Gen Z Effect

The Six Forces Shaping the Future of Business

Tom Koulopoulos, Dan Keldsen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781629560311
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351861748
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

One of the most profound changes in business and society is the emergence of the post-Millennial generation, Gen Z.  While every new generation has faced its share of disruption in technology, economics, politics and society, no other generation in the history of mankind has had the ability to connect every human being on the planet to each other and in the process to provide the opportunity for each person to be fully educated, socially and economically engaged.  What might this mean for business, markets, and educational institutions in the future? In this revolutionary new book, The Gen Z Effect: The Six Forces Shaping the Future of Business, authors Tom Koulopoulos and Dan Keldsen delve into a vision of the future where disruptive invention and reinvention is the acknowledged norm, touching almost every aspect of how we work, live and play. From radical new approaches to marketing and manufacturing to the potential obliteration of intellectual property and the shift to mass innovation, to the decimation of our oldest learning institutions through open source and adaptive learning, The Gen Z Effect provides a mind-bending view of why we will need to embrace Gen Z as the last, best hope for taking on the world's biggest challenges and opportunities, and how you can prepare yourself and your business for the greatest era of disruption, prosperity, and progress the world has ever experienced.

1
Meet Gen Z—The Über Generation

Every generation wants to be the last.

—CHUCK PALAHNIUK, LULLABY

In this first chapter we will define Gen Z and the Gen Z Effect, describe the basic drivers of the shift to a post-generational world, and look at why we believe Gen Z is the last generation of the twenty-first century and the beginning of a new era of innovation and creativity.

Consider for a moment that much of what we've learned about how the world works has been built on what we've viewed as an immutable truth: that generations represent distinct and separate groups of people with a common set of beliefs, experiences, and values about the way the world works. As each cohort passes through life they become further entrenched in their generational beliefs, stifling innovation and disruption and protecting the wealth of ideas, power, and influence they have built through their efforts.

What if the notion of distinct generations has become a convenient fiction? What if—because of dramatically changing global demographics, the accelerating pace and simplification of technology, hyperconnectivity, universal education, and new ways of getting around impediments to innovation—we are being thrust into a post-generational world?

That's the big idea behind this book: the Gen Z Effect compresses and eliminates many of the generational boundaries that have separated us for so long. Suddenly, we find ourselves with the ability to bypass difficult-to-use computer technology. Older generations who found technology impossible to master are rapidly overcoming their fear and loathing of computers by leapfrogging directly into a post-PC world where mobile, touch, voice-enabled, and wearable devices no longer need users' manuals or training. Grandparents are as likely to use Facebook as their grandchildren.¹ Technology, which once divided us, is now uniting us.

At the same time, the ability to constantly reeducate ourselves, well after and outside of K-12 and university classrooms, build vast personal networks, and amplify the influence of these networks through social media and online communities is no longer restricted to the affluent and powerful but available across ages and demographics. However, this book is not just about the next generation, and it is definitely not intended to leave the generations of the twentieth century behind; it's about a set of six unifying forces that will become pervasive and profound in the way they shape every aspect of life, no matter your age.

Who is Gen Z?

We need to be clear from the outset on one important point: while we believe passionately in the evidence that the Gen Z Effect allows us to cross chasms and unify generations, at its inception Gen Z starts with a new set of behaviors, which are foreign, even awkward, to those of us who arrived on the Earth last century. These behaviors are most vividly portrayed in children born in the past decade. For purposes of drawing a line of when Gen Z begins, we'll start with a band of ten years on either side of the year 2005. Keep in mind, as we discussed in the introduction, that generational boundaries have become increasingly blurred over the past century. So, as the topic of Gen Z is popularized, you are likely to see start dates for Gen Z in many sources that will span from 1995 to 2015. Putting a hard starting point on Gen Z is not something we are obsessed with since one of our key themes throughout the book is that Gen Z is not just a birthright but rather a set of shared behaviors that can be adopted through conscious choices.

