Baffled by the Generation Ys

In the last six months I have been facilitating a group of sales reps from one of our top five banks in SA. Coupled with this, having attended and completed the Personality Compass presented by VHL in Johannesburg, I have taken a deeper look introspectively as to why I find these groups so “difficult” to facilitate. I am passionate about facilitation, and in fact when I am away from it, I suffer withdrawals much like that of a hardened addict. I facilitate adult groups and also teach teenagers and pre-grade children, but never have I come across a group of people who challenge the theories of learner pedagogy!

I perceive the following challenges (no not problems) in facilitating these groups. There is good rapport between myself and the group, but pulpable resistance to training. I have asked pointedly if this training is what they want…”Oh yes…” but no further comments. Asked if they are committed ….”Yes, but you know it’s difficult, there’s soooo much work!”

Attendance is good, not the best because family life is priority. The qualification they are studying towards requires them to do self study at home and then write tests…we have called them Knowledge Questionnaires to try and “soften” the blow. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to sit for two hours to complete a combination of multiple choice questions and written answers from a short paragraph to an essay.

I have also observed that the group blatantly “cheats”. Gosh, I am horrified, as a baby boomer myself, I would NEVER have contemplated cheating – copying from a friend, hushed whisperings of the answers (albeit in another language – which I am NOT supposed to understand – but I have studied Zulu so can catch the gist of what is being said). I balk at being hooked into “teacher” mode – strictly laying down the law!!! I am not that old.

So typical to my Personality compass of a SW – I give them stern looks, intimidating body language and when pushed become the school Mam!!! I complain back at my office about how little work ethic they have, how my children of 10 and 7 can do better than them and stamp my feet in horror, to only return again the next month and repeat the cycle.

Today it hit me!!! My AHA moment… the problem is not them it’s the difference in the way they are “hard wired” to perceive and relate to the world. Linda Gratton mentioned in her conference here in SA that Generation Y characteristics cut across all cultures and continents…so why did it take so long to sink in?

Googleing “Generation Y” I found a host of sites and excess information and graphics on the topic!!!

In case you are interested…the following description sums my dilemma up in terms of the USA context, which as Linda Gratton said, cuts across all cultures and countries:

“Born during a baby bulge that demographers locate between 1979 and 1994, they are as young as five and as old as 20, with the largest slice still a decade away from adolescence. And at 60 million strong, more than three times the size of Generation X, they're the biggest thing to hit the American scene since the 72 million baby boomers. Still too young to have forged a name for themselves, they go by a host of taglines: Generation Y, Echo Boomers, or Millennium Generation.” (http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_07/b3616001.htm by Ellen Neuborne in New York, with Kathleen Kerwin in Detroit and bureau reports)

Heading for my forties, I feel REALLY old!!!

No wonder I don’t “relate” to my groups. The problem is in how we get our message across. The challenge I am now faced with is, in adapting my style to be able to hit home…

Learner pedagogy!!! The basic principles of facilitation….Uh duh!!!

Further, my problem goes deeper, my resistance to accepting that there is a divided between my “generation” and theirs. I am not just standing fixed in time no matter I feel inside, the divide grows wider. So I must get with the beat!!! Pull my pants down to show off my crack – trash the granny panties. Put wires in my ears and blast them with music (Rolling Stones is good) and keep up my status on Facebook, join Twitter and think of some radical ways to revamp my Knowledge Questionnaires…I will get back to you on how this is going.