By , Judith Glaser
Published May 03, 2016
While Millennials have been heavily criticized for their obsession with technology, they have been evolving as collaborators, multitaskers and consumers of complex information. In short, they are becoming exactly the kind of employees and eventually a future leaders that an organization can leverage in today’s interconnected world. Organizations need to learn to see the benefits of such behavior and harness it. After all, by 2025, this generational cohort will, by some estimates, account for nearly 75% of the workforce. So smart leaders should start seeing how to capitalize on their assets, integrate them into the organization, and leverage and experiment with their talents cross-generationally.
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How Millennials tick: What we know
As a fervent ‘experimentalist,’ and someone with a background in neuroscience, I like to start with what makes Millennials tick. Here are some recent scientific research findings on the millennial brain that I’ve been sharing with leaders and organizations to which I provide Conversational Consulting. Two of the characteristics I find most fascinating to explore and challenge are ‘social sharing’ and ‘multi-tasking.’
Interpreting the data, we believe that Millennials seem to be better at fielding higher levels of information than their elders and are therefore able to process, integrate and act on data more quickly and to ignore distractions when necessary. Studies at Stanford University confirm this by showing that heavy multi-taskers are more aware of various forms of input than are light-multi-taskers.
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Leveraging Millennials’ best talents: A case study
From a leadership standpoint, the real key is leveraging Millennials in productive and impactful ways. Burberry cracked the code on this generational challenge.
Angela Ahrendts, previous CEO of Burberry, saw an opportunity to put the Millennial mind to work to reinvent Burberry’s future. She hired a large number of ‘digital natives’ - as Angela called them – to do what they do best – socializing through technology.
According to Angela, “One of the things we did was we created a Strategic Innovation Council – headed by Christopher Bailey (the current CEO of Burberry) who came together once a month with the most innovative ‘digital natives’ at Burberry to innovate Burberry’s future. Ideas like ‘Tweet Walk’ – was one of their breakaway experiments invented by Millennials that took Burberry’s traditional runway show to a digital level by broadcasting it around the globe instantaneously as it was happening.” The ‘digital natives’ dreamt up the digital runway experiment, and the Executive Council (Senior Executives) – made the breakthrough idea real – which created an innovation partnership between generations that catalyzed Burberry’s global growth.
While Baby Boomers might see phones, tablets, and other devices as the necessities of business, Millennials use these devices as vital tools for engaging, thinking and innovating in real time. They put their innovative thinking to use quickly, are fearless about what they know and are open to learn what they don’t know.
Millennials have evolved and developed through this exponentially expanding digital world. Instead of trying to fit Millennials into other generational molds, we need to celebrate and apply their strengths. Instead of judging their behavior, we need to embrace it and partner with it since it's through this framing that Millennials have the power to change the world.
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https://www.foxnews.com/us/science-explains-the-millennial-brain