EXECUTIVE FOCUS {GENERATION GAP}
By Andy Reese CROSS THE GENERATION GAP
Challenged to ore than 30 years integrate and engage ago, when Carl Selinger was a junior with Millennials, engineer at the engineering beginning of his 31-year career at The MPort Authority of New York and New organizations are Jersey, he accompanied a delegation of finding new transportation officials from Southeast Asia to dinner. Unsure of how to ways to bridge behave during the meal, he asked his generational divides senior colleague who was managing the delegation what he should do. “He told me, ‘Watch them, and do what they do.’ And it worked!” says Selinger. cohort in the workforce, surpassing Selinger, the author of best- Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, selling book Stuff You Don’t Learn in according to the Pew Research Engineering School (Wiley-IEEE Press, Center. With an average of 10,000 2004), harkens back to those early Baby Boomers currently turning 65 days of his career as he every day, Millennials will reflects on how today’s account for greater than 50 engineering leaders need percent of the workforce to think about engaging by 2020, Pew notes. with the Millennial- Those numbers add up generation professionals to significant challenges increasingly filling and competitive risks for the ranks of their engineering organizations. organizations. “It goes Consider: Between back to the individual the Baby Boomers and and helping that person Millennials, the smaller develop soft skills—or Generation X graduated what someone who fewer engineers than reviewed my book Author Carl Selinger their parents’ cohort. As called ‘life skills.’” Photo Credit: John Livsey a result, organizations that struggled to hire BIG GENERATION, BIG Gen X engineers—and that therefore CHALLENGES FOR ENGINEERING continue to rely on greying Boomers— Millennials—those born roughly must now ensure that they are between 1980 and 1995—now attracting Millennials onto their teams constitute the largest generational or risk a serious shortage of qualified
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company,” says Boettger, who also is editor for the IEEE PCS Professional Engineering Communication Series published by Wiley. “Millennials have different expectations: They want to be seen as being on the same level as their more senior colleagues—not necessarily from a pay perspective, but from a value perspective.” These inter-generational differences set up a potential conflict between, on the one hand, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, who might feel that Millennials should naturally follow the same path they did—“grinding it out” for years before earning recognition—and Millennials, who might be more inclined to simply go elsewhere in search of an environment that provides more rapid—if not instantaneous— gratification. engineers, as well as a catastrophic “job-hoppers” —engaged so they don’t Whether Millennials actually are any brain drain as the Baby Boomers retire leave the organization after only a few more inclined to “job hop” than prior out of the workforce. years. Let’s start by looking at these generations is the subject of debate Demographic trends, however, two challenges. among social scientists. A recent Pew present a further challenge for Research article by Richard Fry, for engineering leaders: Millennials are INTEGRATION & ENGAGEMENT example, suggests, “Among the college- more numerous than Gen Xers, but Raise the issue of Millennials educated, Millennials have longer track as a group, they are not producing any with a senior engineering leader, records with their employers than higher percentage of STEM (Science, and inevitably the term Generation X workers Technology, Engineering, Math) “entitled” comes up. That’s did in 2000 when they graduates than their generational perhaps not surprising, as were the same age as predecessors, according to government today’s senior engineers today’s Millennials.” data. A recent report from ABET, naturally view Millennials Nevertheless, the the group that accredits college and through the lens of their perception persists that university engineering programs, points own experience, says Millennials are less loyal to a shortage of about 1 million STEM Dr. Ryan Boettger, to a given employer than graduates over the next decade. associate professor Dr. Ryan Boettger, past cohorts. Fred Filler, These trends put a premium on an of technical University of North Texas a product manager in the engineering organization’s ability not communication at the Engineering & Product only to recruit fresh talent, but also University of North Texas. Design Business at IHS Markit, points on its ability to integrate Millennials “When Baby Boomers were coming out that Millennials are often viewed —often labeled as “entitled”—into into the workforce, they were told as not being as “performance-driven” existing engineering teams, hierarchies not to expect anything until they as prior generations. “They are seen as and processes. In addition, engineering reached age 40 in terms of promotion more ‘experience-driven.’ They might leaders must ensure they are keeping or advancement. You kept your migrate frequently between jobs, not these young recruits—perceived as head down and you stuck with the because they feel like they’re stuck in
