GETTING ALONG WITH THE GENERATIONS

GETTING ALONG WITH THE GENERATIONS

Dr. Randy LumppRegis University

Adapted especially from the work of Neil Howe and William Strauss

What’s a “generation”?

• A social cohort shaped by common experience and common persona

• Born over a period roughly the same as the passage from youth to adulthood (c. 20 years)

• Shares perceived membership, common beliefs and behaviors, common location in history

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What a Generation is NOT!

• NOT a recipe for individual behavior• NOT a predictor of individual values• NOT the only factor in what people

do or don’t do• NOT a list of virtues and vices• NOT a stereo-type

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THINK OF GENERATION AS…..

• AN ATMOSPHERE• AN ENVIRONMENT• AN ORIENTATION• A MOOD• A GESCHTALT, A SENSIBILITY• A CONTEXT FOR WHAT IS CREDIBLE,

PLAUSIBLE, TO BE EXPECTED

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Each generation views events and the other generations from its

own point of view---

Like boats floating down a river in sequence

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EXPERIENCING FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, CONTEXTS

• GIs: BUILD INSTITUTIONS• SILENT: RUN INSTITUTIONS• BOOMERS: REFORM OR ABANDON

INSTITUTIONS• GEN-X: GET WHAT THEY NEED FROM

INSTITUTIONS• MILLENNIALS: PARTICIPATE IN INSTITUTIONS• iGEN: ??

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GENERATIONS ARE IN MOTION• Childhood (pueritia, age 0–20). Social role: growth

(receiving nurture, acquiring values). • Young Adulthood (iuventus, age 21–41). Social role:

vitality (serving institutions, testing values). • Midlife (virilitas, age 42–62). Social role: power

(managing institutions, applying values). • Elderhood (senectus, age 63–83). Social role: leadership

(leading institutions, transferring values). • Late Elderhood (age 84+). Social role: dependence

(receiving comfort from institutions, remembering values).

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WHAT ARE RECENT GENERATIONS?NICKNAME BORN NUMBER• LOST 1883-1900 45M• G.I 1901-1924 63M• SILENT 1925-1942 49M• BOOMER 1943-1960 79M• XER 1961-1981 93M• MILLENNIAL 1982-2002 76M

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GENERATION AGES 2010

• GI 1901-1924 109-86• SILENT 1925-1942 85-68• BOOMER 1943-1960 67-50• GEN X 1961-1981 49-29• MILLENNIAL 1982-2000 28-10

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CYCLE OF GENERATIONS

IDEALIST-PROPHET [NF]

REACTIVE-NOMAD [NT]

CIVIC-HERO [SJ]

ADAPTIVE-ARTIST [SP]•Getting Along •10

CYCLE OF ERASYoung adults coming of age

• AWAKENING ERA Idealists• INNER-DRIVEN ERA Reactives• CRISIS ERA Civics• OUTER-DRIVEN ERA Adaptives

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GENERATIONAL LIFE CYCLE

• YOUTH 0-21• RISING ADULT 22-43• MIDLIFE 44-65• ELDER 66-87

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IDEALIST: BOOMER• Dominant inner-fixated• Grows up post-crisis, indulged• Comes of age w/ spiritual

awakening• Matures into risk taking• Fragments into narcissistic adults• Moralistic Mid-lifers• Visionary Elders

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REACTIVE: GEN-X

• Grows up under-protected, criticized• Matures into risk taking, alienated

adults• Mellows into pragmatic mid-lifers• Respected but reclusive elders

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CIVIC: MILLENNIALS

• Dominant, outer-fixated builders• Grows up over-protected• Comes of age in secular crisis• Heroic and achieving adults• Building Institutions as mid-lifers• Busy Elders attacked by new

Idealists•Getting Along •15

ADAPTIVE: SILENT

• Recessive• Grows up overprotective,

suffocated• Matures risk-adverse, conformist• Indecisive Mid-lifers (no agenda)• Respected as sensitive elders

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WHAT DEFINES A NEW GENERATION?

• Solves a problem facing the prior youth generation

• Corrects for behavioral excesses it perceives in the current midlife generation

• Fills the social role being vacated by the departing elder generation

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WHAT’S THE “LIFE-CYCLE” OF A GENERATION?

