Harvard Business Publishing

My mother-in-law leaned in conspiratorially: "Don't have any more children," she said in a low voice, shortly after the birth of our second.

Ah, why is that, Marie? With a look of mystical wisdom, she confided, "This one is not a middle child."

Aha. Based in part on that irrefutable logic, we didn't.

I thought of this story as I read an interesting email from Brian Magierski, responding to my post Ouch! The Painful Divide Between Generation X and the Boomers:

I wonder if Gen Xers are in a middle child role between the Boomers and the emerging Web 2.0 enabled Gen Y? While the Gen X and Boomer problem is definitely highlighted in your post, an emerging problem seems to be upon us as well between Gen X and Gen Y. As Gen X finally does make its way up the ladder into those coveted spots held by Boomers, they will grip on to them for dear life because the time and effort that went into claiming the spots. Along comes Gen Y with their time-shifting collaborative ways of working, leveraging text messaging, social networks, and wikis . . . all in an effort to flatten the organizations in which they work and make them more agile and responsive. All of which destroys the spoils that Gen X have been fighting for with Boomers. Gen X seems destined to be caught in the middle of these two powerful waves . . . they seem to have plowed the path for Gen Y by introducing the job shifting and quality of life concepts to the workplace . . . but may not participate in any of the spoils on the other side.

Well, let's see. Although I've been fascinated by the work on birth order, it's not one I've researched personally. So, I turned to an expert, in this case, the writings of Robert Needlman, MD, FAAP, and author of "Middle Children: Finding Their Own Pride of Place," to see how Dr. Needlman's views on middle children compare with mine on Gen X.

As a reminder, Gen X clearly is in a middle, sandwiched between two much larger generational cohorts. There are about 76 million Boomers in the United States (born between 1946 and 1964) and an equal or slightly larger number of Y's (born between 1980 and 2000). Those in the middle, the Xers, number only 46 million.

In earlier posts I've written: Xers came of age in the eighties and nineties, times of economic uncertainty and domestic social change. On the home front, many Xers lived through a significant shift in the social fabric. They were the first generation to be labeled "latchkey kids": home alone in the afternoons, leaning on their friends for companionship and support.

Dr. Needlman says: Middle children aren't really anything special, at least in their own minds. Sometimes they feel invisible. . . . Middle children often reach outside the family for significant relationships. They make close circles of friends.

Me: I believe the Xers fundamental mistrust of institutions will cause many of them to leave corporate life over the next five years. The classes they are taking today -- the fastest growing programs in MBA curricula, in fact -- are classes in entrepreneurship. Many Xers are studying today, to leave their current corporate jobs tomorrow. On the positive side, I anticipate good things for our innovation economy, as new venture formation picks up steam.

Dr. N.: Middle children are more prone to rebel against the status quo . . . . The middle position in particular is one of the prime forces behind the scientific and social revolutions that drive history forward.

Perhaps there are some similarities in the characteristics of Generation X and middle children, although I still don't think I could divine those middle child characteristics at birth, as my mother-in-law seemed to do.

If it is an apt analogy, Boomers and Y's, be nice to your X "siblings" -- they hold much needed sparks of innovation and change in their hands.

What do you think?

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