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Generation Blend: Managing across the Technology Age Gap
Technology and demographics are on a collision course. Digital Natives, Boomerang Boomers, and Generation X-ecutives are all grappling with the transformative implications of Web 2.0 technologies, and organizations are scrambling for the best ways to unlock the talents of a multigenerational workforce in a connected world. Generation Blend ventures deep into the technology age gap and provides real-world solutions to combine the best that younger and older workers have to offer.
Generation Blend explores how generational attitudes toward technology affect issues as diverse as recruitment and retention, employee training, management decision-making, collaboration, knowledge sharing, work/life balance, and ordinary workday activities. How can your organization promote the continuity of knowledge and culture in the face of the coming demographic transition? What hidden factors put new technology deployments at risk? How can IT departments manage the growing demand for social and collaborative software while maintaining governance and security? What initiatives can you launch to bridge the divide in work styles and tech-savvy that separates veterans and newcomers in the workforce?
In Generation Blend, author Rob Salkowitz builds on the groundbreaking work of Don Tapscott (Wikinomics, Growing Up Digital), William Strauss and Neil Howe (Generations, Millennials Rising), and many others to connect the dots of sociology, technology, and management, and trace a roadmap for decision-makers. Generation Blend is rich with research and includes two original in-depth case studies from organizations that have developed unique approaches to bridging the technology age gap: Microsoft’s Board of the Future project, which assembles college-age students from around the world to discuss a wide range of workplace issues, and Older Adults Technology Services, a New York based nonprofit dedicated to intergenerational technology training and reciprocal mentoring programs. Organizations of all types and sizes can profit from their methods.
The retirement of the Baby Boomers, the arrival of the Millennials, and the impact of Web 2.0 technology in the enterprise create unprecedented complexity for employers and workers in the 2010s and beyond. Organizations looking to solve the puzzle of productivity across the technology age gap should start with Generation Blend.
Generation Blend explores how generational attitudes toward technology affect issues as diverse as recruitment and retention, employee training, management decision-making, collaboration, knowledge sharing, work/life balance, and ordinary workday activities. How can your organization promote the continuity of knowledge and culture in the face of the coming demographic transition? What hidden factors put new technology deployments at risk? How can IT departments manage the growing demand for social and collaborative software while maintaining governance and security? What initiatives can you launch to bridge the divide in work styles and tech-savvy that separates veterans and newcomers in the workforce?
In Generation Blend, author Rob Salkowitz builds on the groundbreaking work of Don Tapscott (Wikinomics, Growing Up Digital), William Strauss and Neil Howe (Generations, Millennials Rising), and many others to connect the dots of sociology, technology, and management, and trace a roadmap for decision-makers. Generation Blend is rich with research and includes two original in-depth case studies from organizations that have developed unique approaches to bridging the technology age gap: Microsoft’s Board of the Future project, which assembles college-age students from around the world to discuss a wide range of workplace issues, and Older Adults Technology Services, a New York based nonprofit dedicated to intergenerational technology training and reciprocal mentoring programs. Organizations of all types and sizes can profit from their methods.
The retirement of the Baby Boomers, the arrival of the Millennials, and the impact of Web 2.0 technology in the enterprise create unprecedented complexity for employers and workers in the 2010s and beyond. Organizations looking to solve the puzzle of productivity across the technology age gap should start with Generation Blend.
- GenresBusiness
Audio CD
First published March 1, 2008
About the author
Rob Salkowitz
11 books15 followersROB SALKOWITZ is a business analyst and futurist specializing in the disruptive effects of digital technology and the digital generation on work, business and culture. His latest book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture (McGraw-Hill, 2012), looks at the future of entertainment through the lens of the San Diego Comic-Con. His earlier books explore global entrepreneurship, the changing demographics of the workplace, and methods of exploring the future in business. His work has appeared at FastCompany.com, FastCoCreate, The New York Times, Internet Evolution, Businessweek and other publications. He is a partner in the Seattle-based firm MediaPlant, LLC and teaches in the MCDM Program at the University of Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 29, 2008
Rob's been ghost writing for Bill for years. Finally gets to put his own name out there. Interesting to read it when it's finally published.
From Rob:
Ah, you discovered my secret! It’s due out in March. I was just getting ready to make a big announcement – I’m trying to coordinate a bunch of pre-orders on Amazon to kick it up the sales charts a bit and maybe get it noticed.
Check out the website for the book – www.generationblend.com. And be sure to buy a bunch for your office and clients!
From my Amazon "review"
40 years ago as a graduate teaching assistant only 5 years older than the kids I was teaching I realized there was a generation gap. Their language was different from mine. Their expectations different. Even their ways of approaching tasks was different. Today, my peers are all labeled Baby Boomers. If there were differences in thinking then, when we were so much more homogeneous, how much more are the differences today? I know I have to work hard to even understand the Gen X and Millenial "kids" we're employing today. And it's up to our generation to adapt or die. We have the perspective to see how we interacted with the generation that came before us as well as those who are nipping at our heels. Salkowitz has done an impressive job of identifying the way each generation works and interacts... and provides a valuable tool for us older managers to understand what makes younger employees tick... and how we can work together to make the workplace more productive and less frustrating.
From Rob:
Ah, you discovered my secret! It’s due out in March. I was just getting ready to make a big announcement – I’m trying to coordinate a bunch of pre-orders on Amazon to kick it up the sales charts a bit and maybe get it noticed.
Check out the website for the book – www.generationblend.com. And be sure to buy a bunch for your office and clients!
From my Amazon "review"
40 years ago as a graduate teaching assistant only 5 years older than the kids I was teaching I realized there was a generation gap. Their language was different from mine. Their expectations different. Even their ways of approaching tasks was different. Today, my peers are all labeled Baby Boomers. If there were differences in thinking then, when we were so much more homogeneous, how much more are the differences today? I know I have to work hard to even understand the Gen X and Millenial "kids" we're employing today. And it's up to our generation to adapt or die. We have the perspective to see how we interacted with the generation that came before us as well as those who are nipping at our heels. Salkowitz has done an impressive job of identifying the way each generation works and interacts... and provides a valuable tool for us older managers to understand what makes younger employees tick... and how we can work together to make the workplace more productive and less frustrating.
September 23, 2012
After examining the conflicts that may arise amongst the generations due to the digital technology age gap, and giving full descriptions of the workstyles of the 3 prevalent generations in the workplace, (Baby Boomers, born 1946-1962; Generation X, born 1963-1980; and the Millennials, born 1981-2000 ) Salkowitz offers 5 questions that any organization should ask themselves in order to best manage the technology age gap. Case studies are presented both to illustrate why the technology age gap may actually be beneficial to the workplace, as well as to give examples of the different steps that each of the generations may be taking to eliminate the technology age gap.
July 23, 2008
Very good coverage of traits of the predominant generations in the workforce. Could have examined generational attitudes toward technology even more thoroughly and not lost focus. Good conclusions to solving some of the most common conflicts that arise amongst generations in regards to the use of technology in the workplace.
June 23, 2008
A good book, lays out the differences in working with today's technologies and different generations...what they expect, comfortable with.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews