This was a parody but it reflects a lot of discussion.
The Trouble with Kids Today
In Book III of Odes, circa 20 BC, Horace wrote:
Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires’. We, their sons, are more
worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more
corrupt.
In your face old man… Our history says that each generation historically complains about the next younger generation. We are no different with the millennials, generation c, z, next 2020.
The difference today is that we are now going well beyond complaints and into madness.
Of course there is a “comedy response”
While this all seems funny .. sort of.. the traffic keeps flowing on how we need to understand this generation and accommodate them. We literally assign behaviors to generations.
I think this is a symptom of a larger problem. We seem to have a strong desire to separate people into groups, it is almost as if we can’t help ourselves. Our understand of individuals is overtaken by our belief about the group. What we are failing to do is respect people as individuals. It is true with no question that people in different age groups have different experiences during their time growing up. It is true that due to environment conditions and other factor that people in these groups have perspective relative to their experience. Isn’t that true of everyone?
Pull it Together..
We simply need to stop doing this and turn it off. It is harmful to the people we work with, it is harmful to this generation and will hurt our younger generations behind them. This is not helpful to anyone and companies generally spend money on these concepts only to find out that they got it wrong. What we need to do, is focus on actions and activities to truly engage employees.
Dale Carnegie Tips and Guidebook is a good place to start http://www.dalecarnegie.com/assets/1/7/ee_tips_guidebook_blue_061813.pdf
If we keep up the generation madness we will have to start sub types.
Millennial generation born between x-y , comes from the north east, mixed parents, went to school in district 9… then we can find common things about them to make videos about..
The Cohenization Project 
HOWIE COHEN is a genius! Smartest man I know!
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Blanket statements and perspective. And hey, I was a latch key kid. Thanks for the early morning read and laugh.
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Great post Howie. The Carnegie research is terrific as well. As I was reading each point, I found myself mentally adding, “but you have to actually mean it.” Unless a manager and employer actually shares these values and priorities, the lip speak does more harm than good.
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Spot on! I contributed to raising 4 millennials. So I’d know. Been sharing this one all week. Thanks for the post.
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Sorry, Howie. This has been happening since the beginning of time. Whether you are in high school and with the wrong click, the wrong age, the wrong color, the wrong sex, it is a human situation that we use to help justify ourselves and our feelings. Is it wrong…Yes. My Mom hated our music, use to tell me I’d go deaf. I’m not. I tell my daughter I don’t understand how to program Netflix. She laughs.
We, particularly the baby boomers, want everything to be kum-ba-ya but it isn’t. It’s only something we can continue to dream about and chase. We chased it and only glimpsed a vision. It’s your turn.
-The hippy Baby Boomer
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