The challenges and opportunities facing South Africa in 2012
December 28, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
Trevor Manuel was moved our of the Treasury some time ago and has spent much of his time in a new entity called the National Planning Commission (NPC) of South Africa. The NPC is tasked with identifying and responding to the key challenges facing the nation. They are releasing the results of their work in various ways, but I think the best of these is in a series of videos.
The first one worth watching is 10 minutes outlining the 9 most significant challenges facing South Africa. Similar to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, this lays out a great programme for South Africans to support. Watch it here, or below:
Trevor then personalises these big picture issues by focusing in on just one person: a young person who is facing a tough future in difficult circumstances. He outlines the difficulties she faces, and some of the solutions that will help her. Watch the video here, or below:
As Trevor says, “This must be shared by all South Africans… If as a nation we know where we want to be in 2030, we will share the burden of the journey along the way… there are both costs and benefits to be had. Very importantly, we need to act together in our collective interests.” Precisely right!
Is it really Christ-mas in Britain this year?
December 25, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
Last week, David Cameron made an interesting speech on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. The item that received most press coverage in the speech was Mr Cameron asserting that “We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so.” He admitted personally to be a committed but only vaguely practising Christian with some deep doubts about some theological issues.
He continued: “I know and fully respect that many people in this country do not have a religion. And I am also incredibly proud that Britain is home to many different faith communities, who do so much to make our country stronger. But what I am saying is that the Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today.”
Some would argue that a time of national crisis and difficulty is precisely when the church can shine in society. The Economist from the previous week had made just such a point in an insightful piece (read it in full here, or an extract below).
Postscript added on 25 December: The Queen’s speech today was filled with Christian messages, and a strong almost evangelistic message. It’s probably the strongest specifically Christian message I have ever heard from a member of the Royal family in the UK. Is this a sign that the leaders of the country have made a decision to use the Christian faith as a means to developing the nation? If so, the church needs to jump at the opportunity. But it must do so realising that people are seeking God, not the church. They want faith, not a religion.
Just for fun: Seasons greetings in a world gone mad
I had wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my family, friends and colleagues, but it is so difficult in today’s crazy politically correct world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my solicitor recently, and on her advice I wish to say the following:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally friendly, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender non-specific celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted Gregorian calendar year 2011, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our world great and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message.
OR, if you prefer, have yourself a merry little Christ-mas and a wonderful new year.
Christmas card etiquette in a digital age
December 22, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
It used to be an art form. Sending Christmas cards, that is.
You had to select just the right card to portray the right message: not too wintry if you’re southern hemisphere, not to secular if you’re religious (or vice versa), and always consider buying from a charity – it showed you cared. Then, you had to spend a long time making your list of recipients. Was there anybody to add? Anyone to remove? And, of course, you then had to hand write each one of them, and send them individually.
It was costly: in money, time, effort.
It was personalised.
It meant something.
That was then.
But it’s different now. It’s been happening for a while, but I only noticed this past week how many people have now gone digital with their Christmas cards.
That’s not a problem – it makes sense. But I don’t think we’ve got the etiquette quite right. Too many of the email “cards” I’ve received as Christmas greetings this year have been sent out as mass mailers. People haven’t even taken the time to customise the greeting for me, preferring to just hit “send to all”. I recognise that some have taken some time and effort to craft. And I have enjoyed some of them as they’ve helped me catch up on the lives of some of my friends. That’s been useful for friends who still haven’t started chronicling their lives on Facebook.
But mostly, I have just deleted the emails after a very cursory reading. They really haven’t made a connection.
I don’t think I am turning into a grumpy old man who yearns for the “good old days” before all of this “dehumanising technology” took over. I firmly believe that, correctly used, technology can help us to connect more, and connect better, than we ever have. But sending out mass mailer “Dear friend
In my view, we either have to downgrade what we think Christmas cards are (maybe they were never heartfelt before, and maybe we weren’t as friendly with all those people anyway). Or we need to take the time and effort and energy we used to take to make a personal connection with people who mean something to us. I did not send Christmas greetings this year, and I am sorry I didn’t. It feels like an opportunity to connect has been lost. But sending out a generic greeting is equally a lost connection opportunity.
I don’t want to downgrade my view of Christmas cards. But I want us to upgrade our use of technology to make personal connections at this time of year.
Let’s use technology to enable a better humanity, rather than detract from it.
What do you think?
Selling to Generation X: you must connect to their families – in their way!
