July 1st, 2013
The other day I caught a string of tweets coming out of a conference regarding the behavior of Millennials. You know the kind of stuff I am talking about; 26% of Millennials say they are not affiliated with any religion (Pew Study 2010), 23% of Millennials think they will still be with their first employer after two years (8095 Live survey 2011), 21% of Millennials say that helping people in need is one of the most important things in life (Pew Study 2010), and my personal favorite, 40% of Millennials have no idea what is up with the other 60% (something I just made up to be snarky).
It all drives me batty.
These data points are basically meaningless without some additional context. If 30% of Millennials (or any social group) participate in some behavior, how does that compare to other social groups? Saying 40% of Millennials do Y, might sound like some important and insightful fact until you consider that 34% of Boomers do Y and 41% of Xers do Y.
Even when there is a data point that shows significant difference from other generational cohorts, it does not mean that the behavior is a generational thing. Some things are heavily influenced by age, rather than generation. For example, if you surveyed people that were ages 18-22, they would probably be college students at higher rates than other age groups…not because of their generation, but because of their age. Beyond age, cultural norms and current events also inform behavior and very little of the data that I see related to Millennials demonstrates actual causation.
And really, we are just giving people stereotypes. When you say that 33% of Millennials cannot write a complete sentence to save their lives, you are simply adding to the stereotypical profile of Millennials and you make it easy for people to assume that Millennials in general cannot write (even though your own research says that the majority of them can), whereas other generational groups can.
Actual data (considered comprehensively) might show that 33% of Millennials cannot write a complete sentence, 40% of Gen Xers cannot write a complete sentence (and we all know that Gen Xers get by primarily on their looks anyway), and 27% of Baby Boomers cannot write a complete sentence. By itself, saying 33% of Millennials cannot write a complete sentence seems important and profound, considered in context it is of very little significance and will probably lead to problematic assumptions and compromised decision making.
But those of us that make a living writing and speaking and thinking don’t win people over with context and nuance and complexity. We have to have killer sound bites.
Leaders and teachers and preachers and H.R. and management professionals should study human nature way before they try to know something about a particular social group. They should study social psychology, communication and group dynamics. They should work toward a true understanding of the dynamics of difference, the role of power and privilege, and the significance of situation in the workplace.
There will always be greater variance within groups than there is between groups, trying to know how groups are different from each other is of little value until you understand difference in general.
Be good to each other.
I know stuff is important, and when I don’t know that much about that stuff, I refer folks to other people. So – when I give a talk I provide a further reading list. At Louisiana SHRM diversity came up in my talk and I referenced you Joe, spelled your name out for people and everything 🙂 I figure I’ve got more to gain from getting great at what I do and passing on the names of others doing the same, than from trying to make shortcuts via some out of place statistic. 30% of me disagrees with me but so what!