Could this really be the 100th Edition?   Yep, time flies when you’re having fun.  And each month for the past 8.33 years (had to use a calculator for that one) I’ve had a blast sending out thoughts, tips, strategies, and ideas for engaging teens and young adults in the workplace.  Hope you’ve enjoyed this forum as much as I have. You’d really help me celebrate this milestone if you’d forward this on to a friend or a colleague.  I’m always looking to expand the subscriber base.  If you have ideas for me to write future editions, please email me at eric@generationwhy.com  Thanks for being a faithful subscriber to Whys News!

Superimposing Leaves Cake on Your Face

Last Saturday when I was making my weekly Costco run, I noticed a wall comprised of a dozen ‘Graduating Class of 2010’ sheet cakes displayed prominently inside the front door.  The obvious intent of this display was to promote Costco’s bakery and show off its ability to create personalized cakes for springtime’s special occasions, like graduations. 

This particular display, however, wasted a mountain of sugar and dough to deliver the unintended message, “We’re painfully out of touch.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, one glance at the dozen large cakes on display is a library of generational and ethnic studies, or rather the lack of them.  Look closely at the 12 names on the cakes. From L to R: Dan, Mary, Sue, James, Paul, Betty, Tim, Chris, Kim, Sam, Bill, and Lori. Click to expand

How many eighteen-year-olds do you know that go by the names Bill, Sue, Kim, Paul, or Mary? Even those that have been passed down family names generally use a different moniker.  My 23-year-old blogger and staff assistant goes by T.J. rather than his given name Timothy John.  My wife is named Lori and we went to her 30-year-reunion last summer.  But the name that prompted me to run to the car to get my camera is “Betty”.

Seriously? The last time Betty accepted a high school diploma was the year Herman gave the Valedictorian address and Ethel sang the school’s fight song.

All kidding aside, let’s push rewind to examine the sequence of events that led to this blunder in an attempt to glean an important lesson. 

A merchandise manager receives a directive from corporate to feature fresh-baked signature graduation cakes in a highly visible display.  The merchandise manager passes the task on to a cake decorator instructing her to create a dozen sample cakes using a different name on each.  Recalling the classmates she graduated with back in the day (1962, give or take a decade) she inscribes those names for the class of 2010--in cursive, no less. (The majority of those graduating in 2010 never learned to read or write in cursive.)

This is a classic example of what I’ve termed superimposing, a common mistake made every day by well-intending parents, teachers, employers, and marketers.  When we interact with today’s teens and young adults as if they are exactly like us--only younger, we are, in effect, superimposing our values and decisions over theirs and superimposing the expectations and outcomes.

Naturally, the outcomes are never as we expect. Instead of connecting with them, superimposing widens the gap between us, often making us appear foolish.

Whether you are trying to connect with them at home, at school, at work, or in the marketplace, be ever mindful that they are not simply younger versions of us back when we were their age. They aren’t, and names are just the tip of the iceberg.

To remain relevant and connected to kids, teens and young adults, practice three rules:

1. Keep Current. Set aside 10 minutes each day to study youth trends, statistics, and pop-culture. The internet makes this easy with hundreds of sites and sources that track these things. (Check out the Whys Website of the Month in the adjacent column for excellent examples.)

2. Get their Input.  You don’t have to use it, but you should know what they think before you make your move. The good news is, if you ask for their opinion, they’ll give it to you.

3. Stay Pliable. Make it your goal to be flexible and be able to change when something no longer works.  Those that can create, adapt, and implement new rules, policies, techniques, and ideas rapidly will survive and thrive in the future. Those that remain rigid in their ways will end up with Myrtle and Horace at the Sock Hop.

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New Chick-Fil-A Video Shows Young Workers Why Great Service Matters

For most retail and restaurant chains, customer service training programs for front line service providers are simply an extrapolation of the same basic commands: Smile. Listen. Be nice. Be friendly. Maintain eye contact. Try to accommodate, etc.

The problem is, command-based service training program like these never addresses the fundamental question going on inside the mind of the young trainee who is then expected to provide the service; that being “Why?”
Read the rest of the article and view the Chick-Fil-A video...

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