Who This Book Is For: Leaders, Managers, and Change Champions

As you read on, I hope you find that this is more than just another book about millennials. Rather, it is intended to help you:

› Gain insight to make meaningful, strategic investments around modern workplace culture

› Lead efforts to build a modern, high-performing workplace

› Understand millennials better from a millennial’s perspective

› Drive the connection of millennial behavior to modern workplace culture, beyond discussions of diversity and inclusion of generations

› Create a win-win, effective cross-generational culture that will enable your organization to not just survive, but thrive in the twenty-first century

This book is targeted toward global leaders at all levels, from C-suite level all the way down to frontline managers. Although written from a US vantage point, especially concerning statistics and data, the underlying millennial behaviors, themes, and concepts are intended to be as globally relevant as possible. If you are responsible for cascading culture and building the organization, this book will prove to be an invaluable resource to translating modern talent expectations into organizational culture strategies.

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is assuming that what works for the Googles of the world will also work for them. We would like to believe that we can simply copy and paste superficial changes that appear “sexy” and that these will solve our deep engagement and productivity issues. In reality, changing the color of the walls, having snack machines, installing ping-pong tables, and moving to open office layouts, among other façade changes, are only Band-Aid solutions that do nothing to address an inevitable revolution. This book will help change champions like you understand the variety of factors related to engaging, productive modern workplaces that we can learn from millennial behavior. Armed with this new understanding, you’ll be in a better position to use your deep experience wisely, while making strategic investments that are more impactful and cost-effective than putting your staff on matching bicycles.

In the last decade, the majority of books published on millennials focused on dissecting their attitudes and beliefs from a diversity and inclusion or managerial perspective. Books have also been written about the future workplace but either exclude or minimize the impact of millennial behavior. Oftentimes, this is because the authors aren’t millennials and lack the understanding needed to drive the connection. Instead of leveraging millennials to understand the needs of a digitally enabled workforce, we have moved on as though generational differences were a passing fad. Senior leaders and managers find themselves in need of something practical to guide their actions, yet the search is akin to finding an oasis in the desert. We come across many mirages and are unsure of ever finding a true paradise. This book is a sharp deviation from previous works in that it seeks to start a new discussion for leaders and managers by reexamining our presumptions for five of the biggest millennial stereotypes, learning a new language, being inspired by the rewards, and enabling strategic, purposeful action.