Feedback Session 2-1

Good Practices in todays Workplace an R&D / Business Development example

Denis Hicks, Director, Huntsman Polyurethanes

Does Gen C have a real talent which is not possessed by previous generations, and for which there is a real business need ? It is clear that they are able to process data, accurately and with incredible speed (some reports suggesting that through video game training reaction times of Gen C are up to 40% faster than those of previous generations) but where is the business value in this ? and would we really recruit for such a talent as a differentiator between candidates ? Similarly, the reported evolution in education to cater to the expectations of Gen C, that Gen C needs to be fed with more data at higher speed in order to retain their interest in its processing, still leaves the question: to what purpose?

In business speed of processing knowledge was predicted to lead to the decline in the role of the middle manager, no longer required to manage the process of assigning the tasks of researching ,collating and analysing data amongst a team, or manage the flow of data to be analysed such that team members are not swamped. The future education insights from the video clip about Jack aged 9 were disputed. That knowledge is a commodity which can be found and processed in a students own time, leaving more time for play, was generally agreed with in children, but Gen C reported that this had been something theyd grown out of. But that the speed of processing knowledge is something which should be coached, changing the teachers role from knower to Coach (no longer being needed to know, since the knowledge is out there ) was unanimously disputed. Data validity will remain an issue. How will we ensure that students, and later employees, find and process accurate data ? A study from the NL was quoted which proposed that a government approval certificate would be needed to identify which sites would be acceptable sources of data to be quoted / used for school projects. This leads to debates about where is the line drawn between data validation and censorship, with some pointing out that one big freedom of the internet is access to otherwise censored or established views. Advocates of a self-regulating free market of information, where inaccurate or misleading information is removed by popular demand have clearly chosen to ignore the increasing trend towards every opinion deserves the right to equal airtime even when sound science clearly makes the case for its removal . The school children who are allowed to be taught creationism being an extreme example. One suggestion was that ,in business, this might lead to a new role for the middle manager as the validator of data sources to be so rapidly interrogated and processed by Gen C ? Its a possibility which must be considered if we are to be able to rely on the messages concluded by speed of assimilation in the absence of reflection time (or capability).

Reward and motivation of Gen C will be of paramount importance to a future leader in industry. Apparently Gen C requires constant positive and very public feedback, even for relatively minor achievements. This is in contrast with Gen Y which believe that if everything is as expected, it does not warrant any special recognition, this being reserved for really significant achievements.
The currency of feedback (the like) raises one of the significant risks of the constant (positive) feedback culture, that not all likes are of equal value. As an example a like from a friend might not reflect the quality of work liked, but a reflection that that friend wants you to know you are still in their thoughts and sometimes only to solicit the return like to boost their own esteem. In this same situation, a like from a boss or peer who has actually read and valued your work would be displayed publicly with the same value. A worse scenario might be that, amongst the noise of likes from friends, the absence of the like from the boss could go unrecognised, or might even be challenged look how many other people liked me / my work you must be wrong. This leads us to consider the parallel subject of endorsements, for example on LinkedIn. It appears that LinkedIn proposes to your network the skills which are already most popular. Alongside the real professional appreciation of your endorsable skills, the easy nanosecond click to endorse culture shows you your friends are still out there liking you with equal value. However well-meaning, for some this has led to an over-endorsement of some skills, and a discredited position for most peoples profiles and their endorsements.

And how to make a workplace attractive to Gen C ? Send out ambassadors able to relate to the classroom, armed with real life testimonials that a career in business is challenging and exciting. Industry is not good at PR the official stories fill the advertorial web-space that life in Google is so much fun and why not? Most of the writers dont want to get on their bad side. But there are many stories from former Google employees who thought the life dull and no different from any other big office big employer with a difficult boss under time presure from a difficult boss. At least in industry engineers get to see the products they make going out through factory gates, possibly into products which they then buy. Contrast this with the Googlers project which might be to fix a bug in the latest release of a commodity email interface, which is then shipped free to users who never notice the difference (yawn!). One observation (by an over 40-year-old) that Gen C wants a fully flexible career with multiple parallel career paths, is not borne out by the Gen C reps here. On the contrary, they report that they realise that they must and should adapt their wants to their jobs needs. If this is a fixed working location, then so be it. Some jobs clearly cant be done from Starbucks. (One comment noted why is the Starbucks model always so prevalent? Our groups conclusion was that the writers of these scenarios have their own interests vested in continuing to write of such scare stories.)

The blurring of work and private lives is a fact increasing as first telelphones then Blackberrys and now smartphones are used to indicate that the busy manager is indispensible to his global organisation, and that he must respond to in CC: emails from his American colleagues, even (or often, particularly) as he sits down to dinner with his social acquaintances in Europe. This is as old a trick in the book as leaving a spare jacket over the back of your chair after youve gone home to indicate to your bosses and peers that your are still working as late as they are. Company culture, as established and propagated by individual managers must share the blame for this though the expectations set of a 24/7 availability is hard to change once established. But for Gen C the issue is reported to be that they, on the contrary, need to demonstrate to their social networks that they are available 24/7, to offer their friends the customary reassurances that their retweeted internet philosophy, humorous (inane?) status update, or photograph of the pizza they are about to eat, renders them as valuable to their network as its posting intended. It was refreshing to hear from conference attendees that this anticipated expectation of Gen C is yet another myth. Their company culture, often set at home where parents have enforced the view that it is bad manners to use your phone at the dinner table, acknowledges that there is a time and place to be connected. Much as smokers have accepted the ban on smoking in the workplace, Gen C accepts (and expects) that there are appropriate break times in which to catch up on the activities of their social networks . Even in workplaces where mobile phones are banned, for example because their camera function might be used to breach security, it might reasonably be expected that employers provide similar break-out facilities as have been provided for smokers to indulge their habit.

A bigger security, or at least compliance, concern is the inclusion inside social networks, of customers or suppliers personnel amongst family and social friends providing visibility to all of the geographical movements of a sales person could send signals to competitors, or other business contacts which would otherwise remain company secret. This is an issue for individual company security and compliance procedures to address, but it will become far more difficult if the increasingly mobile, multi-employer careers becomes the reality predicted, and connected former colleagues become competitors. Some suggested company rules e.g. No professional contacts (own company or customers / suppliers) to be listed amongst facebook friends would be essential. However much it is against the intent of the datacollectors at facebook, it was unanimously agreed that filters applied to a single professional and personal profile would not be sufficient to guard against unwittingly providing company secret information to potential competitors..