Crowley & Co. News
Attract, Engage and Retain Millennials through Graphic Facilitation
Written by Deirdre Crowley, Crowley & Co. and Philip Kiracofe, Gooseworks Consulting, March 2008
"They're like Generation X on steroids," says Bruce Tulgan, a founder of Rainmaker Thinking, which studies young people in the workplace. "They walk in with high expectations for themselves, their employer, their boss. If you thought you saw a clash when Generation X came into the workplace; that was the fake punch. The haymaker is coming now."
The growing influx of the Millennial Generation into the workplace represents the greatest shift in generational work styles ever recorded. The Millennials are fundamentally different from their older colleagues. In order to attract, engage and retain the best and brightest young talent, particularly in a challenging and competitive economy, organizations must be willing to embrace new ways of working to support a smooth integration of work-style preferences unique to Millennials and to build understanding across the generational divide. Due to the nature of this shift, the use of graphic facilitation is an ideal approach to support the necessary organizational transition.
Who are the Millennials?
Born between 1980 and 2000, the Millennial Generation is the largest in American history - 95 million strong here in the United States compared to the 78 million of the baby boomer generation.
Millennials are the most highly educated generation. Technology is an extension of their bodies, they are highly sociable, inclusive, collaborative, open-minded, goal-oriented and they need a lot of feedback. As Claire Raines writes in her article Managing Millennials, "They've always felt sought-after, needed, and indispensable. They are arriving in the workplace with higher expectations than any generation before themÑand they're so well connected that, if an employer doesn't match those expectations, they can tell thousands of their cohorts with one click of the mouse." This can put a lot of pressure on a manager.
What This Means in Practical Terms
Boomer, Gen X or Gen Y/Millennial labels aside, what I can attest to, having shared an office from 2003-2005 with two colleagues, Alex and Linda, who were 15 years my junior, the work styles between the generations are distinctly, and often uncomfortably, different.
In 1987 while working at my first "real job" as closing coordinator in Mortgage Originations for Citizens Bank in Providence, Rhode Island, the fax was introduced and seemed like a miracle invention. We were still using answering machines to collect phone messages. Voicemail, cell phones, iPods, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, instant messaging and even the Internet itself were way beyond imagination for the general public. This is not the dark ages we're talking about - it was just over twenty years ago!
While at the bank, I had a manager who was a terrific mentor to me; among other things she taught me that five minutes late to work was still late and that I was expected to be on time. Decisions were made by management and then communicated down the ranks. There was no room for discussion nor was there an expectation for one by employees. Alex and Linda, my young colleagues, were only six years old at the time.
By the time Alex and Linda entered the professional world 15 years later, the playing field had changed considerably and my description of work at the bank seemed inconceivable to them. They had entered a world where collaboration had become the norm, where flex hours are expected, where employees are often encouraged to express their opinions and feel free to ask questions regarding management decisions. And that doesn't even begin to address the changes in technology.
By 2003 my Millennial coworkers simultaneously spoke on their cell phones, surfed the net, listened to music off of MP3 players and did their work effectively as I struggled to maintain my concentration while "single tasking" in an office that was indisputably small for three people. The biggest shock came when I first started to receive emails from Alex and Linda. I was sitting 10 feet away!
Through my work as a facilitator, I have seen organizations of all shapes and sizes struggling to alter their cultures to adapt to this new multi-tasking, tech-savvy and well-networked workforce in the same way I did. One of the most notable examples of this struggle is within the CIA. Here is an agency whose vision includes: One Community. An Agency unmatched in its core capabilities, functioning as one team, fully integrated into the Intelligence Community with a mission that revolves around covert action and analysis with an emphasis on securing its data. The challenge at hand is to create an integrated internal workforce when it is prohibited to bring cameras or cell phones onto any CIA property frustrating. Likewise, employees are not allowed to freely surf the Internet or use iPods at work. Despite the resistance of older employees to change (often for good reason), the CIA has to ask, "How do we ensure a secure environment while addressing the needs of the young talent we want to attract and retain?"
