Issue #31

In this issue:

• Whys Insight: I Pledge Allegiance
• Whys Cracks
• The Buzz
• WhysNews Archive

Word to the Whys

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
Thomas Jefferson

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
Helen Keller

"If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people."
Chinese Proverb

"All men by nature desire to know."
Aristotle (384-322 BC)

"Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all."
General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"I wish I would have a real tragic love affair and get so bummed out that I'd just quit my job and become a bum for a few years, because I was thinking about doing that anyway."
Jack Handey, Author of Deep Thoughts

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I Pledge Allegiance
Buy-In of the Deepest Kind

In this day of the mercenary resume builder, tumultuous employee turnover, corporate upheaval, and the epidemic free agent mentality among employees, how would you go about getting your front line to buy in to your company's mission and purpose? I mean really buy in; to the degree that they would forgo better pay and radically improved working conditions elsewhere, and even put their life on the line for your organization?

Sounds implausible at best, if not impossible, right?

Why then, do young men and women continue to enlist in the US Army in record numbers, even in the midst of the bloody conflict in Iraq and well publicized student war protests on college campuses across the nation?

Is it the signing bonus or the college tuition reimbursement program? Is it the coolness of the hip camouflage uniform? Or is it because in our current economy, a good job is just so darn hard to find?

None of the above, according to Dennis D. Cavin, Commanding General of the US Army's recruiting and basic training programs (termed Accessions). Cavin, a three star General, sat down with me over dinner at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and shed light on this intriguing mystery.

"We asked 11,000 seventeen to twenty-one-year-olds why they were enlisting in the Army. We thought it might be the signing bonus or the tuition reimbursement," Cavin said. "But those items were down on the list. Turns out, the youth of our great nation want desperately to belong to something bigger than themselves." So much so, apparently, that they are willing to go to battle for it.

General Cavin said he regularly visits with young soldiers during their brutal days of boot camp. "I tell them I'm the guy that signed their enlistment contract, and ask them if they want to back out of the deal." But Cavin said that he's never had a taker. "They know exactly what they're getting themselves into. We don't paint 'em a pretty picture just to get them to join. We're brutally honest, and these kids gravitate toward that."

Honor is one of the Army's seven basic values. Integrity is another. They train young people to do what is right, legally and morally. Compare these to the plethora of contradictory messages routinely perpetuated in modern sports, advertising, popular music and reality television, and you might begin to see why the Army is such an attractive alternative for Generation Why. Obviously, they've grown tired of being hoodwinked, manipulated, and betrayed. They demand more out of life.

"I asked a young soldier I passed in the Louisville Airport why he joined the Army," General Cavin said. "He told me that he'd rather die for something he believed in, than to live for something that he didn't."

Cavin went on to explain that these young kids aren't going to war for their country, at least not in the traditional sense that ordinary civilians may believe. Rather, they're risking their lives for the soldier that is next to them in the foxhole. "They feel a vital connection to the person who has their back," Cavin continued. Speaks volumes, doesn't it?

Beyond filling with pride at the level of commitment we have from the young men and women protecting our freedom, the lessons are plentiful and profound. However, let's focus on the three huge takeaways from a brilliant military leader who has this generation figured out:

• Loyalty is an even exchange, not a one-sided transaction. Don't expect buy-in from your young talent if your organization is shallow in purpose and strictly focused on profits. Gen Why wants to know that they're a part of something that is making a worthwhile contribution to society.
• Strive for 100% honesty in every phase of your operation. Resist the temptation to make an entry level job - or any job - sound better than it is just to fill a vacancy in a hurry. You may temporarily solve your scheduling dilemma, but you'll stock your front lines with non-committed troops who will abandon you at the first sign of trouble.
• Encourage fellowship and camaraderie among your Gen Whys and provide frequent opportunities for them to build relationships away from the workplace. They may never bleed your company colors or be able to recite your mission statement, but they'll go to the wall for the coworker who's helping them man the drive through.

Whys Cracks

MAJOR DRUG BUST: A student told a teacher at Parkview High School in Bossier City, Louisiana, that sophomore Amanda Stiles was smoking in the bathroom. The teacher confronted Stiles and searched her purse, but found no cigarettes or lighters. She did, however, find something else: Advil, an over-the-counter medication used to relieve headaches and menstrual cramps. "Pills!" screamed the school administrators. Possessing drugs on campus is a "zero tolerance" infraction, they point out, and so they expelled Stiles for a year. The expulsion was upheld by the School Board's administrative committee and the superintendent. (Shreveport Times)

Like they say, education is what happens when a kid is not in class.

SHOW AND YELL: Things went a bit awry recently at Fairview Elementary School in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania. Dr. Michael Horowitz, a neurosurgeon and a father of a student, brought an arm to class to show the kids. Not a prosthesis, but a real arm from a cadaver. "An arm would be upsetting even to adults," said the Allegheny County coroner, who suggested "a simple, two dimensional chart" might have been more appropriate. Several fifth graders fainted or felt ill when shown the arm, and a number of parents complained. Horowitz said he's brought eyes, ears and brains in the past without any complaints. (AP)

Someone better get these sick youngsters some Advil.

The Buzz

  What are THEY Saying?

What do your colleagues have to say about LIVE Generation Why Presentations?

"The information you shared with our Dairy Queen store operators about "Generation Why?" was very relevant to their business. You helped us understand this generation and that insight will enable us to maximize the talents of these young people who make up the majority of our in-store workforce."

~ Signe M. Pagel; Vice President, International Dairy Queen, Inc.