Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The Millennials are the most tribal generation – and that characteristic is already making significant impact on our workplaces, homes, and markets. How and why are Millennials more tribal? How is this changing our world?
The tribe of Barney
Children’s programming began to reflect the generational shift. Sesame Street taught individuals they were unique; Barney, the purple dinosaur, emphasized getting along with the group and paying attention to other people’s feelings. Every episode had a group hug… and Millennials are huggers. They give full frontal hugs to their friends, while their parents are sent to sensitivity training which discourages anything but handshakes and fist bumps at work.
Unlike the Boomers who grew up in a competitive environment where collaboration was called “cheating,” Millennials did homework in groups. Two out of three Millennials usually socialize in larger groups rather than with one or two friends, and loyalty to friends is one of their highest values.
The Millennials went to preschool in teams, and elementary schools de-emphasized Boomer-era class presidents and hall monitors, instead engaging whole classes in decision-making and problem-solving. By fourth grade, Millennials were doing peer conflict resolution coaching.
The tribe has spoken
This tribal orientation can catch independently-oriented Boomers and Gen Xers by surprise. A vice president of sales asked me why many of his Millennial salespeople begged off of walking across the stage to receive their sales awards. It’s not that they turned down the bonus check or the trip to Hawaii when they exceeded their sales targets, but they said it made them feel bad when other hard-working team members didn’t get awards. He told me always had a hard and fast rule that unless you lived with the risk of a commission you couldn’t win a trip. He then went on to say it doesn’t matter to the Millennials that their other team members are salaried employees. I told him that’s a common pattern, and his Boomer reward systems didn’t fit his new, tribal sales associates. Tribal thinking is changing how we do things at work.
This thinking is also changing the marketplace. While Millennials like mass customization, they put emphasis on personal recommendations when they buy. Before I purchased a new phone, I did research on the best brands by checking them out on Consumer Reports and by reading online reviews. My son, however, made his decision in the store after sending a text to 40 people, hearing back within two minutes that the phone he was considering was unreliable. Real-time reviews from real people at the point-of-sale.
The power of the tribe can make or break markets… and it is changing our world.
The post Making or breaking markets: Hail the power of Millennial tribes! appeared first on Haydn Shaw.
