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You are here: Home / Human Capital & Industrial IoT Workforce / A Multigenerational Workforce leverages Collaboration, not Millennials

A Multigenerational Workforce leverages Collaboration, not Millennials

September 7, 2017 by Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

multigenerational workforceToday’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) multigenerational workforce is complex. It includes at least three, and as many as four, generations. What is the composition of your current workforce?

Depending on your resource, over half of your employees will be Millennials by 2020, according to IDG. Also, Gallup predicts this number as 1 in 3 employees by 2026.

However, the biggest workforce challenge is not all about obsessing about Millennials. The challenge is whether, or not, an organization evolves an engaged and collaborative culture. That corporate culture statement should have you a bit worried. Let’s explore together, shall we?

Consider collaboration as cultural glue holding multigenerational workforce teams together.

Not only is an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) collaboration culture mindful of differences between generational mindset. Also, that culture perceives these differences as opportunities for innovation based on tribal knowledge transfer.

For starters, a collaboration environment creates the perfect sandbox for multi-disciplinary knowledge transfer, departmentally as well as organizationally. In addition, knowledge transfer catalyzes digital transformation of the plant floor and smart factory evolution.

Within this framework, a multigenerational workforce does not cater to one generation or another.

On both the business, as well as operational, side of the organization, technology shapes how and with whom we work. Tomorrow’s multigenerational workforce includes job functions which have yet to be created. Why? Because the technology has yet to be invented.

As a result, the only employees with that specific, future technical expertise just may be first adopters, potentially the youngest and newest hires.

Consequently, enlightened IIoT workforce hiring strategy emphasizes how timely, as well as functional, expertise contributes to execution of human capital strategy. In addition, that human capital strategy captures how cross generational collaboration adds value to each step of each process.

That is a big, futuristic idea.

As a result, today’s multigenerational workforce structure must hybridize to lead into tomorrow.

Within a collaboration culture, consider whether functional expertise is prioritized over the generation of that desired leader. In addition, will a leader’s ability to collaborate and innovate become more desirable than seniority with a company?

Also, consider how generation-agnostic, artificially intelligent coworkers have become the norm for routinized, mechanized tasks. As a result, the generation of human coworker is not as important as are the critical thinking skills and ability to collaborate that they bring to the table.

Ponder the multigenerational workforce value stream in terms of flexible, adaptive and cognitive skills, rather than functional specificity or seniority.Yes another big, futuristic idea.

Be realistic, simplistic and innovative when boiling the complexity ocean of building a multigenerational workforce.

When collaboration becomes the fulcrum for building a multigenerational IIoT workforce, human capital and hiring strategy become fluid, rather than rigid. The focus is collaboration and convergence.

Now let’s take these big ideas and clarify the complexity. Consider how you might start small, realistically, simplistically and innovatively.

  1. What are the issues you wrestle with, in your current multigenerational workforce?
  2. What simple (instead of only) and innovative (not necessarily easy) solutions might provide the greatest opportunity to test out the value of various multigenerational workforce scenarios?
Need to ideate? Then, take these next steps today.

Planning your next team, corporate or association meeting? Searching for a one-on-one catalyst to get you unstuck? Engage me to present a One Millimeter Mindset ™ program! Delivered virtually or in-person. Contact me here.

I am an extroverted STEM professional and left-brain thinker specializing in professional innovation, cross-functional leadership and client retention. I catalyze professionals to translate across communication and collaboration disconnects. Become more professionally visible, cross-functionally relevant and strategically valuable to your organizations. Better serve each other first so you better  serve your clients together. One millimeter at a time. My One Millimeter Mindset™  virtual and in-person speaking programs leverage Voice of the Customer design methodology and storytelling to move individuals, teams, departments and organizations one millimeter beyond yesterday’s tools and today’s professional comfort zones My playbook of cross-functional collaboration, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Contact me here.

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Filed Under: Collaboration And Convergence, Human Capital & Industrial IoT Workforce, Professional Development Tagged With: collaboration, IIoT, industrial internet of things, millenials, multigenerational workforce, workforce

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