Scott:
You've started a great thread, but I urge you against subjecting a bunch
of kids to group-dynamic tools developed by consultants for use with
adults, as others suggest. You're likely to get laughed off the stage, or
just as bad greeted with stony silence. I don't mean to presume to lecture
YOU about teenagers; you are surrounded by them, and I have only one in my
house.
Here's one thing I've noticed in my reporting, however. When they reach
the ripe old age of, say, 22 or 25, today's young business leaders have a
work ethic that is in many ways superior to that of people a generation
older. These kids grew up in a time of nanosecond attention spans,
quick-cut editing, 50 channels, Web surfing, etc. They know how much
choice the consumer today enjoys, and they know that if you fail to
deliver the first time the customer is probably gone forever. This is why
the boomers who run AOL and Microsoft will never appreciate the need for
customer service the way Gen Xers do.
I doubt in any case this sophisticated kind of work ethic takes hold until
early adulthood. The businessperson in your community who sees a lack of
work ethic in "today's" teens probably would have seen it in the past
three generations of teens. She/he certainly would have seen it in mine.
It's the age, not the Age.
Here's my two-cent tip. Give the kids a couple of metaphors they can
really identify with. Remind them of what they do the instant any
television channel fails to meet their interests or expectations: they zap
it. What do they do when a Web page loads too sloly? They immediately surf
elsewhere. When they get a 404 error message on the Web, they delete the
bookmark. When they bring home a buggy video game, they caution everyone
they know against blowing $49.95 on it. Then, tell them that in the world
of work, their employers are holding channel zappers. If you don't live up
to your end of the bargain, you're outta here!
Cheers,
Tom Petzinger
Thomas Petzinger Jr.
tompetz@msn.com
"The Front Lines"--Every Friday in The Wall Street Journal
"The arms of consciousness reach out and grope, and the longer they are, the
better. Tentacles, not wings, are Apollo's natural members." --Vladimir
Nabokov
--"thomas petzinger" <tompetz@classic.msn.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>