Enabling the Net Gen

I recently attended ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 event where I joined a panel discussing diversity in Information Technology.  One of the hot topics on the panel was about age diversity, as the Net Generation (born between 1977-1997) is entering the workforce and presenting new team management challenges.

As I’m one person in the first wave of Net Gen professionals to enter the workforce, I thought I would share some of my experiences and perspectives as businesses are learning how to understand this new generation’s norms in the workplace.

What Each Generation Brings to the IT Workplace

The Silent Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation X bring experience to the team.  Not only do they bring experience in specific technology skills, but also an understanding of our business, its policies, and its systems.  They know what it takes to make a company successful and what it takes to keep it growing. They are not just colleagues to me: but leaders, coaches, and mentors.  This is the first global economic cycle of my career since college, but its encouraging that I have team members that have been through this more than a few times.

I’ve noticed that my older colleagues tend to build very strong, lasting teams comprised of experts; but the teams tend to be smaller and more limited to experienced and influential decision-makers.  The objective is to do it right the first time.  Its a great style of team that has built the greatest businesses and achieved the greatest scientific achievements.

But the teams that I seem to enjoy the most are ones that may not be as strong in experience or influential to decision makers, but tend to be larger and perhaps more collaborative teams focused on speed to deliver.  This is the Net Gen team, and it uses all the technology tools that are available.  The Net Gen sees how Facebook can find the right people and share content with them, how Wikipedia proved crowds can collaborate to make something wonderful, and how online games can bring together a diverse team that can change tactics quickly to match evolving conditions and situations.

I’m not suggesting that teams should be comprised solely of Net Geners.  That would be a mistake, as it would deprive the Net Gen employees of the experience of older colleagues and the problem solving skills that only experience can provide.  What’s in it for the team members of previous generations, then?  They can learn the tools and collaboration that the Net Generation uses.  Water will always find its own level.

So every generation wants the tools that make them most productive and to work with a team that makes them most effective.  So how do you introduce the Net Gen in the mix?

Getting the Net Gen on Board

Many of my Net Gen friends who work in IT at other companies oftentimes encounter technology that is inferior to what they have at home… or even inferior to their iPhone.  They ask for the tools to make them most productive – to add their value in the way they know best.  But its a tough sell to management that has been effective in a more traditional process of collaboration.

I think this is one of the shortcomings of most of my Net Gen friends – rather than demonstrating the value of these tools to their colleagues and evangelizing their usefulness in the organization, they will develop a perception that their employer “doesn’t get it” and will vote with their feet.  This problem may also transform into other workplace and career issues as well, and it could be the origin of the “sense of entitlement” perception many employers have of the Net Gen.

The businesses that understand the norms of each generation, the value they bring, and the ways they work will make efforts to attract Net Gen talent and be receptive to their style of collaboration.  You have already built the infrastructure based on open standards to make this possible – now its time to build your environment to support this collaboration.  That means encouraging the use of free and open source software, agile development processes, wikis, social networks, and mobile communications.

A great way to start on the path of understanding the Net Gen in the workplace is to read Don Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital and the Grown Up Digital blog.  Another great blog to read is Across the Ages by Tammy Erickson at the Harvard Business Review.  And if you have Net Gen children, observe and understand the technologies they are using and how they are learning with their teachers, coaches, fellow students, and co-workers.  They will translate those experiences in their professions.