Welcome the Post-Gen-Y Generation
I suspect the next major generation is taking shape this year. Here’s why.
Many of the dominant traits of a generation are formed when its members are early teens – roughly ages 11 to 13. This is when children tend to shift their attention from figuring out how tangible objects work, to making sense of the events they see in the world around. This is when they wrestle with concepts and ideas, fit the pieces together and work out in their own minds what matters. What their overarching life goals might be. Where their own life priorities might lie.
Individuals who are 11 to 13 this year are seeing a world that I suspect looks substantively different to them than the world did to 11 to 13 year olds over the past fifteen or so years.
This year feels different. Our optimism is being doused with the cold water realization that we are facing significant, seemingly intractable problems on multiple fronts. The inconvenient truths of the past half century are settling around our shoulders, and the preteens of today are not unaware of these issues or their complexity. Today’s 11 to 13 years olds are forming a mental map based on a world with finite limits and no easy answers.
• Most 12 year olds are very aware that the polar ice caps are melting and the march of the penguins is slowing to a halt.
• They know why the family is vacationing in the backyard this year and understand that the high gas prices are related to diminishing global supply of a commodity that has, in many ways, become the ubiquitous lubricant of American society over the past seventy years, since our trek to the suburbs began in the 1940s.
• Many understand that other resources are limited, as well. Their geography lessons have given them a sense of the vital role water plays in politics and our future.
• Whatever they or their parents think about the war in Iraq and the Middle East in general, it’s likely that they have absorbed the complexity of the situation. I doubt they’ve heard anyone offering simple, quick solutions regardless of the direction in which one would prefer to head.
• It would have been almost impossible for them to escape the phrase “housing crisis,” even though few, I suspect, understand how such a disaster came to be. Home ownership, an icon of past generations’ goals, suddenly looks less worthy, now a risky proposition.
• And they have not missed the messages regarding layoffs and challenges to U.S. corporations. The Clydesdales are now owned by the Belgians?
Although they almost certainly don’t know this, demographics support a view of continued tough times ahead – the number of big spenders is decreasing. Boomers are moving out of peak spending years, replaced by a group that is both smaller and more conservative in their spending habits. The economic conditions over the next decade are likely to be more conservative than the upbeat decades past when Boomers where fully engaged in the accumulation of worldly possessions.
This new generation has been swaddled in reality. They’ve been weaned on reality TV – not the “we can do it” optimism of the Boomer’s Mickey Mouse Club, the perky interpretation of shifting family structures of the X’ers Facts of Life, or the Y’s glamorous escape into the unreality of 90210 – but the images of real people, like you and me, taking on big challenges – typically in pursuit of the new Great American Goal: $1 million.
Virtually all in this new generation are parented by X’ers – a generation renowned for self-reliance and self-sufficiency – rather than Boomers. A generation that, like the Boomers, is devoted to its children, but one, I suspect, as parents, often provides a more structured child rearing experience than many Boomers did and are less inclined to compete through their children.
The children of Generation X have undoubtedly absorbed to some degree their parents’ frustration with the economic hand they’ve been dealt – poor job markets when they began their careers, high housing prices when they bought their first homes – and their general disenfranchisement with many existing institutions.
Perhaps they’ve heard their parents’ growing resentment that Boomers have been poor stewards of our world – got us into wars we can’t win and failed to prepare us for the century we face: not providing an adequate educational foundation, making no significant investment in alternative energy, adopting a combative posture toward global partners, in an increasingly collaborative world. A desire to be less short-sighted and slow to react to the issues of limited resources I suspect will be an important priority for the new generation.
Being 11 to 13 in 2008, means you were born in 1995-1997. That, I suspect, will turn out to be the switch point – the cut off for Generation Y and the beginning of the new generation. This is will be a generation of Realists, of Pragmatists. Truth, Finite Limits, Conservation, Tradeoffs, Balance – these, I suspect will be themes of our newest generation.
For those of you with children in the under 13 age group, I invite you to listen to the impressions they’ve been forming. I’d love to have you share what you hear.
What is this new generation likely to be like? Let me ask you to imagine you had no previous impressions of the world – you had never before noticed what was going on around you – you were working from a clean slate. And, you looked up to observe the events of this year. How would this world look to you? What conclusions would you draw about what your life priorities should be?
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Tamara J. Erickson is both a McKinsey Award-winning author and popular and engaging storyteller. Her compelling views of the future are based on extensive research on changing demographics and employee values and, most recently, on how successful organizations work. 
Comments
Tammy,
Great piece. I love to note the differences between Gen Y and past generations. In fact, I wrote an essay on "Succession" on my blog [ http://ninasimosko.com/blog/2008/05/30/putting-success-into-succession/ ] in which my conclusion was: "Preparing the way for Generation Y is no simple task. As leaders we need to begin re-imagining our businesses to not only attract but to retain and to grow this new generation of leaders."