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a nowhere job or they’re looking to Millennials,” Boettger says. “It’s also messages and tweets, if not simply an get more money or a better title. They about giving them the skill sets they emoticon, to express their point. At the simply have a ‘carpe diem’ attitude,” need to be productive, including same time, Millennials’ early exposure says Filler. the ability to convey complex data to technology has created expectations and information in a way that is that these “digital natives” would APPRENTICESHIP APPROACH understandable to their target audience.” automatically know how to process In response, Boettger sees Filler says that encouraging and analyze data. “That’s a fallacy some organizations adopting a cross-generational interaction because basic human cognition doesn’t mentorship-type model as a tool for and communication in these ways change,” says Boettger. “Just because intergenerational integration and ultimately provides opportunities for you’re surrounded and consumed by engagement—not a formal, one-on- both senior engineers one mentor model, but a more organic, and the organization as team-based model that would be very a whole to benefit from common in a project-based setting at the fresh perspectives an engineering firm. Different team that Millennials bring to members, across different generations, the table. “Engineering come together around a common goal, leaders should recognize but work on their own set of defined that—unlike generations tasks that, in the case of Millennials, before them—Millennials makes them feel like they’re a valued aren’t as tied to the status contributor to the success of the quo and may be more overall project. adept at thinking about “IN SOME WAYS, THE SOPHISTICATION “It becomes like an apprenticeship perennial problems in OF THE TECHNOLOGY HAS TAKEN model,” says Boettger. “It’s the perfect nontraditional ways THE GUESSWORK OUT OF THE work environment for Millennials and creating innovative because it’s spontaneous and it’s solutions,” says Filler. INFORMATION, AND PEOPLE WILL continually evolving. That gives JUST ACCEPT THE INFORMATION “DIGITAL NATIVES,” Millennials something they need, UNCRITICALLY.” — BOETTGER which is going to help with their DIGITAL DANGERS retention, but it also gives them the Regarding the contrasting attitudes information doesn’t mean that you structure that they require.” of Baby Boomers and Millennials on know how to use it.” In addition, this project-based the use and usefulness of technology, Filler says that, in a sense, the approach provides Millennials with Selinger describes a conversation with instantaneous nature of the internet— exposure to other generations and a senior engineering leader that he “Just Google it!” —has created two opportunities for learning at the same mentors. She was resisting using Twitter potential issues for engineering time—the opportunity to “do what as a communication tool to coordinate organizations. First, the expectation that they do,” as Selinger says, the chance among a group of younger engineers we can have the answer to any question to assimilate both technical knowledge that she was leading on a business trip, at our fingertips with a few keystrokes. and soft skills from their more senior Selinger relates. “I told her, ‘Twitter is And second, the expectation that we colleagues. free. If they want to communicate that can find the best answer at the top of Boettger also suggests engineering way, get a Twitter account and see how it our search results list, regardless of the firms think about ways to throw their works.’ When she got back, I asked her source of the information. young engineers out of their comfort how it went, and she said it was fine.” On the first issue, Filler says, zone. For example, have them go on a Millennials are, indeed, the “Millennials are not necessarily going site visit to a different firm, and then generation that grew up alongside to sit down with an engineering book have them write a site report. Send the internet and at the epicenter of and read it cover to cover. They’re them to a conference where they can the explosion in mobile computing going to read enough to get an answer sit and listen to experts, and then have and communications. Where Baby or solve a problem, and then come them write a trip report. Boomers typed memos, and Gen Xers back to it when they need to.” It’s “It’s not all about accommodating sent emails, Millennials favor text not only a function of the technology