• Public discovers the new youth (15-20 years after first birth year)

• Full possession of youth culture (20-25 years)

• Gets maximum public attention (25-30 years)

• Ebbing of public interest (30-35 years)•Getting Along •18

What is GENERATION –X? 13th Generation: Reactive, Nomad, born

1961–1981 • Survived a “hurried” childhood of divorce,

latchkeys, open classrooms• Images: devil-child movies (Rosemary’s

Baby, The Exorcist), Kevin in Home Alone, Marty McFly in Back to the Future, Ferris Buehler.., Dumb & Dumber, Adam Sandler

• First generation legally aborted by its parents

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What is GENERATION –X?

• Shift from G to R ratings (Sex in the City, South Park, Beavis and Butthead)

• Came of age curtailing the earlier rise in youth crime and fall in test scores

• Heard themselves denounced as so wild and stupid as to put The Nation At Risk.

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What is GENERATION –X?

• As young adults, maneuvering through a sexual battlescape of AIDS and blighted courtship rituals

• They date and marry cautiously. • In jobs, they embrace risk and

prefer free agency over loyal corporatism

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What is GENERATION –X?• From grunge to hip-hop, their

splintery culture reveals a hardened edge

• Politically, they lean toward pragmatism and non-affiliation, and would rather volunteer than vote

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What is GENERATION –X?

• Lowest Test Scores• High rates of crime, suicide, drugs

“…an army of aging Bart Simpsons, possibly armed and dangerous.” NYT

• Realized adults were not in control of themselves or the country

• Many Parallels with Lost of the 1920s

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GEN-X IMAGES/PERCEPTIONS

• Tom Cruise in Top Gun• The Breakfast Club• In-your-face slam dunks & end zone

spikes• “lost” “wasted” “ruined” “soulless”• Sell themselves to the highest

bidder•Getting Along •24

GEN-X IMAGES/PERCEPTIONS

• Gen X Steroids vs. Boomer psychedelics• Jay Leno: “We’re not talking brain cells

here. We’re talking taste buds.”• Computer hackers • War Games, Red Dawn, Lone Eagle (NB:

“Lone Eagle” was Lost-Gen hero Charles Lindberg’s nickname)

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X-er SELF-PERCEPTIONS

• Pragmatic, quick, sharp-eyed• Quick to catch on to the game of life

(especially when they’re out to get you)-rising costs, no economic welcome mat-declining benefits-money is survival

“If we don’t take care of ourselves, no one will.”

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VIEW OF SCHOOL AND SOCIETY

• Grew up with – the critique of Dead White Males– That there was no indispensable

knowledge(so schools didn’t teach it)

– Urging to be self-reliant, independent, self-actualizing

– Surviving in the aftermath of Woodstock and being ticketed for littering

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• “All you need is love” replaced with Gangsta’ Rap

• Nightmare of self-absorbed parents, disintegrating homes, latch-key life,

• Institutions with conflicting missions, confused adults

• Aids and other public health crises• Alex Keaton: the “proto-adult”

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• “stupid” “bad” “random” are words of praise• David Elkind: “the patch-work self”• “So many things have already happened in

the world that we can’t possibly come up with anything else. So why even live?”

• “Teenage Mutant Turtles: “Flushed down the toilet as children, deformed by radiation, nurtured on junk food”

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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE

• “Born on Friday the 13th”—13th American Generation--- Fear it or face it

• “Baby Busters”—Even though more of them than Boomers

• 20 Million Aborted- last wave 1 in 3• Adult women - 1962: 50% stay married for the kids

-1980: 80% say no•Getting Along •30

THE X-ER X-PERIENCE

• 4/5 of today’s divorced adults say they’re happier. The majority of their kids say not.

• 1980:– 56% had both once-married parents– 11 w/ a stepparent– 19 w/ one parent

• The risk of parental divorce for Gen-X kids:– 2 times that of 60s Boomers– 3 times that of 50s Silents

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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE

• 1960-80: Mother of preschoolers in the workplace went from 20% to 47%

• “Latch-key” kids doubled• Lack of parental authority• Boomer grade inflation dropped• School funding dropped• Poverty benefits & wages dropped

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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE

• Most Republican generation on record• Lower risk from disease but

– Higher risk of dying from murder, suicide, accident

– 135,000 guns went to school each day– Fear of physical harm in school

• College completion: – Boomer Class of 1972 58%– Xer Class of 1980 37%

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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE

• Most heavily incarcerate generation on record (number and length)

• 1 in 5 lived in poverty• Believe if unemployed its their own

fault• As adults, median income fell 17%• Elders deferred debt to young• Rise of the “cynical American”

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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE

• The experience of childhood became “scattered” as Boomers pursued self-realization (emulated by aging Silents)

• Experienced the opposite of sacrificed-for Boomers.

