A short Anecdote

A short anecdote on two cultures:

Problem: An urgent email does not reach the addressee – all we get is a failure notice. What we know is the addressee’s name and profession. So what to do now?

The digital immigrant sitting next to me tries to send the mail five more times and wonders if there is a problem with either his/her own email-provider or the addressee’s provider.

The digital native simply does some short web research and finds out the addressees phone number and an alternative email-address. It’s as easy as that.

See the difference?

Do you have privacy online?

The internet has given us thousands of ways to interact and share information – without limits!       If you want to, you can put out all personal details of yourself for the entire world to see. You can air out your dirty laundry online!  But is this a negative tendency? Or is it rather ‘old fashioned’ to guard one’s privacy carefully? Or do we share everything on the internet, because we can’t manage the openness and boundlessness the internet offers? And this discussion gets even more complex in a business context: How much is a company allowed to control what their employees post online? And who decides what’s right and wrong? And the consequences for breaking the ‘rules’?  Moreover there might be advantages for the companies of being open and sharing – e.g. free advertising, a possibility to get fast feedback (from your customers) and (even) a way to win trust…

Do the Digital Natives burn out because of technological overload?

Do the internet, the constant accessibility and the opportunity of being online 24/7 result in overload?

And are particularly the Digital Natives at the risk of burning out early in their career – as this article in Forbes describes?
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/larissafaw/2011/11/11/why-millennial-women-are-burning-out-at-work-by-30/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed).
If the Digital Natives are burning out, does it then happen, because Digital Natives absolutely want to use so many different technologies at the same time?

Or because they still haven’t learned to use the right or the right ‘dose’ of technologies in their working life?

Or maybe because the Digital Natives simply work so hard, because they want to prove to the Digital Immigrants, that they can do the job – and even manage even more work by use of new different technologies?
Are the Digital Natives really overloaded and in risk of burning out? Or are we all?

‘Technostress’ and information overload might simply be inevitable consequences of a world full of technology – the drawbacks of the internet – and can we do anything about it at all?

Do the Digital Natives deserve the integrity, they demand?

Digital Natives are used to get thousands of hits on Google within half a second. But not only do they search after results for their school papers or check up on their new date – they check you, your company and your products out too. If you lie or don’t deliver what you promised, they’ll find out in no time.                                                                            

Both the internet and their networks give them the possibility to receive and share information faster that the older generations were able to.
Before buying they even check up upon your products, your production and labour conditions and your csr strategy – and they judge and decide in the light of these!
As employees the Digital Natives are even more critical than as customers. If they can’t identify themselves with your company and strategy, they won’t work for you.

So it’s clear that the Digital Natives demand integrity and judge you based on e.g. your csr strategies and ethical point of view. Opposite the older generations the Digital Natives have an easier and faster access to information about you and your firm.

And then what?

Do the Digital Immigrants still have the power to ignore this demand and continue as always?
Or do the Digital Natives have enough influence to get the firms to adapt.
Can we bridge the generations?

Can the Digital Natives multi-task?

Can they actually watch TV, listen to music, chat with friends via Facebook, eat and talk to their parents while doing their homework at the same time? Or more precisely; can they actually pay attention to it all at the same time? 

Multi-tasking is one of the biggest buzzwords today, but can we actually multi-task, or are we in fact ‘just’ hopping fast from one thing to another?
Hopping – or switchtasking as Lancaster & Stillman describe it – means that we focus on a number of different things within a very short space of time. But we still focus on one thing at the time and shut out the others.
And it seems that digital natives simply are faster to hop than the older generations.

But is this an ineffective way of working? Is it really more profitable to focus strictly on one task at the time?
A new Danish article[1] about multi-tasking (hopping) points out, that to solve a work task by using multi-tasking (hopping) can give a feeling of victory or satisfaction.
At the same time it seems, that the digital natives are most comfortable with at lot going on around them – otherwise they might get bored and lose their motivation.

