The 20-minute idea session is perfect for Gen Y

I grew up in the old days of ad agencies, when roles were clearly defined. The copywriters and art directors were in charge of the creative work, and we looked askance at any account executive who ventured to make a creative comment. The account people stuck to marketing strategy, and the media department figured out smart things to do with the media budget, but the domain of the imagination was thought to be the exclusive territory of the creative department.

At Tribe, I’ve learned to appreciate the power of pulling everyone together for an idea session. We generally hold what we call our jam sessions at the big wooden table in the studio, pulling up as many chairs as are needed. Everyone is welcome, from the art directors and copywriters to account people to the receptionist, but we don’t wait until every single person is available. We just gather anybody who happens to be around and start jamming on the project in question.

Today it was a social media plan for a promotional contest that involves airport parking and NASCAR. Other times it might be a YouTube video concept for an upscale baby stroller, or a mobile text contest for equestrian teens or just a birthday card for someone in the office.

The sessions are quick and to the point. We define the goal and then start tossing around ideas. We try not to be idea crushers. If we’re not crazy about someone’s idea, we try to offer another approach, but without slamming the initial idea. The big idea of the day might come from any of us, from the intern to the agency president, and then it’s fleshed out with the benefit of the various expertise sitting around that table.

Within about 15 or 20 minutes, we can usually  have a plan mapped out in Sharpie marker on a giant sheet of paper. We break it down into some actionable steps and then we each pick up the various pieces of the plan that fall within our areas of responsibility. The session breaks up as quickly as it started.

Looking back, the old agency model with unflinching boundaries between roles strikes me as a particularly Boomer-like division of labor. The idea sessions we hold at Tribe are much more appropriate to a Gen Y work force. This new generation of employees tends to define leadership not as a place in the hierarchy but as the ability to harness the thinking of many, to inspire others and to create a strong team. They value collaboration. And they exhibit shorter attention spans than their older peers, so these quick sessions are more palatable to them than longer meetings.

Millennials also have no problem believing that their ideas will be as good or better than those of people who’ve been in the business for decades. That allows them to engage in these idea sessions with confidence, offering up anything that occurs to them. Sometimes that happens to be the best idea at the table. Regardless, people show more responsibility for seeing the project through to the end when they feel that they were present at its birth.

Gen Y will take over the world — but it will take them 10,000 hours

I’m a big fan of Millennials in the workforce. Many of Tribe’s large corporate clients have been a bit stymied by how to recruit, manage and retain this new generation of employees, and I confess we had a few hurdles getting used to them on the staff at Tribe. For Boomers, Gen Jones and even Gen X, these 20-somethings can sometimes come across as overly confident  in their readiness to assume leadership positions. Millennials seem to believe opportunity should depend not on what they have done so far, but on what they’re capable of doing, if given the chance.

Our experience at Tribe has been that they’re capable of quite a bit. The Millennials working at Tribe are smart, talented and dedicated to doing good work. They are well spoken and natural in client meetings and presentations. They show good judgment handling difficult situations. They come up with great ideas.

Looks like they’ve got it all. Except experience. The 10,000 hour rule has been getting lots of attention since Malcolm Gladwell cited it as one of the keys to success in his latest book, Outliers. Gladwell suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of working at your craft to really master it. Seth Godin, another smart guy I like to read, says 10,000 might not be the magic number, but the point is most people give up after maybe 5,000 hours, when they hit what Godin calls the Dip.

Whatever the number of hours, there is definitely something to having done what you do for a long time. Ernest Hemingway said you’re not really a writer until you’ve written a million words. I’m no Hemingway, but I’ve written for a living since  I got out of college many moons ago. I know I write better and faster than I did when I started out. It’s easier now.

I’ve given our college intern the assignment of writing a blog on what it’s like to be a Millennial working at Tribe. He’s smart. He can write. He’s got a great work ethic.

But John is struggling to reach his goal of writing 10 blogs for Inside Tribe before the end of the summer. He’s got four posted now and just a week to go before he heads back to school. I check in on him, every day or so. Breathe down his neck, once in awhile. I tell him it’s good practice for him to have me leaning over his shoulder to see what he’s got on his computer screen. But really,  good practice is just doing the work. And doing it and doing it and doing it.

I feel fine about leaving the world in the hands of people like John and the other Millennials at Tribe. They are a generation I trust.