There's Hope for Managers
For those who are unfamiliar with graphic facilitation, it is the act of capturing and organizing meeting content through large, hand-drawn words and images while also acting as a guide and providing a clear process forward for a group of participants. Here are some of the many ways in which it addresses cross-generational work preferences and supports Millennial engagement whether within large government agencies like the CIA or small non-profits like the one where I worked with Alex and Linda:
- Millennials are passionate and want a seat at the table.
Inclusivity lies at the heart of graphic facilitation. A skilled facilitator will encourage equal contribution from participants, honor the words that are spoken and capture them in a way that represents and builds on the passion and emotion behind them. - Millennials want opportunities for learning, increased responsibility and a means for showcasing their talent.
Graphic facilitation supports shared learning in real-time and provides a simple means of communicating information after-the-fact through the charts that are created (in original or digital form). The use of templates and visual frameworks can also provide a means of supporting small task teams in taking on responsibility and then sharing those results with managers in a way that encourages further dialogue and mutual collaboration. - Millennials want to work with vs. work for a boss. They want a mentor/coach as opposed to a supervisor.
The use of visual tools provides supervisors with a means of helping Millennials map out career development paths for themselves. The Grove Consultants International's Graphic Gameplan¨ is terrific for this purpose and can be shared in hard copy or digital format. - Millennials are easily distracted and scattered.
By their own admission, Millennials have difficulty focusing on a single task for an extended period of time. Likewise, they are used to constant technological stimulus and have little tolerance for sitting in meetings where they are unclear on the outcomes and unable to see the importance of their own presence in the session.
Graphic facilitation holds the attention of participants by its very nature and the use of a clear agreed-upon agenda, stated goals, roles, and ground rules at the beginning of the session will help to build buy-in from the get-go. - Millennials demand more transparency and resist top-down decisions they have not been part of.
One of the most significant and often challenging patterns older colleagues have with Millennials is their resistance to top-down decisions that they have not been part of. The use of graphic facilitation to engage participation at all levels of the organization can support communication, collaborative decision making and build understanding along the way. - There is much for us to learn from one another.
As Kristina Hooper Woolsey, cognitive psychologist and founder of the Apple Multimedia Lab, states, Millennials are skilled in areas of technology and media whereas Boomers and Gen X'ers excel in areas of process, judgment and intentionality. Where the generations overlap is in the realm of design. Graphic facilitation can bridge the generational divide by providing common visual language, process and interactive media to support learning across generations.
Moving Forward
Graphic tools are not new to the workplace. The use of visuals has been a common component to meeting and planning sessions for many years. Yet, it is almost as if the concept behind graphic facilitation was ahead of its time. The massive influx of Millennials into the workforce is making graphic facilitation more relevant now than ever before. And just imagine - more than half of the Millennials have yet to even enter the workplace! We are just beginning to see the effects of this powerful generation. Used effectively, graphic facilitation and visual tools are uniquely positioned to support increased understanding between generations and to establish the kind of collaborative environments necessary for us to tackle the complex problems at hand.
The Authors
Deirdre Crowley, Crowley & Co.
www.crowleyandco.us
Deirdre Crowley is the founder of Crowley & Co., a Washington, DC-based consultancy that helps clients to achieve strategic success through effective facilitation and collaborative visual tools. Crowley & Co. consists of a broad network of associates including graphic facilitators, designers and strategic planning experts. It is this strong partner-based approach that enables Crowley & Co. to respond to a wide range of client needs across corporate, military, government and non-profit sectors in Washington and around the world (including Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America).
Ms. Crowley's clients include Microsoft, Mars Incorporated, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Novozymes, the President's Cancer Panel and the United States Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Ms. Crowley is an associate senior consultant with The Grove Consultants International. She is also a founding partner of Strategy Arts, a Philadelphia-Based strategy consulting firm, and an associate staff member of the Center for Evidence-Based Education in Princeton, New Jersey.
Philip Kiracofe, Gooseworks Consulting
www.gooseworksconsulting.com
Phil Kiracofe is the founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Gooseworks Consulting, an experiential learning company that specializes in team development. He brings a unique academic background of Psychology, Sociology, and Kinesiology to his passion for experiential learning and organizational development.
Mr. Kiracofe has worked with more than 200 companies, schools, and organizations to strengthen teams, improve effectiveness, and develop more productive work environments. His clients include FEMA, World Bank, China Telecom, CIPE, and YPO.
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