December 14, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
One of the keys (not the only key, but a very important key) to advertising and selling to Generation X is to connect to their families. Gen X are the generation who were born and grew up in the 1970s and early 80s. They are not “the young people” anymore, although this is still how Boomers think of them.
They’re in their 30s and early 40s, have families, mortgages and mid life issues. They’re as settled as they’re ever going to be (although this isn’t what it looked like for the Boomers). One of the things they’re very focused on is their families. Some of these middle managers, for example, are turning down promotions – not because they don’t want to move up in their companies, but because they don’t want to move their families to a new location (their son just made the first sports team at school, and they don’t want to move him). And they will prioritise family time more than any previous generations.
So, if you want to impress them, get their attention, touch their emotions and connect with them, it would be a good idea to connect with their sense of family values. But it’s a new type of family these days, isn’t it?
Microsoft’s latest campaign attempts to do just that – and they get it mainly right. “It’s a great time to be a family” is the tag line, and the series of adverts portray families using technology to do traditional family activities in exciting new ways. Here’s a great example (see more below):
They are really well put together and strike a chord with Gen X. To connect with Gen X you need to show that you understand the new rhythms and relationships of today’s families. They’ve also been adapted for different cultures (there are some excellent changes made for different countries in the homework video, for example – I like the Indian version best; compare it to this).
But they also show the limitations of traditional advertising these days. If you’re an Apple fan, for example, you’d be very unlikely to change across to a PC with Windows based on these adverts – you might even laugh a bit as you realise how simple graphics, videos and multimedia are on Apple compared to Windows. And if you own a PC, you get Windows standard, so I am not sure what these adverts are trying to do. Surely, Microsoft can funnel their creativity (and awesome budget) into something that achieves a lot more.
The connection with a generation’s value is important – in fact, a vital starting point. But you then also need to connect with the experiences of that generation and communicate with them in ways that make sense to them. This series of adverts from Microsoft does the first thing brilliantly, but falls short on the rest. But, that’s better than most, who don’t even pass the first connection hurdle with this middle aged, but still much misunderstood, generation.
Some other adverts from this series include:
Read more
Updated edition of ‘Mind the Gap’ available now
December 9, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
Exciting news: My best-selling book, “Mind the Gap” originally published by Penguin in 2004 has been fully revised and updated and is now available. Buy it from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or Kalahari.net.
Nearly 25,000 copies of the book have already been sold, making one of the best selling South African published business books of all time.
And now it’s even better.
This new edition includes a few new chapters. You’ll find our predictions for the latest generation, and maybe you’ll agree with what we’ve decided to label it (there were many options). We’ve added information (and some predictions) about today’s children, and completely revamped the section on Generation Y.
You’ll find an entirely new section at the end of the book about how to apply generational theory around the world, to different countries, regions and people from different economic classes. Our team has spent the last ten years applying generational theory on every continent, and we’ve learnt a lot from people all around the world. We hope these new chapters distil some of what we have learnt into helpful lessons for you.
You’ll also find a few new ‘quick info boxes’ scattered through the book. We know from feedback that these were a much enjoyed feature of the first edition. We have updated almost all of the first edition lists too.
There is not one single chapter that hasn’t had a thorough update. Some chapters have been almost rewritten, while others have had significant additions and expansions. The bibliography and further reading list at the end has also been updated to reflect some of the latest research into generations.
The only downside is that right now the book is not available in ebook format. Penguin, the publisher, are still negotiating author rights across the world for all their authors, and have not yet released any of their titles in ebook format. They are hopeful this will happen in early 2012. Watch this space for more info. Or just buy the physical book for now! Thanks for your patience on this issue – I can promise you it’s not our choice that this book is not yet in ebook format.
I continue to be humbled by the way the concepts presented in this book have had an impact on so many lives. We’ve worked around the world with big corporate organisations, where we’ve helped teams develop new products, revolutionize marketing and advertising, and significantly improve HR, talent management, recruitment, leadership and teamwork. We’ve worked with governments and states, and helped to influence policy that will last for decades. We’ve had the pleasure of helping non-profit organisations, schools and charities, as well as many faith-based organisations (from many different religions).
But my favourite moment of the last few years was when a middle-aged woman came up to me after a presentation recently. She had tears in her eyes. She explained that about five years earlier she had seen me present ‘Mind the Gap’ as a keynote at a community centre one Friday evening. She had been battling to connect with her 14-year old son, and was afraid she was losing him. That talk helped her to understand how her son saw the world, and opened up a bridge into his life for her. Her tears accompanied her thanks: ‘You saved my relationship with my boy’.
