Tammy Erickson Associates Building Intelligent Organizations

What’s Next, Gen X?

A book for members of Generation X

The challenge for Gen X is that you are wedged between two huge generations competing for the same opportunities. I've spent a lot of time talking to members of Generation X - those of you born roughly in the 1960s and ‘70s. The book I've written based on those conversations includes many of your voices and hearing you, I developed a deep admiration for the generational traits evident among most X'ers, particularly in the context of our current global challenges.

Future leaders in all spheres will have to contend with a world with finite limits, no easy answers, and the sobering realization that we are facing significant, seemingly intractable problems on multiple fronts. Perhaps the biggest change from the past: leaders will have to listen and respond to diverse points of view. There will be no dominant voice.

I'm convinced that Gen X'ers will be the leaders we need. The experiences that shaped those of you who were teens in the late ‘70s and ‘80s translate into valuable contemporary traits and perspectives. Some of these are:

• Your accelerated contact with the real world, for many through a "latch-key" childhood, has made you resourceful and hardworking. You meet your commitments and take employability seriously.
• You instinctively maintain a well-nurtured portfolio of options and networks. Your distrust of institutions grew as you witnessed the lay-offs of the ‘80s and has prompted you to value self-reliance.
• You are comfortable with the global and digital world. A sense of alienation from your immediate surroundings as teens, coupled with rapidly expanding technology, allows you to look outward in ways no generation before could or did.
• Your awareness of global issues was shaped in your youth, and you are richly multicultural. You bring a more unconscious acceptance of diversity than any preceding generation because in your formative years you saw the civil rights advances of the 1960s and you grew up with women in independent authority roles.
• You tend to look for a different way forward. Your strongest arena of financial success as a generation has been your entrepreneurial achievements.
• Your pragmatism has given you practical and value-oriented sensibilities that, I believe, will help you serve as effective stewards of both today's organizations and tomorrow's world.

The most difficult elements of your past may well be those that provide you with the strongest capabilities for today. You have the opportunity to change the corporate template, and create organizations that are more conducive to your values.

This book is for you, Gen X. I invite you to reflect on the richness of your generation and I offer you ideas for exploring new possibilities.

 

For specific advice on managing the changing workforce, Ask Tammy

Plugged In - The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work

A book for members of Generation Y

Representing one third of the global population, Generation Y will dominate the workforce for the next forty years and beyond. Those of you who are members of this generation will have opportunities to experiment with careers, choose jobs you love, and to leverage your unique talents and viewpoints to change the workplace in unprecedented ways.

I suspect you already know this: you bring with you a wealth of talent, enthusiasm, and new ideas as you enter the workplace. Your comfort with technology, the global and multicultural perspective that has permeated much of your education, the way you communicate with your peers-all combine to provide you with strong work-related advantages. Without even trying, you will bring fresh perspectives to work because many of the ways you approach problems are fundamentally different from the way “it has always been done.” The world of work, whether in business, education, nonprofit, or government service, needs-and will ultimately welcome-the contributions you will make.

But chances are high that you will not find today’s workplace immediately well matched to your preferences and style-and not quite ready to absorb all that you have to give. I hope this book will help you bring the best of what you have to offer to work. I’ve tried to paint a realistic picture of how most organizations operate today – and to show how you can most effectively make a difference in the workplace.

My goal is to help you get “plugged in” to work that fits you, to valuable relationships with work colleagues of all ages, to your sense of self in the world.

This is a book for you.

For specific advice on managing the changing workforce, Ask Tammy

Retire Retirement - Career Strategies for the Boomer Generation

A book for members of the Boomer Generation

Are you Boomer? If so, here’s the good news for you: an unanticipated life bonus – extra years, filled with opportunities. You are a member of the first generation that will experience a new life stage – a significant period of healthy, active adult life after your children leave the nest.

You may decide to launch a new career, start a business, work as a “cyclic” contractor, or turn to volunteer work. This book will encourage you to experiment, network, and build on your success as you move ahead. Unconventional work arrangements are becoming more commonplace, and this book will show you what’s reasonable — and how to negotiate to achieve your goals.

This practical, cheerfully optimistic book will explain your options, including unconventional ways to remain in the workforce. It will help you understand the important role that work plays in most Boomers’ lives – and why it often seems so different from other generations’ approaches. It will help you decide what you want and show you how to go about getting it.

Retire Retirement is an enticement to explore and a guide to what you’ll find. Now’s the time to imagine what your next stage of life can be like and explore the opportunities that will satisfy your needs and preferences. This book will show you the way.

For specific advice on managing the changing workforce, Ask Tammy

Workforce Crisis - How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent

A book for organizations and leaders

“It is essential reading for every manager.”
Warren Bennis, Professor, University of Southern California and co-author of Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values and Defining Moments Shape Leaders

Is your organization prepared to attract and retain the talent you’ll need? Do you understand the implications of demographic trends for the global workforce?

Unprecedented shifts in age distribution are underway. Decades of slowing birth rates mean that the future rate of workforce growth will decline precipitously, for example, from over 10% per decade in the United States in the past to just 2% or so going forward. Younger workers, particularly those with college degrees, will be in increasingly short supply, and the fastest growing source of additional labor will be older people, including those already retired. The reality: organizations in the industrialized world are going to experience profound changes in the available workforce.

Successful talent management will depend on redefining retirement and transforming management and human resource practices to attract, accommodate, and retain workers of all ages and backgrounds. Based on decades of groundbreaking research, Workforce Crisis presents innovative and actionable management techniques for leveraging the knowledge of mature workers, reengaging disillusioned midcareer workers, and attracting and retaining talented younger workers.

Workforce Crisis is a guide for organizations and leaders. In it, my co-authors and I paint a compelling picture of the changing workforce and outline a host of pragmatic steps that you should begin now to insure you have the talent you need for the future.

1. You should prepare your firm for talent shortages by putting in place a series of work arrangements that will allow you to tap into every available labor pool – to “turn every stone” as you look for the best employees over the years ahead. The book includes many practical examples of how leading companies are beginning to take these steps and what you should do now.

2. You need to understand what the future workforce values and develop programs that engage employees’ hearts and minds. The book outlines fascinating variations in worker needs, preferences, and lifestyles expected going forward.

3. You need to re-think your organization’s capabilities to support this new workforce. For example, like it or not, corporations will bear an increased burden for educating the future workforce – there simply will not be enough people with the ready skills required – do you have the capacity necessary? Similarly, you’ll need different HR practices and new management practices generally, to create a successful relationship with future employees.

For specific advice on managing the changing workforce, Ask Tammy

Third Generation R&D

Innovation has always been at the heart of my professional work. And because innovation is about bringing ideas together, collaboration is critical for sustained innovation. Much of my career has focused on understanding both – and helping organizations strengthen their capabilities.

My first book, Third Generation R&D was co-authored with two colleagues from the innovative “think tank” Arthur D. Little, where I worked for almost 20 years. The book, which became a staple within many R&D organizations, explored the way to make investments in research and development and to create a link to corporate strategy.

More recently, I’ve focused on ways to make your organization fundamentally more innovative – to increase the probability that innovation will occur in your organization. I’ve learned that three things are essential:

• Building collaborative capacity
• Asking compelling questions
• Providing disruptive perspective

For specific advice on managing the changing workforce, Ask Tammy

Tammy Erickson named one of the top 50 global business thinkers of 2009