Generation Blend: Managing Across The Technology Age Gap

If you want to engage, motivate, and retain young workers without driving the veteran workers away, Generation Blend can help you. This timely book explores how generational attitudes toward technology affect issues as diverse as recruitment and retention, employee training, management decision-making, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and work/life balance. Looking to solve the puzzle of productivity across the technology age gap? Start with Generation Blend.

Rob Salkowitz is a writer and consultant specializing in the social implications of new technology. He has worked with leaders in the ITindustry, including Microsoft, to help formulate market strategy and articulate business goals. Rob is coauthor (with Dan Rasmus) of Listening to the Future: Insights from the New World of Work (published by Wiley). He lives and works in Seattle, Washington.

Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Chapter 1. Introduction.
Technology as the Locus of Conflict.
Technology as the Enabler of Potential.
Why Should We Care about Generational Attitudes Toward Technology.
Generation Blend.
Chapter 2. Changing Workforce, Changing Work.
The Looming Skills Shortage.
How Technology Changes Work.
Disruptive Impacts of Technology.
Outlook.
Chapter 3. Understanding the Generations.
Life Stages and Generations.
Generational Analysis as a Predictive Methodology.
Generation vs. Generalization: A Few Caveats.
What is a Generational Attitude?
Generational Attitudes and Workstyles.
Outlook.
Chapter 4. Older Workers- Blending Experience with Technology.
The Silent Generation.
Older Boomers.
Growing Up Pre-Digital.
Technology Issues Facing Older Workers.
Why It Matters: Capturing Knowledge.
Outlook.
Chapter 5. Younger Workers- With Great Potential Comes Great Expectations.
Who are the Millennials?
Millennials and Technology.
Millennials in the Workforce.
Why It Matters: Managed Innovation.
Outlook.
Chapter 6. Generation X-ecutive: Leadership from the Outside In.
Late-Wave Boomers.
Generation X.
GenX in the Workforce.
Mid-Career Workers: Technology Created in their Image.
Why It Matters: Becoming Leaders.
Outlook.
Chapter 7. Reintegrating Older Workers into the Connected Information Workplace.
The Digital Age Gap.
Serving the Technology Needs of Older Adults.
Learning Style of Older Adults.
First Steps.
Moving Beyond the Basics.
Bringing Skills and Experience to the Connected Workplace.
Becoming Comfortable in the Digital Culture.
Navigating Unmanaged Information Space.
Connecting the Generations.
Keeping Pace with Rapid Change.
What Other Organizations can Learn from OATS.
Outcomes.
Chapter 8. Ambassadors of the Future: Turning to Younger Workers for Strategic Insights.
Microsoft and the Future of Work.
Scenario Planning.
Following Up: Board of the Future 2005.
Technology and Society: The Perception Study.
Refining the Scenarios: Characters and Narratives.
Forecasts.
Outcomes.
Chapter 9. Across the Digital Age Gap.
Are you Clearly Explaining the Benefits of Technology?
Are you providing a Business Context to your Technology Policies?
Are you making the Technology Accessible to Everyone's Workstyle?
Does your Organizational Culture Support your Technology Strategy?
Are you Building Bridges, Not Walls?
Final Thoughts.
Index.