Of course, my team and I have done no such thing. All we have had the privilege of doing is showing people things they probably already knew about themselves and others. But we seem to have found a way to do it that rings true and spurs people to change and action. We’re thrilled at all the stories we’ve heard since we wrote this book. We’re honoured to have touched so many lives.
We hope this updated and expanded edition of our book continues to have an impact.
Don’t forget: it’s the edition with the orange cover!
The UK in 2050 – featured in The Sun
October 28, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
I am not a regular Sun newspaper reader (I might skim a copy in a dentist waiting room, trying to avoid page 3, of course). But it was nice to get a call from a national newspaper and be asked to contribute to a feature they were writing on recent early census data which indicates that the UK will have the largest population in Europe by 2050. It was even better to then discover that my contribution had been turned into a quite large stand alone feature on page 32 of The Sun on 28 October 2011.
“75m of us will mean death of NHS, benefits…and your dining room” – read it here
Needless to say, the journalist took my most extreme predictions and hyped them up as The Sun is wont to do. Still, I enjoyed the exercise of thinking so far ahead.
Doing “something” – not a clever way to live your life
October 26, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
“Something has to be done”. “We have to be seen to be doing something”. These are basic human responses to crisis and fear: a deep seated desire to respond, react, control. It’s instinctive, and hard to ignore.
But it is almost always ill-advised.
I had this thought while watching a TV programme (Steven Spielberg’s Taken, if you must know) and one scene showed a young boy who refused to join in the exercise the teacher was taking the young people through. The teacher blew a whistle – to warn the students of a nuclear attack. The students all jumped under the desks. This was standard practice in US schools in the 1960s.
I remember doing exactly the same exercise in the 1980s in South Africa. We were told that the Russians might attack our schools with jets and missiles, and that the best way to protect ourselves was to dive underneath our desks. I am not sure any of us kids actually believed the story (why would the Communists target our school, after all?), but we had great fun when classes were disrupted by those bomb drills.
It was ridiculous of course. But it came straight out of government’s “we have to do something” playbook. That’s the same playbook that is in operation today with, for example, airport security. The stringent security measures imposed since 9/11 are easily bypassed by any frequent flier, and make very little logical sense to anyone. But we all dutifully take off our shoes and belts, carry only 100ml of liquids and submit ourselves to the authoritarian powers of the security personnel every time we fly. Why? Because “something had to be done”. We couldn’t just do nothing, could we?
It’s ridiculous.
And yet, that’s how many companies behave too. A few people spend too much time online, so Facebook is banned for everyone; one person abuses their expense account, so the whole system is shut down; one client complains, and the whole company’s focus shifts to respond; and so on. I am sure you have plenty of examples in your world of rules and regulations that are there simply because “we had to do something”. (I’d love to hear some of them, by the way).
This is the instinct that causes people to react so badly during online interactions. Without taking the time to try and understand what has been said and its intent, we take offence, feel indignation and respond aggressively. We’ve all done it. Something had to be done. But it would have been better if we hadn’t done it.
This is not a clever way to live your life or run your business. What do you think can be done to escape this mindset?
Talent is About to Change – Surprising thoughts on a new world of work for talent
This post was first published in the WITS Journal, June 2011.
The “Great Recession” of the past few years has been more than merely an economic downturn. As this decade unfolds it will become increasingly clear that it also acted as an accelerator for a few key trends that have the potential to fundamentally change the way we work. Companies that recognize the shifts taking place, and begin to act in response, will find themselves clear winners in the “war for talent” that is about to be rejoined.
It was common in the 1990s for HR directors to declare that the biggest challenge facing their organisation was a “war for talent”. Booming industries and growing companies were demanding more and more highly skilled staff to fuel their expansion. Head hunters and recruiters were driving Ferraris and the brightest stars in each industry could name their price and move companies whenever they wanted to.
All of that stopped abruptly on 15 September 2008 – the day Lehman Brothers collapsed. Since then employee attrition has dropped dramatically as companies stopped hiring and talent stopped moving. And business leaders have rightly focused their attention on surviving the downturn. Over the next few months and years, the inevitable upturn will gather momentum and growth will return. Companies that anticipate growth need to start planning for it now, or be left behind in the turbulence that lies ahead. And that especially includes strategic human resource planning.
