Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Looking for a great quote

I was preparing a slide deck for an upcoming presentation about Productivity Games. I needed a quote to help show how the generation gap is only going to get wider. I opened Mike Muetzel's book, "They're Not Aloof... Just Generation X", because I knew he had a lot of great ideas in there about the challenges existing managers have working with Gen-X employees. It didn't take long, and I found one in the intro.

"And if you think managing Gen X employees and managers is a tough assignment today, then I can tell you the next generation will take you over the edge and push your existing management styles to limits you never dreamed existed."

That just summed it up so well. The age-old management techniques that many of us have learned in our careers so far are just not going to be as successful with the incoming generation of employees as they were with us. We need to start innovating how we manage people now so that we can find the best ways to help the Gen Y and Millenial generations come into the work place feeling engaged, appreciated and motivated.

That's where productivity games can play a role.