But in the meantime, I’m reassured by the knowledge that I’m way more than 10,000 hours ahead of them.

Small Business Strategies: Let Gen Y be your guide in social media

It’s easy for a small business owner to be a little freaked out about social media. We know it’s out there, we are starting to understand that it’s probably here to stay, and we have no idea how to get in the swim of that raging river rushing past. How are you supposed to figure it all out when you’re also busy running your company?

Get a Gen Y employee to show you the territory.  If  you don’t have a Gen Y employee handy, enlist a young relative to help. These Millennial kids grew up with computers and assimilate technology faster than we Boomers can figure out how to microwave popcorn. Social media, for them, is a natural extension of being online and has quickly become a huge part of how they operate in the world.

Don’t be shy about admitting  you need their help.  If you’re over 35 or so, they already assume you don’t know what you’re doing, at least in this area. They’ve grown up programming VCRs for their moms and adjusting ring tones on their dad’s cell phones, so it’s natural to them to assume the role of technological expert.

Be open to the beauties of social media. Instead of  huffing and puffing about it being too complicated, look for ways it can improve your business and your life. Can it help you build stronger relationships with your clients? Provide introductions to potential customers? Reconnect with old friends? (Yes,yes and yes, it can.)

Start small. Don’t try to take on every social network at once. Maybe begin with LinkedIn or Facebook. Have your Gen Y guide help you set up your account, your profile and a few connections, and then sit back and watch for a week or so until you start to get a feel for how other people use that network.

Enjoy learning something new. As adults, we have few opportunities to truly stretch our intellect. I’ve heard more than one social media expert admit that getting up to speed on this stuff provided an intense period of intellectual challenge. But you can quickly learn enough to begin using social networks with confidence, and may even want to explore some social marketing ideas for your company. Before long, you’ll find yourself trying to teach other people how to do it.

Gen Y is taking the entrepreneurial plunge like no generation before

The Millennial generation is now opening businesses at a faster rate than Gen X and Boomers. The Boston Globe reports that 30-40 percent of new graduates from top colleges are forgoing the interview process in favor of the startup process. Other research shows at least 50 percent of all Millennials count working for themselves as one of their goals. 

I predict the majority of these new businesses will succeed. The odd quirks their generation brings to the workplace that are driving their corporate bosses crazy are the same traits that will help them be successful as entrepreneurs. Most important among those traits is their expectation that they are qualified to lead, starting now. At Tribe, we often joke about Millennial job applicants expecting their entry-level CEO position, but if they’re launching their own companies, they’ll need that level of confidence and belief in their abilities. Millennials also tend to chafe at being judged by their experience instead of their ability to do the job. That’s also a valuable trait for a business owner, because starting a company from thin air requires you to demonstrate that ability.

Gen Y defines leadership differently than previous generations. While those of us who came before have been eager to work our way up to the big office and matching title, Millennials don’t find much meaning there. They are highly social creatures, and tend to see leadership in terms of their team’s success, rather than individual performance. In Tribe’s research with Gen Y employees, 76  percent agreed with the statement that leadership means “inspiring others to do their best,” and 63  percent agreed that it means “helping to develop other members of the team.

Here are the booby traps Millennials will need to watch for. While Gen X kids grew up with relative independence (think latchkey kids), Millennials are the generation that grew up with helmets on. Their parents were highly protective and highly involved in their lives.  That’s made some Millienials  uncomfortable with risk, not to mention failure, and a little less able to be self directed than older generations.

This is what I would recommend for any Millennial contemplating a startup:

1. Create an informal group of trusted advisors. Look for people you could turn to when stuck on direction or a decision, people who you feel hold some wisdom. Your parents might be among that group, along with former professors, friends of the family or chance business acquaintances. 

2. Associate the risk of business with some physical risk you enjoy. When I started my first company, I took up rock climbing. It served as a valuable metaphor for me, and gave me the physical experience of taking a risk and succeeding. When you’re stuck almost at the top of a climbing wall, and you can’t figure out anything you can do next, you reach for a distant crag anyway and sometimes that works. If  it doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world.

3. Develop perseverance. Millennials are used to things happening immediately, whether it’s popcorn popping in a microwave or an email moving instantly across the world. Remind yourself that some larger tasks, like launching a business, are more of a marathon than a sprint. Guard yourself against expectations of overnight success, and foster a willingness to plug away at it day after day after day.