Tag Archive - Millenials

Exploring the Online Characteristics of Generation F/Y, and Their Implications-Part 2

June 26, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 3 Comments

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[image by jakeoneil]


Last week I posted Exploring the Online Characteristics of Generation F/Y, and Their Implications-Part 1. This series was born out of my fascination with the great article, The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500. And for the first post focused on the first “online characteristic” of this generation, All ideas compete on equal footing.

Today I want to take a look at another characteristic:

2. Contribution counts for more than credentials. When you post a video to YouTube, no one asks you if you went to film school. When you write a blog, no one cares whether you have a journalism degree. Position, title, and academic degrees—none of the usual status differentiators carry much weight online. On the Web, what counts is not your resume, but what you can contribute.

I’m really curious about this characteristic and whether you agree or not? I still think some credentials are important, and some even necessary to certain vocations. But I do think it’s becoming less important. I tell my wife quite a bit that I’m not even sure college will be relevant when my daughter turns 18. Training schools, apprentices, self-learning, etc. But who knows. I have some credentials that are relevant to my work. My M.Div. isn’t necessary in some church circles, but it was helpful, and pretty much required for the denomination I have been in the last 8 years. My MSMFT is necessary though if I want to practice as a marriage and family therapist in any state.

But with the explosion of online collaboration, contribution and socializing, this need to justify ourselves through credentials seems to be collapsing. This is an especially strong point of tension in many churches. Online is a place where the junior high kid who posts a funny video, or the college student who makes a film, or the young adult who writes a blog…has as much credentials, and quite possibly as big of a listening and watching audience as does the pastor preaching on Sunday morning.

I think where this tension will become more apparent is denominationally. Many denominations have huge barriers for ordination and participation in certain leadership structures. Not everyone is going to be willing to jump through those hoops, and I think those who will be willing to do so will continue to shrink. That’s why I think denominations like the PCUSA will continue to shrink up, losing more and more bright and future leaders to other forms of church structure and ecclesiology.

Are credentials important in your church?

Does the need for these credentials exclude leaders who could participate more fully in the life of church ministry?

The Values of Generation Y/Millenials That Will Help Transform Work and Church

June 16, 2009 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 19 Comments

I saw a tweet yesterday by Joel Black in reference to a blog post by Alan Hirsch regarding Leading Gen-F. Alan’s post was in reference to this great article, The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500 by Gary Hamel.

In the article, Hamel says this:

The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of “Generation F” – the Facebook Generation. At a minimum, they’ll expect the social environment of work to reflect the social context of the Web, rather than as is currently the case, a mid-20th-century Weberian bureaucracy.

If your company hopes to attract the most creative and energetic members of Gen F, it will need to understand these Internet-derived expectations, and then reinvent its management practices accordingly. Sure, it’s a buyer’s market for talent right now, but that won’t always be the case—and in the future, any company that lacks a vital core of Gen F employees will soon find itself stuck in the mud.

With that in mind, I compiled a list of 12 work-relevant characteristics of online life. These are the post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow’s employees will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company is “with it” or “past it.” In assembling this short list, I haven’t tried to catalog every salient feature of the Web’s social milieu, only those that are most at odds with the legacy practices found in large companies.

Hamel goes on to list these 12 characteristics as follows (read the article for the explanation of each one):

  1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
  2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
  3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
  4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
  5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
  6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
  7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.
  8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
  9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
  10. Users can veto most policy decisions.
  11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.
  12. Hackers are heroes.

Great stuff…and I totally agree with his conclusions.

I’m technically of Generation X, but I definitely think (in many ways), operate, and feel at home with Generation Y or Millenials. This is probably due to the fact that I have worked in youth ministry for 15 years–the last 7 in Los Angeles as a college pastor to USC, UCLA and LMU students primarily. They have some interesting philosophies on leadership, managment, work, etc. that I share with them.

Continue Reading…

Community Organizer+Grasp of Web 2.0/Social Media=President Elect Obama

November 6, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 9 Comments

Last April
April 10, 2008: That is the date I wrote my post regarding an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt and the authors of Millenial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube, and the Future of American Politics. There were tons of points that the authors made that day, but three continue to stick out to me because I’m really interested in social media and I love working with this generation.

  • Communication to this generation via text, online, etc. is how they make decisions, rather than listening to authority. They make decisions based on their connectivity network, rather than make decisions based on authority.
  • You should have two different strategies to reach the Boomers and the Millenials. And they should be, and better be completely different. The Millenials can sniff out any in-authenticity in marketing. They don’t care about or watch TV, because they would rather be online and communicating and networking with people.
  • Interested in Peer to Peer, Bottoms-Up organizing styles, and not Top-Down, Command and Control style. You can appeal to them if you can talk to them about communitarian solutions that are self organizing.

The Millenials Take the Election
I think those are really great observations that Obama seemed to understand and McCain didn’t. I’m not a political analyst, but I think that’s fairly accurate. “Young voters preferred Obama over John McCain by 68 percent to 30 percent — the highest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate since exit polls began reporting results by age in 1976, according to CIRCLE, a non-partisan organization that promotes research on the political engagement of Americans between ages 15 and 25.” (Youth vote may have been key in Obama’s win). In fact, the article goes on to say, quoting the authors of the Millenial Makeover, the following:

Through a steady stream of texts and Twitters, experts agree Obama has managed to excite young voters by meeting them where they live — online.

“This is a group of people who are constantly checking in with everybody else in their circle to make a decision,” says Morley Winograd, the co-author of “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics” and a former adviser to Vice President Al Gore. He defines Millennials as ages 18 to 26. Continue Reading…

What is the Millenial Generation About?

April 10, 2008 in Uncategorized with 20 Comments

Here are some observations on the Milennial Generation from the Hugh Hewitt interview with Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais….authors of Millenial Makeover: MySpace, You Tube, and the Future of American Politics.

Whether you care about politics or not, this generation is already influencing and will be transforming everthing they interact with.

And whether you agree with them or not, they bring some much needed ideas. I’m especially interested in how they are influencing the Church, which is not talked about here. But that’s for other posts. Just know that what is discussed here is obviously influencing the Church.

Now here are some very brief observations on some of the summaries that authors make in the interview. I didn’t really organize it…but peruse the observations made by the authors. Very interesting.

  • Millenials are people born between 1982 in 2003 (at least as defined in the US).
  • Largest generation in American history. 1 million more than the previous largest generation…the Baby Boomers.
  • Twice as many Milennials as Gen X’ers
  • Most ethnically diverse generation in American History…40% are either African American, Asian or Mixed Race; 20% have at least one immigrant parent.
  • Generation “least bound” by gender and role restriction.
  • Half of Millenials that are in college are female; first time in history.
  • Highly socially tolerant generation.
  • “Civic Generation”…lineal descendants of the last Civic Generation the GI/Greatest Generation (i.e. Depression, WWII, etc.)
  • See a need for a greater economic equality in the country…respond to economic injustice. Will be interested in re-distribution policies to make economic inequality to go away. Continue Reading…