A Talent Exodus
I work with a global team that researches the trends shaping the world of work. We’re increasingly sensing that our corporate clients should brace themselves for a tidal wave of key employee departures over the next few years – especially among their 20- and 30-something staff.
Fathers then and now
October 22, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
The world has changed. Fatherhood has changed with it – dramatically. As a father of three, who also researches and speaks on social change, I want to highlight just a few of the changes since my grandfather became a Dad for the first time. And allow me to suggest that things might not have changed that much after all.
My grandfather, Reg Codrington Sr, was posted to Cape Town during the Second World War as a member of the British Merchant Navy. There he met and married my grandmother, Ethel Ball. As was common then, she fell pregnant fairly soon after they were married. As a British serviceman serving abroad, he had an important privilege: any children born to him while in uniform anywhere in the world would be considered British by birth. So, he and my grandmother stayed in Cape Town.
When my grandmother went into labour, my grandfather was so determined to ensure his child would be British that he first quickly got dressed in his military uniform before taking her to the hospital. He wanted to be literally “in uniform” when my aunt was born, so there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was British. This was more important than my grandmother’s birth pains.
These days, of course, expectant fathers make sure the bags are permanently packed and ready to go. Some even practice driving the route to the hospital. But, given modern technology and our penchant for choosing C-sections, most fathers these days book the birth date and time of their children in their diaries months in advance.
How times have changed.
Interviewed on BBC Radio about the death of the landline
October 19, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
Earlier today I was interviewed by Mark Murphy on BBC Radio Suffolk about the death of the landline. It was a nice little segment, and you might enjoy listening to it. Sorry about the quality – I didn’t have time to set up anything better before we got going.
Listen to the lead in here, and the 6 minute interview here
A brief primer on #occupy and the 99% – what’s going on, and why it matters
October 17, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
I am sure you’ve been following the news of protests around the world. The OccupyWallStreet protest that started a few weeks ago spread this past weekend to other capitals with protestors clashing with police in places such as London and Rome. What are they protesting against or for, though? Maybe you haven’t been watching very closely.
You should. History is going to judge these events as the beginning of something big. The way the rich have been behaving in many countries is now under unprecedented scrutiny, and will not be allowed to continue. How this will all play out is not yet clear. History tells us that when the rich and poor get too separated, the poor rise up and kill the rich. That’s unlikely to happen (although it can’t be ruled out, even in the most ‘civilised’ of nations), but something will happen.
Society is changing. Right now. All around us.
We need to stay informed. And involved.
I was recently made aware of an excellent ‘primer’ on the issues underlying the current protests. It is from Vanity Fair of all places, but by the amazing economist Joseph Stiglitz, and is available on their website here, or in an extended extract below.
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
By Joseph E. StiglitzIt’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous—12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades—and more—has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow.
15 Technologies that will shape our lives in the near future
October 11, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
A few months ago, I read an excellent article on Network World, looking at ten key technologies that will change how we live in the near future. It’s a great read by one of Cisco’s top innovators (available here). I then read a feature on nine ways in which the mobile phone industry will change in the near future (read it here).
This inspired me again to focus the attentions of our team on how technology is likely to shape our near future, and to look at what our own research team is seeing. Without too much comment, then, here are my top fifteen technologies and advances that will shape the world in the next few years:
- The Internet of Things – an estimated 50 billion objects connected to the Internet by 2020. Instrumented, interconnected and intelligent, as IBM’s Smarter Planet puts it. These are objects that have sensors in them and can be connected to the Internet to automatically upload data of all sorts. Imagine your car sending you a text message on the day before one its components breaks.
- 3D printing – a machine between the size of a microwave and a dishwasher that can “print” out almost anything (in plastic, composite, wax or even metal), from new cutlery for your dining room to a new set of golf clubs.
- Robotics – machines of all shapes and sizes, not only in our homes and offices but also in our own bodies as medical robotics allow us to fix and enhance ourselves.
- Bio medical advances – Our ability to process DNA and then create personalised medications and new vaccines, together with enriched foods, medical devices and sensors in our bodies and living spaces, will all work together to dramatically improve health and longevity.
- Synthetic human add-ons
- Neuroscience – our ability to understand our brains will change how we learn, how we modulate our behaviour and how we engage with the world around us.
