13L

April 2007

Presenting on Generational Differences

By Mike O'Leary - Washington, DC

13L was invited to speak as subject-matter experts on generational differences at the Federal Managers Association (FMA) National Conference held last month in Crystal City, Virginia. FMA is the largest federal employee organization representing nearly 200,000 managers, supervisors, and executives in the federal government. The audience was comprised of over one hundred high-performing federal managers from many different agencies.

13L was represented by member Jeffrey Vargas of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, along with colleague Sean Clayton, a Human Capital Specialist at the Energy Department. At DOE, Jeffrey and Sean have done extensive research on generational differences and developed this workshop that is presented to different agencies. Jeffrey and Sean realized the need to recognize that there are four generations of people present in the workforce (see table below), and the impact this has on navigating organizational culture driven from generational perspective while increasing personal and organizational productivity. Their research was able to focus on understanding how each generation may have different core values and work attractors. Federal managers need to apply this knowledge to leadership, recruiting, retaining, and the ever-changing demographics inside their own organizations.

The Four Generations	Present in Government	Born
Veterans / Traditionalists	8%	1922 – 1944
Baby Boomers	64%	1945 – 1964
Generation X	24%	1965 – 1979
Generation Y	3%	1980 – 2000

During their presentation, Jeffrey and Sean detailed the four different generations and addressed some specific scenarios. The audience quickly realized that the “one size fits all” paradigm of a federal employee doesn’t work. The ultimate goal was for these federal managers to better understand the dynamics between the different generations and the effect on existing organizational culture while looking to the horizon for trends that may emerge in the future.

Jeffrey and Sean captured the audience with the promise of mystery and intrigue, all the parts needed of a good “who-done-it”. What the audience appreciated, at the end of the presentation, was that they were “props” of two master storytellers. Jeffrey and Sean explained what was going to be covered and, unbeknownst to the audience, had the audience rooting for their generation. Throughout the presentation there was spontaneous “amens” and clapping, affirmations to the realistic presentation of the four different generations. Jeffrey and Sean moved at a fast pace all the while the engaged audience wanted more.

At the conclusion, Jeffrey and Sean asked if there were any questions. There was a deafening silence for a couple of seconds, then it was like the audience all exhaled and what you heard was, “that was the best presentation of the day”, “that was so important to hear”. I walked out of the room noting that there were still two long lines of individuals wanting to ask Jeffrey and Sean more questions.