Millennials and Elmo

Well, after a couple of weeks away due to travelling and staying up late watching Elmo offer up his insights on Springtime, birds, birthdays, friends and taking turns, I finally have some thoughts to share. First, Elmo and Sesame Street may be the greatest marketers of all time. But I may cover that topic at another time. The more relevant topic (depending on my audience I guess), is that of the Millennial generation and how they learn and function in the employment market. Millennials is the name given to the generation that was born approximately between 1982-2001. On a recent trip to the Columbus, OH area (where Indiana Business College is getting ready to open its first on-ground campus beyond the state of Indiana in September, 2009) I had the pleasure to meet with a number of area professionals. Included in my trip was a visit with the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, which was incredibly insightful. I also met with and had lunch with David Cofer of Cofer Consulting Solutions (http://www.coferconsulting.com/). David is a consultant that is currently working with the Columbus Chamber. Over lunch, David and I got into a conversation about Millennials and what environments they learn and work best in. This conversation combined with a number of recently viewed YouTube videos, really resonated with me. Millennials were born into a technology heavy environment. Unlike most of us from older generations, Millennials had access to laptops, IPods, PDAs, social networking sites, texting, emailing, etc. from a very early age. Their access to multiple massive streams of information and the ability to multi-task has been a part of their daily lives. The issue for older generations then becomes how does the rest of the world “catch-up” to this younger generation. From an education and employment standpoint, people like me and others in these arenas, need to find ways to keep these learners and employers from feeling like they need to “power down” when entering a classroom or workplace.

So, what is the solution? In my opinion, the older generations need to be willing to close the gap between what we are currently comfortable with and the ever evolving technologies that change daily. Even Elmo utilizes a computer for video messages and emails. My 20 month old daughter even mentions Elmo when I bring out the video camera (probably now outdated) or digital camera. She also pretends to type text messages on my Blackberry when she manages to wrestle it away from me. If educators and employers are not willing to push themselves out of their comfort zones and learn new available technology, then the gap between current generations and Millennials will only widen. Change is never easy, but if we are unwilling to attempt to keep up with the environment, then we will all suffer. From what I have been able to learn in a short time, Millennials are going to be an incredibly successful generation. They digest information more rapidly and are eager to be continually challenged. They have the ability to do more in shorter periods of time because of what resources they have available to them. The older generations would be wise to capitalize on these individuals and work with them instead of making them compensate to the “old school” way of doing things. There will definitely be growing pains for all generations involved in this change. But if we aren’t willing to try and change, then I think we are missing out on the big picture. I have no idea what to expect in terms of technology when my daughter is in kindergarten, let alone when she reaches high school. But I do know that I am going to be willing to try and stay even with the technology curve so that we can continue to have meaningful conversations and positively impact each other far into the future.