- Online integration of all our offline activities, and “social tech living” – we will do almost all of our shopping online, and increasingly will gather the wisdom of the crowd (or is that, the “cloud”) before doing so.
- NFC – near field communication will change the way we interact with the world around us, and especially how we pay for things.
- Cloud computing
- A flood of data – we created more data last year than in the whole of human history combined before that. Most of it, to be fair, is HD video streaming, but still, we will need dramatic storage and bandwidth increases to keep up with demand. Beyond the technical changes, though, our ability to capture, process and use the data available to us will be one of the biggest revolutions to change the business world in the last century.
- Increasingly smaller computers make mobile the new standard – your primary computer will be no bigger than an iPad and your every day use computer will be your smartphone. While TV screens get bigger, our computer screens will get smaller (and, of course, the two will talk to each other very easily).
- Autonomic computing – computers that are smart enough to configure themselves, balance intense workloads, and know how to predict and address problems before they happen.
- Grid power networks – Thousands of people around a country generating electricity in micro-ways, and providing excess power TO the grid. Sometimes called distributed generation.
- Deep sea exploration
- Graphene – the “plastic” of the 21st century; a new building material.
- Smarter power – wireless power, storing electricity and longer lasting batteries.
- Desalinating sea water
A final two items could be added to my list as speculative predictions, based purely on the demand and request for these technologies. If we had them, the world would be a dramatically better place, and so many people around the world are throwing lots of money into researching them:
How will any of these changes to the world around us impact your world? How would each one change your workplace, your job and your life?
Let’s build a better world: Clem Sunter the futurist on Karl Marx the visionary
A few weeks ago, Clem Sunter, South Africa’s most well known scenario planner, wrote a very interesting article for News24. It got me thinking, and I have come back to it again and again, so thought I’d share it with you. He argues that maybe Karl Marx had a point. He certainly did anticipate where unbridle capitalism would lead.
And maybe he was also right that one response to this eventual world situation (the one he foresaw, and the one we’re living in over 150 years later) would be the “under class” rising up. I don’t doubt that this is one possible future for us. History tells us that when enough people are unhappy, they tend to get together and start burning stuff and killing rich people. We shouldn’t think that couldn’t happen today. Sunter and Marx are both futurists and visionaries. It’s time we listened more to them, and started building a new world.
On your Marx
by Clem Sunter, first published on News24 in July 2011
I am not a closet Marxist; but I have always admired the first chapter of The Communist Manifesto as a prophetic analysis of the modern trend of globalisation. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were spot on with many of their views on the nature and shortcomings of Capitalism. It was just that their conclusion that everything should be put in the hands of the State has, in retrospect, proved disastrously wrong. Stalin and Mao bear testament to this statement. However, the long-bearded Karl and Friedrich can hardly be blamed for the distortion of their ideology by dictators who used it in order to remain in power. The authors’ objective was to protect workers’ rights.
What I learnt from Steve Jobs’ life and death
October 6, 2011 by graeme · 2 Comments
The passing of Steve Jobs will no doubt bring a deserved flurry of eulogies over the next few days and weeks. He will be remembered by history as one of the architects of a new age, and I feel it is a privilege to live in a world at least partly shaped by his vision of it. I did not know him, nor did I ever meet him, not even in passing. But I do feel that his life has taught me some valuable lessons.
Without too much comment, here are some of the key lessons I have learnt from Steve Jobs’ life:
- One man can change the world. It will probably work best with a great team and a growing tribe, but one man can change the world.
- You don’t have to be normal. You can break the rules.
- You don’t have to listen to all the voices. You can give people what they need, and not just what they want and what they know to ask for.
- There are second chances.
- You can change the world. Steve Jobs devoted his life to giving human beings the most powerful devices ever to be put into the hands of individuals (you’re reading this on one of them). He has given me power and abilities that were only available to royalty just a few centuries ago.
- Beauty matters. Design wins. Do gorgeous work.
- Steve Jobs showed us that presentations can be exciting, visually stimulating, enriching and uplifting. We should not copy his unique style, but we should understand the principles that made his presentations so compelling: simplicity, personality, visually gorgeous, “edu-taining”.
- The 1950s were a great time to be born. Baby Boomers are a privileged generation.
- You can keep doing what you love until you die. You don’t have to retire. No-one is asking, “If he was that sick, why did Steve keep working to the end?” Everyone knows the answer.
- Cancer sucks!