Although much of what we talk about in this book has its roots in changes that started long before 2005, it is the specific attitudes and behaviors of children born near or after that point that are most influencing the way we look at the future. These kids are not just digital natives, they are hyperconnected junkies whose expectations will radically change business forever. In fact, we view Millennials as beta testers for the true digital natives of Gen Z.

For Gen Z, technology is invisible; it's just part of the way the world behaves toward and interacts with them. They are blind to the distinction between technology and the natural behavior of certain objects. For them, technology is just another thread in the fabric of their lives. As a hatchling is imprinted with the vision of whatever it first sees as its mother, those born into Gen Z are imprinted with technology.

In the same way that you expect a bee to sting, a dog to play, a bird to fly when approached, a child born into Gen Z expects objects to have behaviors, even personalities. Although the idea of attaching behavior and personality to objects is not entirely new, after all; every child who has ever owned a stuffed animal has attached a personality to it. However, what is new is the way in which these behaviors and personalities are now manifest in what these objects actually do, rather than what we imagine they do. The result is a two-way interaction with "smart" objects being the new norm and the deus ex machina all around us, rather than the "dumb" objects, whose "personality" was imposed and one-way from the owner to the object. The phenomenon amazes those of us old enough to remember when that was not the case, but it is nothing exceptional for a five-year-old. In short, technology is only technology for those of us who haven't grown up with it.

A good friend of ours, Lynn, recently shared a story about her two-year-old daughter, Julia, which demonstrates this better than we ever could. Julia, as is the case with 38 percent of all toddlers in American households, has regular use of a tablet.² In her Case it's an iPad. She calls it her "paaad"—she cries for it in the same way infants cry for a pacifier, and it is just as frustrating for her when she can't have it. Julia is a bright child, and one of her favorite games on the iPad is the matching game Concentration, in which she has to flip cards on the touch screen by tapping them to reveal matching pictures. When Julia gets a match she screeches with excitement at her genius. It's her favorite game and she plays it endlessly. Nothing unusual there. You've surely seen some form of this game played by your kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews—you've likely even played it yourself.

Recently, however, Julia's mom decided to dig up the deck of real Concentration cards that she had used with her ten-year-old son when he was Julia's age. Lynn was thrilled at the idea of sharing the "old world" experience with Julia and watching her discover the wonder of playing the game with the physical cards. As Lynn laid out the cards, Julia's excitement mounted. She clapped gleefully, knowing what was about to come. If only Lynn had known what was going on in Julia's mind.

With the cards laid out in neat rows and columns, Julia reached out and quickly tapped one. Nothing. Julia had a puzzled look on her face. She tapped again, this time harder, then harder, and harder still, until she finally burst into a rage, tossing all of the cards about by swiping her hand back and forth across the well-laid-out grid. In Julia's mind this paaaad was clearly broken.

Before you dismiss Julia's meltdown as just another cute example of how detached children have become from reality due to technology, consider that this is her reality. To Julia, objects should exhibit certain behaviors, perhaps the most important of which is an intelligent ability to interact with us. Those objects that do not follow these rules are simply broken.

We doubt that you would have a problem including Julia in Gen Z. In the same breath you'd likely be quick to describe all the ways in which Julia's behavior somehow robs her of the wonder and amazement of living in the real world. It's tempting to carve out the generational chasm. But wait: Julia is going to be your customer, your employee, your next great entrepreneur, your senator, perhaps, or, someday, your boss. You get the picture, right? We can't take away Julia's expectations for how the world should operate any more than I can take away your expectation that an apple falls from its branch to the ground. But to live in Julia's world you also have to believe that in some cases apples talk back to us and tell us when they are ready to be eaten.

This is why we need to look at Gen Z not as just a generation, but as a new set of behaviors and attitudes about how the world will work and how we will need to respond in order to stay current, competitive, and relevant. Increasingly, it doesn't matter when you were born, being part of Gen Z is a matter of adopting these behaviors—or, at the very least, understanding them and the value they bring. Simply put, Gen Z is not just a birthright; it's a conscious choice to adopt new behaviors.

