Youth at the Gate

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The digital generation— the largest in history—is just starting to step into the workplace, bringing with it dramatically new demands, ideas and attitudes. Are you ready for the revolution?

Just as the post-World war II Baby Boomers of the TV generation dictated the economic, political and business agenda of its time, todays Net generation—the first to be born into an all-digital world—is developing its own culture and is just starting to impose it on the workplace.

Some 80 million strong in the U.S. alone, the N-generation is the offspring of the children of the boomers. Theyre the Baby Boom “echo.” Yet what makes them formidable is not so much their sheer numbers or technology acumen as much as their attitude toward authority. This generation, now between the ages of 6 and 26, thinks differently, behaves differently and is already starting to demand, aggressively, big changes in the way society, business and individuals interact. Is your workplace prepared for the changes?

To discuss the coming revolution, CIO Insight Executive Editor Marcia Stepanek convened a roundtable on youth and the future of the workplace at the magazines editorial offices in Manhattan on July 24. The ten participants included a Silicon Valley high school teacher, a couple of child techno-prodigies and a father-son CIO duo in middle-age and retirement. Most agreed the N-generation will alter the power balance between managers and workers, forcing todays leaders to forge new partnerships with employees in which authority will be based less on seniority than on the negotiated abilities of people or teams, regardless of age, to execute change, promote new skills and harness emerging technologies in the service of business goals.

The good news? CIOs will be at the center of the changes, given fresh opportunities to integrate new ideas and technologies into the business fabric of their organizations. Those who resist? Theyll be forced out, or banished to the sidelines.

To read an edited transcript of the roundtable, click here.