- And finally, his death to cancer teaches me that no matter how rich, powerful, connected, clever or technology advanced you are, death comes to us all. I need to live my life in the knowledge that this life is not all there is. I don’t know what Steve Jobs believed would happen after he died – whatever he believed, he now knows the truth. Each of us will soon know that truth too; some sooner than later; some sooner than we think. We need to be sure we are ready to face that. I am. Are you?
RIP Steve Jobs. Thank you. Your legacy is assured.
Facebook highlights the new generation gap
October 5, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
Lucy Kellaway, a columnist in the Financial Times, wrote a brilliant piece some time ago about how older generations engage with social media, and why the battle to understand the value of Facebook.
I think she has hit the nail on the head. It’s not a technology issue, it’s about a mindset. And she’s right about the eventual outcome, too. It’s inevitable. The sooner Boomer’s accept this, the sooner they can start engaging with a new world of work.
You can read her article here (it’s really worth reading – she’s brilliant), or an extract below.
Generation game plays out on Facebook
extract from FT.com, By Lucy Kellaway, March 21 2010
…. Facebook has become bigger than Google. In the US, more people now visit the social networking site … than turn to Google [for information]…
Better events – for Generation Y
October 3, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
I spend two or three days a week at conferences and formal, large group meetings. And it’s ever more obvious that this part of our business lives is out of date. Most of this is because events and conferences are not keeping up with the new expectations and demands of the younger generations of attendees and delegates.
Pete Roythorne, Joint Editor in Chief of Meetings:Review recently wrote about this – read his article here, or an extract below. He makes some very good points, but I would add a few to his list, too. Here’s a summary, without much explanation – read on for some detail:
- Your communication has to be short, to the point, visually stimulating, with beautiful design, customised and targeted for individuals as far as possible
- Your conference spaces should also be visually enticing. What would your event look like if Apple designed it?
- Be creative about using interesting spaces and venues
- Use technology better, especially interactive, collaborative and social media
- Make sure your venues are technologically enabled – lots of power points, good quality wifi, and experiment with interactive technologies
- Sustainability is vital – Gen Y demand a green mindset
- Have shorter sessions, with lots of changes in energy and flow
- Your event can start before people arrive and finish long after they’ve left – keep connected using technology
- Ensure your content is top quality, with world class speakers – don’t skimp on costs here (there are many mediocre speakers who will talk for free or cheaply; be careful of using them).
- Allow space in the programme – Gen Y want experiences, they want to network, and they need space to keep connected to their world.
These suggestions might be targeted for Generation Y, but they’ll work for other generations too and improve the quality and take-home value of your events.
IT’S GOOD TO TALK : Why Generation Y is leading the way we communicate at events
Meetings:Review on 07/09/2011 by Pete Roythorne, Joint Editor in Chief
Generation Y is currently the most economically influential demographic group. Pete Roythorne looks at why its members demand fruitful dialogue rather than a stream of marketing messages, and how meetings and events organisers can best engage with this key audience.
Innovation and the Future Workforce: key trends for the decade ahead
September 29, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
We are currently living in an era of unprecedented change. It’s not just that technology has speeded up business cycles, or connected us into a pulsing 24-7 never-stop global community. It’s not even that stakeholders require instant responses in the midst of turbulent markets and increasingly complex supply chains and business partnerships. It’s more than all that.
We are actually at a point in history where fundamental and deep structural change is happening at multiple levels of society, politics and economics. This could be scary, since we’re in uncharted waters. But it is here that true innovation is possible, and real innovators have the chance to shine. There will be winners and losers, of course. The winners will be those that understand the forces that are driving the changes we sense around us and take advantage of those insights to choose a direction and focus that outsmarts and outplays their competition.
My research team’s particular interest is in the new world of work, and how people will influence and be influenced by it. We have identified a number of key workforce trends that will be key in changing the shape of the world over the next decade. Many of these forces will be both the cause and means of deep change and innovation in the near future. But ask yourself this: to what extent had you already been anticipating these changes?
1. More older workers
People all around the world – not just in developed countries – will be delaying retirement and staying longer in the workforce as they adjust to longer lifespans. In 1900, people spent 1.5 years in retirement. Today this has extended to over 30 years, but it should start reversing as people realize this is both unaffordable and undesirable. This will have three workforce effects: older employees, older entrepreneurs and older consumers. They are a relatively healthy and wealthy group, and most companies would do well to focus on fulfilling their needs and wants.
