Is It Time To Accept Change At the Pace Millennials Do?
by Scott Degraffenreid
One of my favorite quotes from the late naturalist Stephen Jay Gould is that “In nature nothing always works and nothing never works.” People of my generation usually take a minute or two just to grasp the real meaning of that phrase.
Once they do get it they have a tendency to want to disagree with it. Sure, some things always work don't they? Integrity, loyalty, hard work; aren't those infallible ingredients to success? Laziness, obstinacy, fussiness; do those things ever work?
All of the generations prior to the Millennials tend to have a rather stubborn attachment to absolutes and constants. This is far from the Millennial reality. Having been trained by both videogames and a chaotic, unpredictable environment they understand intrinsically that The Truth, to the degree that it can ever be thought to exist at all, is a fickle and capricious fellow.
Because they have seen so many truths rise and fall in their short lives Millennials have become almost frighteningly proficient at letting go. The one thing they count on is that you can't count on anything forever. This often makes them seem callow and cynical to we older folks. In fact it is an operational awareness that gives them a huge advantage in the turbulent and unpredictable milieu that appears to be in all of our (un)foreseeable futures.
It isn't so much that Millennials are incapable of trust as that their version of trusting looks like a short-term lease or even a timeshare compared to the type of major long-term investments those of us born before 1982 tend to make in our versions of reality. At 21 I wanted to furnish my worldview with art and literature that reflected the changeless nature of my beliefs. There was an unstated assumption that certain spiritual ethical and even political loyalties would serve me well throughout my life. I still cling tenaciously (and foolishly, I know) to several outmoded notions of how I should always deal with the world in spite of a great deal of evidence to the contrary. The truth is I was very fortunate to grow up in a time that supported such an archaic persistency of ideals.
Millennials have been immersed from birth in the need for a much more pragmatic reality. They have seen firsthand that things work until they don't. They know better than to count on anything working forever. They're happy to depend on something as long as it delivers but they really don't expect that to be indefinitely. Millennials have developed an operating mode I will refer to as tenta-dependence (tentatively dependent). Anything they choose to adopt is done so with a tacit understanding that they will hold onto it as long as it works but no longer.
It is both easy and tempting to mischaracterize their behavior within this principle as disloyalty. It isn't. It is in fact an expression of a fundamental over arching loyalty to what works. They are not attached to knowing the truth or being right. They are committed to things going as well as they possibly can. Having things turn out means promptly but not prematurely letting go of things that cease to provide optimal outcomes. Millennials are the new Masters of the Quick Release. They have been quietly perfecting their timing, learning to shift neither too soon nor too late. When the wind and sea changes Millennials have learned there is no time for looking back or clinging foolishly to a course that can't be steered.
As the fallout from the current economic calamity begins to settle many old policies, practices and ideas will inevitably be buried. Boomers and Xers must learn to stop digging up and trying to dust off those now dysfunctional artifacts. We need to look to the Millennials for leadership in the art of letting go. We have to accept that unless we are willing to stop clinging vainly to worn assumptions we have abdicated our accountability for the future. At the same time Millennials must recognize the truth of Santayana’s aphorism that "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."
For real change we must look not just to the future but into each other. If history has taught us anything it is that there are some lessons that can only be learned together.
Scott Degraffenreid, Social Network Architect
Scott Degraffenreid is a Social Network Analyst who brings a wealth of knowledge in the areas of business referrals, employee retention and recruiting.
As a Behavioral Statistician and Social Network Analyst, he has participated in projects for over one hundred organizations with accountabilities ranging from survey research, database analysis and field studies to research design and statistical modeling of group behaviors.
Scott’s ability to assimilate and grasp intricate organizational issues as they relate to corporate and market dynamics allows him to bring a unique mathematical perspective to complex environments.
To contact Scott's office: 1.360.830.6692
