Harvard Business Publishing

A number of years ago, a ski instructor told me that he could always tell when a person learned to ski -- whether as an adult or as a child. In his experience, even though you could become a very good skier as an adult, you would never ski in exactly the same way that you would have had you learned as a child.

There's a parallel in this story to the world of work today and the use of technology. Older adults have learned to use the available technology, but many of us use it in ways that are fundamentally different than the way Ys do naturally.

Ys "woke up" in a world that was fully wired. They absorbed intuitively things that others have learned intellectually. They bring a perspective to today's world of work that is inevitably different.

Much of my career has been spent studying innovation and helping organizations become more creative. Here's the bottom line: at the heart of innovation is the combination of two previously unrelated ideas. These ideas might be an insight about a consumer need and a new way to solve it, two technologies that have never before been combined, or the skills of one colleague sparking the creativity of another. They might be the application of a new idea for how to do something with an existing business need.

Sometimes this combination -- the innovation -- happens within one individual's mind -- he or she has an "a ha" as a connection is made. But more often than not, it comes from two or more people getting together, each with unique perspectives or expertise -- and based on sharing ideas, coming up with something that none of them would have thought of on their own.

Inevitably, Ys will bring a different perspective to the workplace because the ideas they have about how things might work will almost certainly be largely unrelated to the way things have been done for the past 50 years. As a result, Ys will bring innovation to the business world, just by sharing their ideas on how things might work.

Ys gift is not that they know how to use the technology, it's that the way they use the technology causes them to think and act in different ways. Not only do they "own" the technology, redrawing the line between institutional and personal, as I discussed last week, they understand a world that is asynchronous, based on coordination, machine-enhanced, collaborative and alone. They bring these and other new perspectives to work.

Ys select and use technology to make their lives easier -- This may sound obvious, but Ys manage technology -- and its role in their lives -- in ways that are helpful and productive, not intrusive or anxiety-producing as they are for many older adults.

Ys find uses for technology that is just "good enough" -- Many of the uses for technology that Ys are rapidly adopting and popularizing, such as texting and camera phones, are ones that begin with an initial lowering of the quality standards, but in ways that fundamentally created new patterns of use. Those who focused on the crummy quality of phone photos totally missed the extraordinary new uses that would open up.

Ys operate asynchronously -- Ys are highly accomplished at a practice I call "time-shifting" -- doing things when it is most convenient, rather than when the world might otherwise think it's scheduled to occur. With Ys, "time shifting" will come to work.

Ys coordinate, rather than plan -- Ys home in on friends like ships using radar and will bring this practice to the workplace. Work in the future will, in all likelihood, involve much more coordinating and far less planning or scheduling than is common in most organizations today. For a number of activities, this will prove more efficient.

Ys solve problems and perform tasks collaboratively -- They share information openly, solve problems through communal wisdom, and get things done collaboratively. These approaches will bring a new perspective to corporate practice.

Ys understand the role of reputation in the digital world -- Ys are heavily dependent on peer networks to identify the best, most trusted sources. They know how to build their own reputations as both knowledgeable sources and insightful reviewers, key skills for the future.

Ys know how to work together, alone -- Ironically, given the strong movement toward collaboration and crowds, Ys are comfortable working physically alone (although they may be "alone" in a Starbucks, surrounded by dozens of others).

Make sure you have enough of these new perspectives present in your organization. Remember, it's in the combination of two different points of view that innovation occurs.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Bridging Faultlines in Diverse Teams (SMR Article)
Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation (Hardcover)
Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators Collection