How many products and services do you have specifically focused on the older age group? Have you thought about what they might want and need as they get older? How many older people do you have in your research team, and what systems do you have in place to listen to and engage with older people in your marketplace?
2. Population growth and migration – more power to the developing world and to cities
The world’s population will reach 7 billion in October 2011, and is destined to reach 8 billion in about 2025. But all around the world, the rate of population growth is declining. Family sizes are decreasing. It’s likely that we’ll peak at a world population of 9 billion people in 2050. In the next decade, 95% of the population growth that does happen will be in developing countries. In fact, about 50% of population growth will come from just a handful of countries, including Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, India, China, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Congo and the USA (mainly Hispanic communities). Except for the USA, these countries are also seeing significant growth in middle class communities, and therefore in consumer demand.
At the same time, there will be increasing movement of people around the world. The migration of talent now plays a much bigger role in shaping the skilled work force, especially for multinational companies and growth industries. Previously, the United States and Western Europe have benefited from skilled workers arriving to work (and thus creating ‘brain drains’ for other countries). But now the global migration of talent is happening in all directions, and the US and EU are not as attractive (or as easy to enter) as they used to be.
In the developing world, migration from rural to urban areas will continue at pace, increasing the power of cities.
Have you developed appropriate talent strategies in order to attract and retain the right skills in the right locations at the right time?
3. More women in the workplace
Canada, the US and Australia have all already passed the tipping point, with more women employed than men. The UK will be there by 2012, with many European nations following suit in this decade. (By the way, in parts of Africa and the developing world this may already be the case if you count informal workers.)
But this decade will see continuing focus on not only bringing more female bodies into the workplace, but actually bringing a feminine influence as well. This might be the biggest change in corporate culture in a century, if more women rise up through the management ranks, and also decide not to ‘play the game’ in a testosterone fueled business world.
It is not just a woman’s issue, though. Men also need to develop an understanding of a feminine approach to leadership, collaboration, product development, marketing and more. Interestingly, research shows that companies with more women in leadership do better than companies dominated by men.
What is your male-female ratio at key leadership levels? What is your plan to support women in moving up through the ranks? Are your female leaders allowed to be feminine, or do they need to act like men to succeed? What other diversity issues should you be considering: religion, culture, language, region, age, sexuality, etc? How do you deliberately incorporate different worldviews into your innovation processes?
4. Jobless recoveries, unemployment and the paradox of skills deficits
The next decade is going to be a frustrating and confusing one in the job market. On the one hand, we have unemployment. In almost every country that releases age stratified unemployment statistics, right now there are more unemployed young people than ever before. In addition, in many of these countries these young people are burdened with the largest student loans ever recorded. To make things even worse, we’re at a moment in time when computers will start taking over professional jobs (see next trend). Expect more riots and protests!
But, at the same time, key industries are experiencing a lack of skilled people. For example, for many years, the number of engineers has been declining (especially civil and mechanical engineers). Right now, in Brazil, there is a demand for about 30,000 engineering graduates every year, but less than 15,000 actually qualify. India and China are beginning to run out of qualified workers, which will put upward pressure of salaries and remove the wage differential advantage of those countries.
Do you know what skills you will need to deliver your strategy five years from now? What are you doing now to attract and retain the skilled people you will need?
5. Artificial Intelligence and big data
We have just reached a point where computers are powerful enough to deliver on all the promises of automation and artificial intelligence. Increasingly in the next decade we’ll use machines to analyse data and do complex processing work, uncovering patterns and spotting problems amid a mountain of data.
Real-time data collected from transactions, data streams and even sensors on physical objects, will be analysed and used by computers to make decisions about how to maximize the efficiency of fleets, machinery, people and activities.
What data are you collecting? What data could you collect? How are you using that data to impact your strategic insights and feed your innovation processes?
6. Significant entrepreneurial startups and small businesses
Both unemployed young people and an older generation looking for post-career alternative working options will fuel a new wave of startup businesses. Add to this that we expect explosive growth in many emerging markets, with the world experiencing its largest economic growth ever (probably only really kicking off from 2020 to 2030, as global real purchasing power will have quadrupled by 2050). All in all, it’ll be a good time to be a small business in the next decade (as long as banks and governments finally wake up to their specific needs).
Are any of your products and services suitable for small businesses and startups? How do you engage with this community and ensure you learn from them and about them?
