While there are tried, tested, and true areas of project management, millennials are bringing fresh perspectives – leveraging technological advancements and placing additional concentrate areas like economic, ecological, and social factors.
Alex Shootman, CEO at Workfront, a cloud-based enterprise work and project management solution provider, said finding out how to work with millennials is essential since “digital natives now rule, and may rise in power and influence on the next a long period.”
“Just like all immigrant and native in the society, there are differences, and those differences changes the workplace,” said Shootman. “Differences include that digital natives see the workplace as egalitarian vs. hierarchical, they prefer telecommuting and versatile hours and the chance to comprise work remotely, (i.e., from the cafe over a weekend or throughout vacation).”
“Natives like multitasking or task switching and like to find out ‘just-in-time’ and just precisely what is minimally necessary.” Shootman said millennials “interact and network simultaneously with many, even numerous others. Egalitarian, flexible, task switching, just-in-time skills and highly networked. This is simply not the existing work environment.”
SEE: Millennials are twice as bored at the office as middle-agers, report says
Why the main focus on the role of millennials in projects?
“By 2020, millennials is likely to make up half the global work force, and also by 2030, they’ll are the cause of 75%. Millennials’ aversion to hidden agendas, rigid corporate structures and details silos coupled with a willingness to educate yourself regarding new opportunities will fundamentally customize the nature at work or severely cost businesses,” said Eric Bergman, vp of Project Management Books at Changepoint, an expert services automation company. “Gallup estimates millennial turnover costs america economy $30.5 billion annually.” Bergman believes organizations will focus more extensively on employees as well as their needs so that you can address the negative impact of churn on productivity, quality, and repair.
What does this mean for project activities that support business goals?
Bergman asserted recently, businesses realized their survival hinged on embracing digital transformation. Now, changing to shifting expectations means delivering IT capabilities that complement business priorities. Perhaps the most agile, tech-forward companies are rewriting their playbook in the face of evolving expectations.”
Marianne Crann, director, human resources at Changepoint adds “Millennials are disrupting traditional business models. We’ve seen this in HR for decades. However, everyday processes has to be updated to match new generations of talent. They work differently and still have different expectations. Companies that find that sweet spot-the one that attracts talent without detracting through the success of the business-will gain happier staff and happier stakeholders, no matter the generation.” Changepoint has gone into greater detail on millennials and project management of their new 2017 trends report.
At GlassSKY, a firm committed to the empowerment and continuing development of women, founder Robyn Tingley believes millennials differ of their method of timelines, collaboration, and communication. “Millennials have a more effective feeling of work/life balance than Gen Xers,” she said. “This does not imply that they can won’t devote extra time once the situation demands it, or react to correspondence after hours, nevertheless they will most likely expect that to be the exception.” Tingley asserted in addition than other generations, millennials are drawing boundaries more clearly which this new attitude is a odds together with the old ‘all nighter’ mentality of project management deadlines. “It’s making project leaders rethink deadlines, how to schedule work and wins, key milestones what is actually truly realistic and achievable as soon as your key players clock out prior to when the best choice, and prior to when anyone from the older generations expect,” said Tingley. “It also means decisions must be placed on steroids…if the associates will be productive for only 8 hours, you can’t you can keep them spending 2-3 of those every day in meetings presenting powerpoints and flow charts to obtain consensus around change requests and scope adjustments.”
When considering as a result of collaboration Tingley said millennials excel: “They are true team players and love to solicit inputs and views and they are natural connectors.” And so they expect tools to maintain pace. “Static whiteboards that can not be seen until you have a snapshot, SharePoint sites, Excel spreadsheets, and corporations that don’t have adequate video conference solutions are dinosaurs for many years,” said Tingley. “Project managers need to embrace and support modernized software that could handle collaborative brainstorming, real-time updates, multiples readers and users, integrated video, voice plus much more.”
Regarding communication, Tingley said millennials are “the true tech generation; gadget-friendly, always on, highly responsive tech connoisseurs, and they also communicate in short bursts of emojis and splintered spelling. Email just will not work to align teams, manage inputs, and drive performance.” With all the rise of virtual workers and geographically-distanced teams, Tingley predicted that project management apps can become the modern norm. “The future just may entail millennials working with the local restaurant, uploading a visual chart they only drew or a photo they snapped of something inspirational, and the entire team can see it and produce about it, click to vote yes/no, drag it to another two-quarters out to get a future phase, etc,” she said.
How do millennials see their role in projects and effect on business goals?
“The millennial generation has been dubbed the ‘selfie generation,'” said Daniel Malak, who works best for Motionloft, a provider of hyperlocal pedestrian and automobile traffic sensors. “I love to think it’s more the ‘self-starter’ generation. Young professionals understand that in paying off education loans, advancing of their career, and establishing relevant experiences for growth requires a decisive attitude towards accepting and leading new projects.”
Malack, a millennial, believes his generation has an interest in not only meeting expectations of your project, but exceeding them also. “Millennials are nimble and may adapt faster to changes much better than others,” he stated. “Younger associates can oftentimes be more determined to deliver, which presents a fascinating situation where projects become opportunities instead of hurdles…deadlines are managed from the implementation of latest communication methods, which could both expedite the work and improve the important thing concurrently.”
What should companies detract because of this?
Millennials are the future, bringing newer perspectives plus much more innovative approaches. Companies need to harness their contributions and recognize the real potential they possess.
Technologies are almost wired in the DNA on this tech savvy group with techniques the last generations might not completely understand and appreciate. As a result millennials a hybrid solution by themselves and a strong source of projects.
Millennials must not be automatically mistaken as ‘not as experienced’, or unaware. They’ve show up by way of a business climate that is certainly more diverse, complex, dynamic, company, more stressful than other generations. As a result their experiences and contributions highly valuable. Project teams should leverage their varied insights for improved outcomes.
When companies can harness the total combined potential of previous generations and millennials, the end result will offer an even more sustainable solution than relying on just one or another.
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