For those of us that are not Gen Y, it is an interesting experience/opportunity to adapt to their ways...and, in fact, learn from them too!
Nina
http://www.ninasimosko.com
- Posted by Nina Simosko
July 17, 2008 12:02 PM
Upon what research is this based? Did someone interview 11-to-13 year-olds to arrive at these conclusions?
- Posted by R. J. Lesch
July 17, 2008 1:42 PM
Dear R. J.,
The research on when people first explore conceptual ideas is extensive. This model comes from the highly influential work on child development and learning done by Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget concluded that children build cognitive structures—mental maps—to help make sense of their experiences. The time when most of us formed our maps of abstract concepts and ideas is when we were early teens or pre-teens. Thus the common teen experiences of each generation have a powerful influence on its members’ shared beliefs and behaviors. Piaget also found in his research that it is primarily NEW experiences that alter the developing child’s cognitive structure—rather than those that are perceived as having “always” been true.
I have not done extensive research on whether the events of this year, those that most people are focused on, are significantly different from those of the past decade, however, in this post, I am offering my point of view, based on my observation and conversations with many people of all ages, that this year does feel substantively different.
When world events feel signficantly "different," adults tend to intergrate the new experiences into their existing metal models. But the new kids -- those who are just now forming their models for the first time, will base those models heavily on this year's events. I am suggesting that the events of the year are sufficiently different so as to cause them to form very different models.
As you'll note in the post, I have enouraged readers to talk with the 12 year olds in their lives -- and let us all know what they discover.
Sincerely,
Tammy
- Posted by Tammy Erickson
July 17, 2008 3:52 PM
Tammy,
I have a 14 and 11 year old (both boys). My 14 year old seems so much more in tune with the world around him than I was at his age. I guess it is partly because he has easy access to so much information via the web. However the information enables him to ask me questions about stuff. Only last week he asked me at what price oil would be if investment firms weren't allowed to speculate on it's price!!
Of course, as with most kids they just seem to take all of this in their stride as for them this is just 'normal'.....
Chris
http://learn2develop.blogspot.com
- Posted by Chris
July 20, 2008 11:45 AM
As I read (and appreciated)this article, it forced me to think "backwards" across time and cherish my own long lost youth. Naturally, I was NOT aware of any title that was placed on my cohorts and me.
My questions: "When are these titles (X'ers, Boomers, etc.) most likely to be assigned and by who? Also, how long does it typically take to gain acceptance? Do YOU have any suggestions (or have you seen any in print) for this New Generation? Thank you.
- Posted by John Britto
July 20, 2008 1:14 PM
Tammy, thanks for clarifying. I'll let you know what I hear from my students in that age group.
- Posted by R. J. Lesch
July 21, 2008 5:56 PM
Hi Tammy I came across this blog by accident and it now has me thinking about the messages and concepts of the world my grandson is getting. Thank you. Altough he is only 9 it has given me some insight into why he approaches things and problems the way he does.
I will share back if there is anything that makes sense.
- Posted by Jacqui Langrick
July 23, 2008 7:43 AM
Tammy, Great predictions. I would like to see you write a followup article to this piece focusing on changes that will likely occur in the work force as a result of the cultural changes you mention. It seems to me that these Gen X'rs and the Millenials after them are going to require great shifts in the way that corporations operate. They will require (not request but require) flexible and remote work options that support more work life balance as well as reduced carbon footprint. They will also require more trust and the ability to self manage, constant feedback and easy access to information. Given these predictable changes, it seems there is an uber-sized carrot waiting for the corporation that is an early adopter and first mover toward satisfying this indigo type worker. I speak with highly talented and educated women every day who want more flexibility like the children you describe. I think the window is ready to be pushed open. You? These changes are clearly on there way. It's just a question of when.
www.sixfiguremomsclub.com
- Posted by Angie A. Swartz, Six Figure Moms Club
July 30, 2008 12:51 AM
this is true i am 13 years old and those are the themes of my generation my friends and i are sarcastic ,witty ,cynical and embrace a glass half empty view of life.we know and understand current issues in the world more than our parents did as children.We are a generation that saw 9/11 as it happened in the classroom ,we saw people jump out of flaming high rise building and die as second graders.we felt the gripping fear and the anticipation of a daunting new era ,and we know what happens when we are caught unawares.
- Posted by kahlan
August 3, 2008 4:48 PM
this is true i am 13 years old and those are the themes of my generation my friends and i are sarcastic ,witty ,cynical and embrace a glass half empty view of life.we know and understand current issues in the world more than our parents did as children.We are a generation that saw 9/11 as it happened in the classroom ,we saw people jump out of flaming high rise building and die as second graders.we felt the gripping fear and the anticipation of a daunting new era ,and we know what happens when we are caught unawares.
- Posted by kahlan
August 3, 2008 4:49 PM