I was lucky enough to attend a Rockies game and a Broncos game last week, and it got me thinking. You see, the simple truth of every sport is that defense wins championships. If you can’t field a team with a good defense, your time on the field isn’t going to get you anywhere.

So, what does this mean when you’re employing Millennials?

It means that you have to be able to defend your practices to them so that you can win their hearts. Because make no mistake about it: those practices will be under constant attack from an offense that has spent its whole life sharpening its wits to abuse, question, and disregard the procedures you have in place. (Just ask any manager I’ve ever worked for.)

Four excellent defenses for any procedure:

1. Following this procedure will make the young employee more money.

The appeal of this one is easy to see. Sometimes, though, the hard part is drawing a direct line between the three cents of cheese that are saved by using the correct portioning tool and the raise an employee might receive in the future if food cost isn’t too high. Two ways to make that line easier to see: 1. Immediate fiscal gains for following procedure (i.e., gift cards, cash, etc.) 2. Long-term rewards for over-all performance. Set up a prize or some sort of reward that is contingent upon the business’s performance.

2. Following this procedure is the right thing to do.

Generation Y doesn’t just come to the workforce looking to put some cash in their pockets - they want to do it on their own terms. I had a friend who worked in sales for a major national retailer. He was good, and was consistently able to sell extended warranties on products. Despite having the ability to have a similar success with applications for the company’s credit cards, he only got two applications in his entire time there. When I asked why, he said, “I didn’t think it was right to suggest a card with such a high interest rate to people.” So, as a manager looking to get him to work on credit applications, you’d have to do a few things: explain how it’s the right thing to do (it avoids anti-discrimination lawsuits, for instance), that the people who are applying for the card have the information available to them, and that it’s the right thing to do to let them make their decisions instead of him making the decision for them.

3. Following this procedure is easier/more effective than other ways out there.

Speak from your experience. Share times that you tried it a different way and ended up with hours of extra work because of the unforeseen consequences. This one can be particularly convincing coming from a peer instead of a supervisor.

4. Following this procedure is going to better prepare you for your future.

Sure, learning the new program doesn’t look like very much fun, and the old one worked perfectly well. But when businesses adopt new technologies, they typically aren’t the only business doing it. Learning to cope with change is just one a small part of this defense - learning new technologies and their applications is the real meat of it.

I’d love to hear about any others you’ve used in the comments!