People two, three or four years apart are having different experiences with technology tools. University students are scratching their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger brothers and sisters.
The Net generation, those in their 20’s spend their time talking on the phone and still use e-mail frequently. Their younger siblings (the I- generation?) spend considerable more time texting than talking on the phone and tend to communicate more over instant-messenger networks.
They will expect an instant response from everyone they communicate with, and may not have the patience for anything less. I can just see the workplace 10 years from now.
As managers, we are currently attempting to integrate and leverage the millenials but are having little success. We are still just talking about the differences and not doing anything to groom the emerging business leaders of tomorrow. My friends at Wikination.ca say that most organizations are still using traditional methods for growing leaders; they appear to have some solutions.
Imagine when generation waves become wavelets!
Pierre Robitaille