In the nineteenth century, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, "Among democratic nations, each generation is a new people." However, what de Tocqueville, as well as those of us born in the last century, could not have foreseen was the closing gap between generations and the emergence of micro-generations, separated by just a few years but having grown up with entirely different technology experiences.

The reality is that all of the parameters that traditionally defined generations are changing, compressed into ridiculously small intervals. A two-year-old and a six-year-old could well be considered of different generations based on the type of tablet technology they use. In which case, we might as well define generational boundaries to correspond to Samsung's product release schedule!

This micro-generational experience is uncharted territory for all of us. It's not the way we are used to thinking about generations.³ Consider how, in just a few decades, electronic communications have progressed from fax to e-mail to instant messaging to texting to Twitter; in successive bands of four to five years, each of these methods has overtaken the previous one as the preferred means of communication among each newly minted group of digital natives.

As each new medium of communication has emerged, something completely nonintuitive has occurred: technology behavior has percolated up through older users, not just down from them.

Because of the emergence of micro-generations, it is useless to consider what comes after Gen Z. There is no post-Gen Z, no Gen 2.0, no Gen AA, no Gen Alpha. Gen Z is the last generation worth labeling. That's good news because, unlike past generations, Gen Z's behaviors and attitudes are not confined to a demographic defined by a band of years; instead, they are a conscious choice, and the benefit of making that choice is the essence of this book.

In embracing the Gen Z Effect you become part of Gen Z. The barriers and the artificial perimeters of generational boundaries no longer limit your ability to be part of the future—only you can do that!

Although it may seem daunting to absorb all of the changes we will talk about, the Gen Z Effect will have a positive impact; it will radically reshape our institutions, expectations, and behaviors and offer a means to solve the greatest problems facing our organizations and our world.

So, what does this mean for yon? Understanding and embracing Gen Z means that you will be able to:

• Manage and work with the broadest possible range of ages
• Benefit from intense collaboration in your work
• Build professional relationships that leverage the energy of youth and the wisdom of maturity
• Embark on a journey of lifelong learning, unlearning, and relearning
• Enjoy interacting with your kids and grandkids, nieces and nephews, without a technology divide
• Embrace the value of disruption and uncertainty
• Thrive in a world of accelerating change

We know that's a tall order to fill, but we're not trying to convince you to do something you wouldn't have to do anyway. We're just giving you fair warning so you can prepare for the changes that are coming. The Gen Z Effect will bring as radical a shift in attitudes and behaviors as humankind has yet experienced. Those of us who choose to be part of Gen Z will play a pivotal role as the last distinguishable generation of the information age and the first generation of the age of hyperconnectivity.

Don't underestimate the tremendous power inherent in embracing this shift. If you're part of Gen Z then you are the bridge between the behaviors that got us to where we are today and those that will bring us into the future. Like it or not, you are the torch bearer for all that's good and bad in the world: progress and prosperity, community and connectivity, but also wealth inequity, terrorism and political unrest, climate change, and economic volatility—all of these happened on your watch. However, you are also, if you choose to be, part of a real hope of solving these enormous challenges.

The promise of the Gen Z Effect is that it allows us to choose behaviors that point the way forward rather than anchor us to the past. Gen Z will lead the world into a new era of possibility, but we will also have to endure enormous disruption as we swap out behaviors so entrenched that they might as well be encoded in our DNA. Yet, even DNA mutates over time. The same can be said of Gen Z, which has been steadily taking shape—during a two-hundred-year prelude—as a society informed by changing demographics an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Gen Z Effect
• 1 Meet Gen Z—The Über Generation
• 2 Breaking Generations
• 3 Hyperconnecting: From Me to We
• 4 Slingshotting
• 5 Shifting from Affluence to Influence
• 6 Adopting the World As My Classroom
• 7 Lifehacking: A Playbook for Gen Z
• Conclusion: Welcome to Gen Z
• Appendix: A Short Guide to Reverse Mentoring
• A Special Dedication
• Notes
• References
• Index
• About the Authors