reset generation what video games teach us by alexander macris
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Alexander Macris, Co-founder, President & CEO of The Themis GroupAbstract - Business leaders across the country are grappling with the challenge of motivating and retaining the Gen Y workforce. The "Reset Generation" has grown up with computer and video games, and they think, play, and work differently from those who developed under a traditional paradigm. Join us for a discussion on leadership lessons gathered from a decade building and managing a videogame media company for and by the next-gen worker.Presented at NC State Fidelity Investments "Leadership in Technology" Executive Speakers Series (http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/corporate_relations/fi_lit/)TRANSCRIPT
Reset Generation:What Videogames Teach Us
About Motivating and Retaining
The Gen Y Workforce
Reset Generation:What Videogames Teach Us
About Motivating and Retaining
The Gen Y Workforce
• Themis Media: 26 employees, average age 26 years old
• Our Website: The Escapist
• Our Audience: 5 million / month
• Our Demographic: 18-30 year olds
• “The mouthpiece of the gamer generation”
About My Company
Pretty Good
What You’ll Be Getting
What We’ve Accomplished
Alexander Macris“Escapist Magazine. We have issues.”
Other Webby Award Winners (Different Categories):
2007 Wall Street Journal Winning Workplace Award2008 People’s Voice Award for Best Game-Related Website2008 Webby Award for Best Game-Related Website2008 Better Webby Award Speech than Will I Am or Stephen Colbert2009 Webby Award for Best Game-Related Website2009 Mashable Open Web Award for Best Online Magazine2010 CED NC Company to Watch2010 Business Leader Mover & Shaker2011 Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website2011 People’s Voice Award for Best Games-Related & Best Lifestyle
Will. I . Am“Now we know we can.”
Stephen Colbert“Me, me, me, me, me!!!”
My Wisdom
Your Wisdom
Pretty Good
• Born Between 1980 and 1995
• Came of Age Starting in 2001 – “Millennials”
• 79 million strong – 3 x larger than Gen X
• They are America’s future workforce, for good or for ill…. But which is it?
Defining the Reset Generation
They Have No Work Ethic!
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date” •Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible,and immature workers to date.”Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millennials”, WSJ, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“The most demanding and coddled generation.”Ronald Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up, 2008
“While Gen X valued money highly, they were willing to work hard for it. Gen Y has the high expectation of getting paid well and having more leisure time. They want to have their cake and eat it too.”Stacy M. Campbell, Professor of Management, Coles College of Business,Kennesaw State University
“Gen Y is the most difficult workforce I’ve ever encountered… So self-indulgent as to be genuinely offensive to know, let alone supervise. “Marian Salzman, Senior Vice President of JWT
They Don’t Respect Traditional Hierarchies!
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date” •Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“They value a casual working relationship with their superiors. They want to see their boss as a peer…”Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millennials”, WSJ, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“Young employees expect to move up the ladder quickly, which causes some friction when they are not shy about telling a boss they want his or her job.”Red Fusion Media, “Managing the New Workforce, Generation Y,” 2008
They Demand Immediate Feedback…
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date” •Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“Millennials expect feedback and training to be ongoing, not just a one-time event.”Sharon Cunningham, “Managing the Millennials,” Best’s Review, Oldwick vol .107, Issue 11, March 2007
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“Because Gen Yers are used to playing computer games with immediate feedback on their decisions, they will want immediate feedback on their work performance as well.”Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the ‘Why?’ Generation,” CPA Journal, April 2008
But Then Can’t Cope With It!
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date” •Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“One of the biggest complaints I hear from managers about their Gen Y employees is how defensive they get when given corrective feedback.” David Lee, founder, Human Nature at Work, July 2010
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“Gen Y employees tend to have trouble accepting responsibility for shortcomings or failures in their work and look outward for a potential cause.Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the “Why?” Generation,” The CPA Journal, April 2008
“This is an entire generation who has been told ‘you can not fail and you will win a prize just for showing up... a generation of young professionals with over-inflated egos who are unprepared for the sometimes harsh, often thankless environment that is the workplace.” Mary Crane, MBA Career Consulted, AllBusiness.com, “How Gen Y is Responding to the Recession”
“They were coddled growing up and rarely had anyone yell at them.”Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millennials,” Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
They Bounce from Job to Job!
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date” •Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“The majority of twentysomethings job hop every 18 months.” Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millennials,” Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“They are an entire cohort secure in the knowledge that their well-to-do Boomer parents can bail them out of financial difficulty. If they don’t like their job they can, and do, chuck it in and head back to live with their parents.” KPMG International Research Report, 2007
“These young people simply choose to ‘reset’their “play” buttons by changing jobs, partners,or friends, instead of trying to cope with and learn from their difficulties – .” “Reset Generation quick to wipe the slate clean,” Mainichi Daily News, 1996
“Incorrigible job hoppers that rarely exhibit loyalty to any particular place of employment.”Ronald Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up, 2008
They are Narcissists with Low Empathy!