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they’ve been exposed to, Filler adds. technology on the job in the same way and unstructured corporate data, too, It’s also a function of how they are they incorporate smartphones, tablets according to Filler. This ensures that learning in college. “With a lot of the and apps into their personal lives. In engineers truly have a single source to texts going electronic, professors can be addition to finding ways to incorporate go to for all their internal and external much more prescriptive about reading tools like Twitter, as Selinger described, technical content. It also promotes specific sections in specific chapters.” technologies that enable instantaneous the reuse of institutional knowledge The second issue, of perhaps greater collaboration, like video conferencing embedded in the disparate enterprise concern to engineering organizations, or instant messaging chat groups, play systems that engineering organizations is the degree to which Millennials to Millennials’ strength—the ability have already put in place—so all the accept information at face value. to come together to resolve a problem tribal know-how of the Baby Boomers “Millennials do consume a lot more quickly, and then disperse. continues to drive value into the future. information, but they’re not necessarily Fred Filler, with IHS Markit, as cautious in terms of vetting that also points to a new generation of BUILD THE BRIDGE information,” Boettger says. “For an engineering intelligence solutions that For his part, Selinger takes the long engineer, in particular, that becomes bring together technical reference such view of the engineering profession’s an issue because there is a lot of as standards, handbooks and manuals, intergenerational challenges. Over his information out there that is not journal articles, and other authoritative 31-year professional career at the Port necessarily accurate and correct.” content from vetted sources—all Authority, as well as the three decades It’s not that Millennials don’t have wrapped in a Millennial-friendly he spent teaching at Cooper Union, critical thinking skills, Boettger is interface. A simplified interface SUNY Maritime and other institutions, quick to add. “The problem is that the masks powerful content analytics he says he has seen senior engineers technology has become so intuitive, and semantic search technology that long struggle with managing and information just gets spit out at you. work behind the scenes to deliver the communicating effectively with younger In some ways, the sophistication of the best answer to a query at the top of engineers entering the corporate world. technology has taken the guesswork out the search results list. For Millennials “‘Engineering management,’ in my of the information, and people will just unaccustomed to looking past the first opinion, is an oxymoron, because we’re accept the information uncritically.” or second page of search results, this typically not trained as managers—we’re Jill Hawthorne, associate kind of solution ensures that they get just good engineers,” he says. director for international business the information they need quickly— Moreover, Selinger adds that development at the publisher Wiley, before they’re inclined to “satisfice.” generational change is just one of warns of the dangers of “satisficing” This same kind of solution can be many issues that engineering leaders when Millennials are searching for extended to encompass structured have to consider as they think about information. “The immediacy of online how to keep their teams communication and gaming tends operating efficiently, to make Millennials impatient, even collaborating and by their own reckoning,” Hawthorne engaged. Issues related to writes on the Wiley Exchanges blog. gender, age, and diversity, “High technical engagement can be for example—let alone accompanied by a willingness to accept technological advances— ‘good enough’ information drawn from continue to impact how a limited range of sources. ‘Satisficing’ engineering is done denotes the tendency to feel satisfied A SIMPLIFIED INTERFACE today versus decades past. with their research when a sufficient MASKS POWERFUL CONTENT “Sometimes you just want answer is reached, eschewing an to go back to your cubicle exhaustive search of all sources.” ANALYTICS AND SEMANTIC SEARCH and design the bridge,” he TECHNOLOGY THAT WORK BEHIND says in conclusion. “It can CROSS THE DIGITAL DIVIDE THE SCENES TO DELIVER THE BEST be very difficult to deal Engineering organizations have ANSWER TO A QUERY AT THE TOP with all these issues—but begun to put in place solutions that you have to deal with them meet Millennials’ need to engage with OF THE SEARCH RESULTS LIST. to get the job done.”
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