Obama's Victory, Gen Y, and the New Rules for Communication

In his victory speech, President-elect Obama said that young people had rejected the "myth" of their generation's apathy. He was spot on. For several years so-called experts have mistakenly painted a caricature of Gen Y as coddled, lazy and lacking in independence. From nearly every corporate tower there is currently hand-wringing going on about what can be done to "correct" their aberrant ways in the workplace. Last week, Barrack Obama gave all managers a lesson in how to harness this new generation's unique strengths. According to the Associated Press, two-thirds of Gen Y supported Obama. Why? Because from a communication perspective, Obama and his campaign understood how to engage and motivate what is essentially an emerging new "tribe" in our society -- not based on race, age or gender -- but on possessing a radically different worldview that has been transformed via mass awareness.

Consider that awareness has the potential to broaden one's understanding of the world. Over the last decade, technology has given most of us giraffe-like necks to peek into what was previously cordoned off -- "other worlds" ranging from different cultures in far away countries to behind-the-scenes machinations of our very own employers. For some, this awareness is frightening and for a variety of educational, economic and religious variables too lengthy to discuss in a blog, often interpreted as a challenge to their own existence. It's what drove the "Joe the Plumber" dialog.

Conversely, there is an emerging new population gaining in size and influence all over the country whose worldview continues to be expanded as a result of on-demand mass awareness. For them, awareness is exhilarating, even addictive. And it has altered the fundamental framework of their lives. For Gen Y, growing up in what I term in my research as the Age of Awareness, they have progressed through all of their developmental stages with what is essentially a sense of omnipotence. It has rewired their beliefs, values and behaviors including how they communicate as human beings.

I recently put together a workplace summit at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business bringing together undergraduate college students with corporate managers to explore these new rules for communication. Within Gen Y's transformed worldview, there is a demand for the blending of formal and informal communication systems, across the board transparency, process-centered vs. product-centered work models and the need for experience driven employment where personal fulfillment and success are determined almost entirely by qualitative rather than quantitative measurements. It's clear that the reason so many young people connected and became involved with the Obama campaign was because he reached them based on an understanding about these new rules for communication.

This is a time of transition in so many ways including how we communicate. We will now have a President who isn't afraid of the Age of Awareness and it will go a long way toward bridging the very divisive generational divide currently taking a toll on the world of work.

Hoorah! A leader who gets it!

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election

Comments

[keisertrojan]

Could not agree more!! Finally a leader that understands how to listen. He understands that the worker bees of today are the leaders of today. No longer do we wait to climb a ladder. Engaged people in 2008 add immediate value regardless of rank, college degree or pedigree. I think one of the keys to his election was his ability to speak to the new values of business. George Bush was Enron, Exxon and GM. Obama is Google, Apple and Bottom up leadership!

[BayRower7]

Communication is the most important defining act that separates us from other species. Just like the human form it evolves too and we are growing out of our old communication "body." It seems that Gen Y is representative of that new body. We need to study it and examine it in order to learn from it. The new world this author paints is one I want to live in. Watch for President Obama to have many young people in the new White House. A nice change from the old caracasses rattling around there now!

[dusty4green]

Obama will bring this country into the twenty first century. The reason everyone around the world hates us is because they don't get why we kept choosing to live in the 1950's. Reagan set us back at least 20 years and then Bush tried to set us back 50. No more. Change = yes we can.

[ohboy23]

Joe the Plumber, Joe Six Pack and all the other Joe's are indicative of yesterday's values. The problem with the republican party is that they are anchored to status quo behavior. That might have been effective in the 80's and 90's but people have finally wised up or become "aware". Rush, Sean and all the other change-a-phobes refuse to become aware because it means they might have to get off their ass and think some innovative thoughts. Their followers are becoming a fringe population and generation y will be the nail in their cultural coffin.

[gazonka]

Why does change frighten these people on the right so much? Because they know they are losing power in numbers. It's interesting that ohboy mentions the fringe factor. I work with a lot of new college graduates and they saw McCain/Palin as outside the mainstream. I never really thought of it in the way the professor states but it is right on the money. It is definitely about being more aware. Young people are so in touch with the latest and greatest and that creates another world order. On election day they were getting updates on their phones from morning to night. It's a new day.

[CarmenCameron]

Community and communication are inseparable. Humanity had forgotten that. The internet has reminded us. It scares some people to death but it really is key to renewal of the human (global) organism! Thank you for this article. It's very reassuring that the academic world is getting this, too!