Keep Perspective

Each year Beloit College publishes its Class of XXXX mindset list.  This list is a compilation of the perspectives that each incoming freshman class has.  It is a very intriguing look at how the world we live in has changed over the preceding 18 years.

This morning I had an interesting conversation with my wife on the way to work.  She teaches 7th grade science and raised a very interesting perspective to me.  This years sixth and seventh graders have not known a world where global terrorism has not been a concern.  They don't know about the events leading up to the attacks of 9/11.  The world we live in has changed so much over the past 12 years.

Think about your work.  Are you able to keep perspective of the events going on around you?  It is difficult to do.  Most times, even as professionals, we are so focused on making the decision, we forget about all of the events leading up to the current situation.  We think that every experience we have is one that no one else has been through before.  That simply isn't the case.  We forget that experience is the catalyst for innovation.  Understanding that every situation is a result of a series of decisions and events that brought us to the here and now is very important. 

Keeping perspective on ones mindset allows teams to grow, products to be launched, and businesses to grow and expand.  Think about it for a moment.  Could Benjamin Franklin have developed a cellular telephone?  No chance!  Remember, experience is the catalyst for innovation.  Without Franklin's discovery of electricity, experiences leading to the development of the cellular phone would not have been possible.  For Franklin and his contemporaries, it would have been inconceivable to imagine that some could be walking down the street in Boston, and speaking to someone in Philadelphia or London.  A series of discoveries, experiences, and innovation led to the world we know today.

My boys may not know or understand that when I grew up, there were essentially 3 networks on TV and everyone watched the 6:00 local news, and then the 7:00 national news.  Pong was a cool video game.  Red Dawn was a real concern.  The thought of my beloved Red Sox winning a World Series was a pipe dream, let alone two World Series in three years.  Automatic windows on a car were a luxury.  Going to an Apple store, meant work at the orchard.

Their perspective is that they have communication available at the speed of thought.  Apps are a way of life.  Terrorism is not limited to countries that we just read about. 

Keep perspective of how you got to where you are.  Take time to be self reflective and know that you can change your course if you so choose.  Every morning the sun rises and new beginnings are born.  Take calculated risks and blaze your trail.  Easier said than done, but we crawled before we walked, and walked before we were able to run, and ran before we were able to soar.  Take the first step today.

They're here... Millenials!!

Whether leaders of today like it or not, a new generation is making an impact on the workplace.  Millennials or Gen Y'ers are forcing leaders of today to change their traditionalist thoughts of work.  When I think about this topic, I remember a song from the Musical, Hair that starts off talking about the differences between 1948 and 1968.  The differences between generations are not a 2012 phenomenon, but one that have been facing generations for generations.

It is really a matter of perspective.  Each year since 1998, Beloit College publishes a mindset list for incoming Freshmen so educators can put into perspective their students reference points.  As leaders, we must keep these reference points in mind as well.

Regardless of our industry, change is inevitable.  It is how we as leaders cultivate the change within our industries to continue to make us more viable.  If we stifle innovation and thought, we begin to choke out progress.  As I sit here in a Starbucks writing this blog post on my laptop, I know that others may be reading this on any number of devices, from their phones, to tablets, to a home PC, to their TV.  These mediums were not available 30 years ago.  We have become, as a friend of mine has told me I am, urgency addicts.

Millennials are children of these innovations.  They expect instant communication and feedback.  The postal service will no longer work for them.  As leaders, we must be communicating constantly.  We need to have open doors and open minds, the later of which can be somewhat difficult at times.  As leaders we need to respect that today's millennial workplace is better educated with less experience.  This needs to be channeled properly to ensure cultures are cultivated that grow thought and execution in our verticals.

Take a look over the course of the next week with those in your office (or virtual office).  Are there opportunities available to open our minds to change?  Can you as a leader be more inclusive of new ideas and channel ideas into action.  Communication is the key as it is imperative to explain why change can not occur, or conversely why it is occurring.  Explaining the why and the why now into understandable terms across the organization makes progress and innovation much more attainable.

Have a great week!  Become a thought leader within your organization if you are not already one.