For you as an employer this means that if you try to restrict the digital natives’ hopping / switchtasking working methods, it might have a negative influence on their work. On the other hand hopping can lead to solutions, you had never thought of in the first place – because it allows us to get ideas and information from a lot different sources while working.

 

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[1] http://www.kommunikationsforum.dk/artikler/kreativ-multitasking

Collaborate with the digital natives

They key to the new generations’s willingness to collaborate and innovate is giving them freedom.

If something doesn’t fit their needs, they feel free to change it – and even better: They change it together!
They don’t only do it for their own benefits but also as a rewarding and educational collaboration.
One of the most evident examples of that is Wikipedia – many thousand volunteers write and edit every day. 

Whilst the digital natives collaborate online they influence each other at the same time. And here you have to remember, that all the while they are discussing brands, products, companies etc., they might be discussing you and your company as well…

And they will keep talking whether you participate or not! If you want to build bridge to this new generation, you have to listen to them and ask questions – they won’t spontaneously invite you.
But if you do, you may have the change to collaborate with them:

As customers the best way to oblige the digital natives as consumers would be to give them the change to collaborate with you. In addition you will probably be surprised how willing the new generation is to share details of their lives – if it results in a product that better suits their needs, they will tell you everything. They might even help you create or design it, if you dare let them!

And as employees the digital natives want to solve things – to innovate and change. Here their needs for collaboration find expression too: They want to change, innovate and work etc. together with other people

I´m not saying, that you should reorganize your company and the daily routines, but showing the digital natives, that you understand and respect their different ways of working and thinking, can be a valuable investment to your firm. Remember that digital natives are your new employees as well as your new customers!

Generation freedom

Understanding the next generation, the digital natives, is not an option; it is a necessity!
They are different from any other generation: They think, live, work, consume, interact etc. differently – and they are going to change the world…

A particular characteristic of the digital natives is their demand on freedom:

”The Internet has given them the freedom to choose what to buy, where to work, when to do things like buy a book or talk to friends, and even who they want to be.” Don Tapscott.

The digital natives want the freedom to choose where and when they work. Hierarchy and ‘nine to five’ office hours are seen as a limitation: They want flexible hours and want to work outside the office – all they need is internet access!
Instead of forcing them to adapt to ‘how we use to do’, we might discover, that the digital natives are more creative and productive, when they are able to work ‘their way’.
Statistics show us, that the new generation stays less than 3 years at a Job. If the digital natives, also called Millenials or Gen Y, do not find the job attractive or intellectual satisfying, they simply move on to the next one! If you want them to stay, you have to s. take into consideration . take into considerationhow consideration for their ways of working.

As customers the digital natives want freedom to – and the more choices the better! They don’t get overwhelmed by the range but actually see it as a challenge to find the perfect fit.
But not only do they have choices, they have an opinion too. And that they are used to give their opinions on everything – and be heard – do we see numerous examples of like blogging, chat rooms, social networks, wikis etc.udtale sig om
But more important: They have money! And moreover do they have enormous influence on their parents and their money.
As customers the digital natives use technology too – as in any other part of their lives. They know what they are going to buy even before they leave the house: They have checked it all out online. The technologies are their tools to cut through the maze and find the product that best fits their needs. Plus they have the money to buy it or the sufficient influence on their parents’ money.

…that’s why it is so important to build a bridge between the Gen X and Gen Y.

And therefore I will continue focusing on some of the concepts, which characterize the next generation, the digital natives, in my following posts.

That is a good question!

Digital Natives – the next generation

If you understand the Generation Digital Natives, you will understand the future!

You´ll hear lots of older employers voice the same complaint: Young workers today are spoiled brats. They want freedom.

The most Digital Natives reject the “nine to five” working hours. They want to choose where and when they work. Flexibility in hours and benefits is the most crucial way to attract and keep Digital Natives. 

Pampered you say? Actually they may be more creative and productive this way.