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date” •Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“24% of college students in 2006 showed elevated levels of narcissism, compared to just 15% in the early 1990s.” Jack Halpern, “The New Me Generation,” Boston.com
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“40% of Generation Y thinks being self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is helpful for succeeding in the business world. 57% agree that their generation is narcissistic, self-promoting, and attention-seeking.” Mashable.com, quoting a study by Jean Twenge, co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic, 2009
“Since 2000, college students have become less empathetic than ever before. College kids today are 40% lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago.” Psychology Today, quoting a study by Sara Konrath, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research
“81% of 18-25 year olds surveyed said getting rich is their most important or second most important life goal; 51% said the same about being famous.” USA Today, quoting a Pew Research Survey
Are They The Entitlement Generation?
“They are the Entitlement Generation, the upstarts at the office who put their feet on desks, voice their opinions frequently and loudly at meetings, and always volunteer – nay, expect – to take charge of the most interesting projects. They are smart, brash, even arrogant, and endowed with a commanding sense of entitlement.” Jack Halpern, “The New Me Generation,”
Boston.com
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“Gen Y employees tend to have trouble accepting responsibility for shortcomings or failures in their work and look outward for a potential cause.Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the “Why?” Generation,” The CPA Journal, April 2008
“This generation expects things handed to them on a silver platter. They expect to be promoted in a year. They expect to have state of the art technology. Their attitude is ‘If you guys aren’t going to give it to me, I’ll work someplace else.” Rosemary Haefner, VP of Human Resources, Career Builder
“ “A challenge to manage… They demand immediate feedback on performance, expect to be consulted and included in management decisions, and demand constant intellectual challenge. They insist on working flexibly, choosing when and where to work. They are demanding, as a right, a new reality from work.” M. Pyubaraud, “Generation Y and the Workplace: Annual Report 2010,” Johnson Controls, 2010
No, they are the Deceived Generation.• A college degree is now the minimum to find a place in the working world.
• But cost of higher education has increased 63% at public schools and 47% in private schools.
• So most students will be paying tens of thousands of dollars in loans well until their 40s…
• If they can pay at all! 37% of 18-29 year olds lack a job or are underemployed, and real earnings for workers between 25 and 34 have dropped 10% since 2000.
• Is it any wonder 58% of Gen Y between 2000 and 2006 had to move home in order to pay the bills?
• And they can only look forward to a tax burden that’s double what it was for their parents.
• As an employer, you will be the site of the first collision between the world that Gen Y was told to expect and the real world that awaits them: The reality of being young in America in the Great Recession is quite bleak.
Video Game Interests
When the going
gets tough, the tough
get gaming.
Newton Grant, 919-265-9922 [email protected]
You are the Hero
Your Avatar is Customizable
Difficulty Can be Adjusted
Feedback is Constant
Everything’s an Achievement
There is No Failure –Only Reset
What Videogames Have Taught Gen Y
You Are the Hero!
“Because of videogames, Generation Y expects to make a direct affect on their world.” Oxygenz Report, 2010
Your avatar is customizable!
Ask the Greatest Generation what makes it unique and they talk about their struggles and their honesty; the Boomers, their values and work ethic; Gen X, their smarts and technology savvy. The Millennials say their taste in clothes and pop culture.Sourced from “Millennials: Confident, Connected, Open to Change,” Pew Research Center, 2010
Difficulty Can be Adjusted!
I failed to find a pithy quote to support my opinion on this slide, so you’re just going to have to take my word for it this time. I did add an extra Zero Punctuation picture to make up for the lack of a juicy quote. I hope you appreciate my efforts here. Made up in order to fill blank space by Alexander Macris, publisher, The Escapist.
Feedback is Constant
Because Gen Yers are used to playing computer games with immediate feedback on their decisions, they will want immediate feedback on their work performance as well. Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the “Why” Generation”, The CPA Journal, April 2008
Also, I would like to say….
WOAH.
Advancement is Ongoing!Computer games provide seemingly endless goals, with immediate feedback when a player successfully moves on to the next level. This generation has grown up playing computer games, so they are familiar with consistently achieving goals in order to move forward. Experiences such as these have made this generation exceptionally goal- and achievement-oriented. They tend to desire these types of experiences in the work environment as well. Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the “Why” Generation”, The CPA Journal, April 2008
There is No Failure, Only Another Reset “Is your son or daughter
from what I coined "the reset generation?" The reset button on video games makes quitting easy. Quitting is a habit — it doesn't matter where you pick it up.The reset button has become the "no regret button." The accountability to oneself, as well as the sense of responsibility is non-existent.”
Gary Simmons, “"Set an example in sports for your child," Scripps Howard News Service, June 27, 2003
Play Life,
Live Games
Expectations Management
+ Wish
Fulfillment =
Gen YSatisfactio
n
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What Would You Like To Know?
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