While there are tried, tested, and true facets of project management, millennials are bringing fresh perspectives – leveraging technological advancements and placing additional focus in 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 use millennials is vital since “digital natives now rule, and definately will surge in power and influence over the next a few years.”
“Just like any immigrant and native inside a society, there are differences, and those differences changes the workplace,” said Shootman. “Differences include that digital natives look at the workplace as egalitarian vs. hierarchical, they prefer telecommuting and flexible hours and also the possiblity to constitute work remotely, (i.e., from a cafe on the weekend or while you’re on vacation).”
“Natives like multitasking or task switching and like to learn ‘just-in-time’ and just precisely what is minimally necessary.” Shootman said millennials “interact and network simultaneously with many, even hundreds of others. Egalitarian, flexible, task switching, just-in-time skills and highly networked. This isn’t the present workplace.”
SEE: Millennials are twice as bored at the job as seniors, report says
Why the main objective around the role of millennials in projects?
“By 2020, millennials is likely to make up half the international labourforce, and by 2030, they’ll account for 75%. Millennials’ aversion to hidden agendas, rigid corporate structures and knowledge silos along with a willingness to understand more about new opportunities will fundamentally customize the nature of labor or severely cost businesses,” said Eric Bergman, vp of Cheap Project Management Books at Changepoint, an expert services automation company. “Gallup estimates millennial turnover costs the usa economy $30.5 billion annually.” Bergman believes organizations will focus more extensively on employees in addition to their needs in order to address the negative impact of churn on productivity, quality, and repair.
What does this suggest for project activities that support business goals?
Bergman declared that this past year, businesses realized their survival hinged on embracing digital transformation. Now, adapting to shifting expectations means delivering IT capabilities that complement business priorities. Even most agile, tech-forward corporations are rewriting their playbook facing evolving expectations.”
Marianne Crann, director, hours at Changepoint adds “Millennials are disrupting traditional business models. We’ve seen this in HR for a long time. However, everyday processes has to be updated to match new generations of talent. They work differently and have different expectations. Businesses that see that sweet spot-the one which attracts talent without detracting from the success from the business-will gain happier staff and happier stakeholders, regardless of the generation.” Changepoint has gone into greater detail on millennials and project management in their new 2017 trends report.
At GlassSKY, a company dedicated to the empowerment and advancement of women, founder Robyn Tingley believes millennials differ in their method of timelines, collaboration, and communication. “Millennials have a greater sense of work/life balance than Gen Xers,” she said. “This does not imply that they won’t put in additional time once the situation demands it, or react to correspondence after hours, nevertheless they will most certainly expect that is the exception.” Tingley declared that in addition than other generations, millennials are drawing boundaries more clearly and that this new thought process are at odds using the old ‘all nighter’ mentality of project management deadlines. “It’s making project leaders rethink deadlines, how to schedule work and wins, key milestones and what’s truly realistic and achievable as soon as your key players clock out prior to when the first choice, and prior to when anyone within the older generations expect,” said Tingley. “It does mean making decisions has to be wear steroids…if your team members are going to be productive for only 8 hours, you can’t have them spending 2-3 of the on a daily basis in meetings presenting powerpoints and flow charts to get consensus around change requests and scope adjustments.”
In regards as a result of collaboration Tingley said millennials excel: “They are true team players and like to solicit inputs and views and therefore are natural connectors.” Plus they expect tools to maintain pace. “Static whiteboards that can not be seen until you please take a snapshot, SharePoint sites, Excel spreadsheets, and corporations that don’t have adequate video conference solutions are dinosaurs in their eyes,” said Tingley. “Project managers must embrace and support modernized software that can 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 communicate to put it briefly bursts of emojis and splintered spelling. Email just won’t 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 will end up the brand new norm. “The future just could entail millennials working at the local restaurant, uploading a visual chart they just drew or a photo they snapped of something inspirational, and also the entire team can easily see it and produce into it, click to vote yes/no, drag it to another location two-quarters out for any future phase, etc,” she said.
How can millennials see their role in projects and effect on business goals?
“The millennial generation has been dubbed the ‘selfie generation,'” said Daniel Malak, who utilizes Motionloft, a company of hyperlocal pedestrian and vehicle traffic sensors. “I like to think it’s more the ‘self-starter’ generation. Young professionals recognize that in paying off education loans, advancing in their career, and establishing relevant experiences for growth takes a decisive attitude towards dealing with and leading new projects.”
Malack, a millennial, believes his generation is interested in not only meeting expectations of your project, but exceeding them also. “Millennials are nimble and can adapt faster to changes much better than others,” he explained. “Younger associates can oftentimes become more going to deliver, and that presents a unique situation by which projects become opportunities as opposed to hurdles…deadlines are managed over the implementation of recent communication methods, which could both expedite the job and boost the important thing concurrently.”
What should companies eliminate from this?
Millennials include the future, bringing newer perspectives plus much more innovative approaches. Companies must harness their contributions and recognize the actual potential they possess.
Technologies are almost wired into the DNA of this tech savvy group in ways the previous generations might not exactly grasp and appreciate. As a result millennials a hybrid solution in of themselves and a strong resource for projects.
Millennials really should not be automatically mistaken as ‘not as experienced’, or unaware. They’ve come up by having a business climate that’s more diverse, complex, dynamic, e-mail, 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 complete combined potential of previous generations and millennials, the outcome can provide a sustainable solution than depending on only one or another.
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