not to organizations
• A higher percent think it is okay to “game” the system than older
cohorts
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What are the Real Differences?
Trust and Ethics
One Gen Y’er put it like this:
“Our generation takes an absolute beating in public perception… , but when it
comes to actual arrogance, we don't have a thing on the Baby Boomers, who are
so stuffed with self-importance that they can't shut up about their
accomplishments (both real and imagined) to this day. Considering how broken
the system in America is in favor of the rich, I don't think it's an unreasonable
response to want to game that system. ‘I don't want to work hard’ could just as
easily mean, ‘I don't want to work hard only to find 20 years later that I've been
abused by an insurmountable, unethical power structure.’ I don't need a new car,
or a fancy smartphone, or a nice house; I just don't want to work my a#% off and
get completely #$%^ed despite it.” ~Anonymous Gen Y blogger
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Situational Scenarios
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Building a Stronger Company
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Encourage teamwork
Flatten the internal perception of the organization
Keep formality to a minimum
Provide frequent individual feedback, with a focus on
development
Break big projects into smaller pieces
Allow (even encourage) the mix of social life in work life
Train them in decision making and conflict resolution
Consider moving more intuitive introverts into management
positions
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Building a Stronger Company
Teamwork
• Create teams for projects and allow the team to allocate work
across members
• Avoid a sense of internal competition, except in cases where
competition is positive (“best new idea”)
• Create cohort teams for professional development, with a mix of
departments and talents represented
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Building a Stronger Company
Flatten the Organization’s Internal Perception
• Have company core values and communicate them clearly in
every project
• Be as transparent as is reasonable, especially with respect to
work opportunities and pay
• Invite everyone who participates on a project to meetings related
to the project
• Allow everyone “teaching and learning” opportunities
• Encourage “grassroots” project genesis and growth
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Building a Stronger Company
Keep Formality to a Minimum
• Keep in-person, formal meetings to a minimum
• Encourage questions and other input from anyone and everyone
• Allow casual attire except when formality is important to a
success
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Building a Stronger Company
Frequent Individual Feedback
• Communicate regularly, both favorable and unfavorable feedback
• Be demanding (accountability is critical)
• Use the need to give unfavorable feedback as a professional
and/or personal development opportunity
• Custom fit feedback to the individual and their individual
contributions as well as that of their team
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Building a Stronger Company
Break Big Projects into Smaller Pieces
• Smaller bits allow for autonomy (and learning from mistakes)
without costing lots of time and money
• Smaller bits make frequent feedback possible
• Smaller bits help develop a sense of success and self confidence
• Accountability is critical
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Building a Stronger Company
Social and Work Life Mix
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Encourage friendships to develop
Include families in company-sponsored events
Create relationship building opportunities/events
Allow, even encourage, play at work
Sponsor, participate and/or recognize participation in
community/civic causes
• Be sensitive to family stress and pressures
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Building a Stronger Company
Decisions and Conflict Resolution Training
• Training on these fronts can be especially successful in groups of
mixed generations
• Spend considerable time on critical thinking skills and ethics
• Train for success using a “values and discernment” approach
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Building a Stronger Company
Intuitive Introverted Managers
• Vision driven and capable of easily flexing between leadership
and support activities
• Good listeners, inviting questions and other input
• Decisive and demanding
• Develop high potential intuitive introverts with good
organizational skills who are values driven (e.g., the MBTI INFJ)
and logic driven (e.g., the MBTI INTJ) for management of ideas,
systems and/or people
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Contact Information
• Dr. Lorilee Medders
Research Faculty, Florida State University
lmedders@business.fsu.edu
• Donna Thomas
Senior Vice President, Marsh
donna.b.thomas@marsh.com
• Shannon Morse
Corporate Risk Manager, Engility Corporation
Shannon.Morse@engilitycorp.com
• Yelena Urcia
Sr. Global Insurance Analyst, AES Corporation
yelena.urcia@aes.com
Recording of this session via any media type is strictly prohibited.
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KEEP THIS SLIDE FOR EVALUATION
INFORMATION/MOBILE APP ETC.
Please complete the session survey on the RIMS14 mobile application.
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