• “My Three Sons” to “My Two Dads”• Adults were the children: children got to

deal with the garbage.

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THE X-ER X-PERIENCE

RISING ADULTHOOD• Increased poverty especially in inner-

cities• Family subsidized suburbanites• McJobs• Less promising promotion paths• “No Problem” see as the best to be

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What is GENERATION –X?

• Widely criticized as “X-ers” or “slackers,” they inhabit a Reality Bites economy of declining young-adult living standards

• Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Michael J. Fox, Michael Dell, Deion Sanders, Winona Ryder, Quentin Tarantino; Mike Tyson; Eddie Murphy; Princess Di

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TIPS FOR WORKING WITH GEN-X

• REMEMBER: “We have to take care of ourselves, because no one else will!”

• Don’t expect concern (or even awareness) of organization’s well-being

• Want to work-to-live versus Boomer live-to-work-aholism

• Pay attention to cost-benefit ratio• “Community Service” is a punishment

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WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS?• High school grads of 2000• Older parents• Smaller families• 40% firstborns• More educated parents• Slowly stabilizing family patterns• More diverse culturally/immigrant

parents•Getting Along •39

WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS?

SEVEN CORE TRAITS• SPECIAL• SHELTERED• CONFIDENT• TEAM-ORIENTED• CONVENTIONAL• PRESSURED• ACHIEVING

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http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/24/#1/1

Millennials’ Experience: Greater Numbers

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More Money

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Greater Diversity

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Greater Safety

Which Security Measures Do You Favor?• Metal detectors in schools: 86%• Regulating violent video games & TV

shows: 69%• Restricting violence in movies & on CDs:

59% --survey of adults and teens, in USA

Weekend (July 4, 1999)

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Changing families

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Health expectations

Death Rate per 10,000 U.S. Births:1946 1996

• For Mothers: 16 1• For infants: 338 72 --U.S. National Center for

Health Statistics (1999)•Getting Along •47

No place to hide

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Stress on health/well-being

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Attention to health issues

Child Immunization Rate (full series)1992: 55%1996: 75%

-- Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services (April 10, 1999)

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More educated parents

Percent of College Freshman Having…1973 1998

Mother with college Degree or higher 20% 41%Father with college Degree or higher 32% 44% --The American Freshman, UCLA (1997-

98)

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Not like the Boomers

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PERCEIVED AS CONFORMIST

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Managing the Bills

Which “Bill” might you pick as godfather for your child?

Bill Cosby 76%Bill Murray 11%Bill Gates 10%Bill Clinton 1%

--”Mom and Pop Culture Survey,” Child (April 1999)

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Generations compared

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Generational Events

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Tracking the Boomers: Perspective

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Famous Generational Figures

Generation Birth Years Famous Man Famous WomanLost 1883-1900 Harry Truman Mae WestG.I. 1901-1924 Ronald Reagan Ann

LandersSilent 1925-1942 M.L. King S. Day

O’ConnorBoom 1943-1960 George Bush Hillary ClintonX 1961-1981 Michael Jordan Courtney LoveMillennial1982-2002 Zac Hanson Tara Lipinski

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Different Environments

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Different approaches

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Who’s in charge here?

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The changing youth agenda

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TIPS FOR ENGAGING MILLENNIALS:(from www.lifecourseassociates.com

• TREAT THEM LIKE VIPs• CO-RECRUIT THE PARENTS• FIND THEM EARLY• LOOK AFTER THEM• OFFER STRUCTURE/TEACH

BASICS

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TIPS FOR ENGAGING MILLENNIALS:(from www.lifecourseassociates.com

• PROVIDE TIMELY FEEDBACK• DON’T OFFER THENM McJOBS• MAKE THEM PART OF THE GROUP• BE ACTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY• TAKE AN INTEREST IN THEIR

SUCCESS

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Find out more:• academic.regis.edu/rlumpp• millennialsrising.com• lifecourseblog.com• lifecourseassociates.com• http://pewresearch.org/millennials/video/conference.php

• http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/24/#1/1Other resources @amazon.com

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