7. Blended lifestyles and flexible working arrangements
We will continue to see the breakdown of the ‘traditional’ office, with ‘normal’ office hours. There will be more flexibility and working virtually. But there will also be an increased shift to 24/7 workplaces. In a quest to reach new customers in foreign time zones and to speed up production and services, more and more companies in the future will be open for business around the clock, seven days a week.
In all of this, there is the potential for more than ‘work-life balance’. What people will be doing involves a new way of thinking about how to arrange the puzzle pieces of a typical life. Again, this will be driven by both the young and old workers, who may work for a few months then leave that job to travel or take time off, then return to a different job for a while. They may develop ‘portfolio careers’ or have multiple consulting engagements at a time.
How open are you to flexible and virtual work arrangements? Do you have products and services that can support a workforce that is transitioning towards ‘work life integration’?
8. Generational conflict
For the first time, four generations are working side by side in the workplace. And their attitudes are significantly different on what a ‘normal’ workplace looks like.
In society, generational conflict is likely to grow as young people realise the Baby Boomer generation is mortgaging the future to maintain an unsustainable lifestyle now. This will lead to conflict on issues as wide ranging as environmental concern, pensions and politics. The Social Security systems of most Western nations will be another ongoing issue for the aging work force in the coming years. They are unsustainable – particularly those that are unfunded (i.e. they rely on the income from current workers to pay for the pensions of those currently retired). Young people are going to rebel against this, especially in countries where concessions are made for older workers.
Do you have a mentoring and reverse-mentoring programme in place? What are your systems for capturing and sharing wisdom across the generations of your company? How are you using different generations in your innovation processes?
How should you respond?
There is no ‘one right way’ to respond. Each of these trends, and many others that will shape our world in the next few years, bring both threats and opportunities. They will challenge the status quo, but this is precisely what can feed innovation and change.
It was Peter Drucker, the management author, who said: ‘The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday’s logic.’ The most important first step in responding to – and taking advantage of – these trends, is to change our mindset, and see the opportunities they each provide.
Dr Graeme Codrington is a futurist, author, presenter and expert on the future world of work. He is co-founder of an international research and strategy firm, TomorrowToday, and can be contacted via http://about.me/graemecodrington
Marching against religious intolerance; Marching against me!
September 19, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
Looking through my news feed this morning, my eye was drawn to a story from Brazil. This past weekend, over 100,000 people joined a march in Rio de Janeiro in protest at religious intolerance. So far, so good. Religious intolerance is a “bad thing” and it’s important to have a free society so that we can practice our beliefs without fear or intimidation.
But then I read further and realised that the protestors were protesting AGAINST Christians. Apparently, evangelical Christians in Brazil are seen as the cause of persecution of especially Afro-Brazilian religious groups.
You can read the story here.
This story disturbed me. Why did so many people feel the need to protest against my faith? You don’t have to deny your own faith, nor do you need to believe that all faiths are equal in order to realise that there is a problem when that many people say there is a problem. Is this the Christianity that Jesus would want to be associated with? A Christianity characterised by exclusion, demonisation, persecution and intolerance? I can’t believe that.
Tolerance of other people’s religions and faiths is something we need to learn how to do as Christians. Maybe the starting point for the right attitude in this regard is to ask whether God is more concerned that we are right (in what we think/believe) or that we are loving (in what we do). It’s not a choice between the two, of course. But which is the appropriate starting point for engagement with the world? What do Jesus’ actions tell us about his starting point for engagement?
Keeping the sense of wonder in your work
September 18, 2011 by graeme · Leave a Comment
I’ve had a busy and long week, speaking at five different conferences, in five different cities in five different countries. Each client needed me to customise my content, and so it’s been a blur of planes, airports, taxis, hotels, creating presentations, meeting technical teams, delivering and interacting with delegates. It’s been one of those weeks where I’ve had to work hard to ensure that I give my very best to each audience, and it’s taken a lot of me to do so. I hope I succeeded.
We all have times like this. It’s important to continue to give our best though. I recognise that in my business, there is a danger of giving less than the best in three areas: (1) the research my team and I do that allow us to have the most cutting edge content, (2) the packaging of our content, and the quality of the resources we make available by way of presentations, books, articles, blogs, etc, and (3) the delivery of our content in live presentations and workshops.
Where are the critical points of “wonderment” in your work? What do you do to ensure that you continue to deliver “wonder”, and don’t slip down to merely “adequate”?
It was Seth Godin that reminded me of this. Read his blog entry here, or an extract below.
