August 26, 2009

Edited and Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Published by Success Performance Solutions. Major Sponsor,

2008 Best Places to Work In Pennsylvania

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1.  Class of 2013 Beloit College Mindset List

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3.  Expert Advice

4.  Ready to Manage

5.  eSKill Office Skill Testing

6.  Quotes from the Hire Authorities

1.  Class of 2013 Beloit College Mindset List

When the freshman class headed off to college in 1991, the headlines railed about government interventions, bailouts, bad loans, unemployment and greater regulation of the finance industry. The Tonight Show changed hosts for the first time in decades, and the nation asked "was Iraq worth a war?"

Eighteen years later, the class of 2013 is arriving on campuses amidst headlines condemning bad loans and high unemployment while debating the value of government interventions, bailouts, and greater regulation of the finance industry.  Conan O'Brien has replaced Jay Leno and we're still asking "was Iraq worth a war?"  

You might be thinking...the more things change, the more they stay the same.  That is until you take a deeper look - the headlines in 1991 were ink on paper.  Today the headlines are bits and bytes on electronic screens. Back in 1991, a man walking down the street and talking to himself was considered crazy.  Today, this same talking man might just be engaged in a conversation with his "Bluetooth" plugged in his ear.  

The 2013 Beloit College Mindset list, started in 1998 by Ron Nief, emeritus director of public affairs for Beloit College in Wisconsin, who was later joined by Tom McBride, professor at Beloit College, chronicles events, like the demise of print media, that have shaped the mindsets of the newest college class. It is these events that will shape their  points of view for the rest of their lives and ultimately define how collaborative or oppositional they are with other generations.

For instance, a favorite point of discussion among Baby Boomer managers is tattoos. Once considered to be the exclusive logo for drunken sailors and trashy girls, today they are quite chic and valued as a form of personal expression. This different point of view is creating quite a bit of tension in the workplace especially in the HR world.

Skimming over the list, it is easy to see how time flies and how differently the youngest Generation Ys experience the world. A few of more of my favorites on this year's list:

• Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.
• The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.
• They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
• Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
• Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
• They have never had to "shake down" an oral thermometer.
• State abbreviations in addresses have never had periods.
• Condoms have always been advertised on television.
• Women have always outnumbered men in college.
• Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.
• Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
• Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
• Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.
• They have never been 'Saved by the Bell.'
• CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.

The following comment posted on another blog sums up the difference just a few years makes:

"I was having my nails done last week when the young daughter of the person next to me said, "They didn't have nail places everywhere when you were little? Geez, what kind of world was it back then?" 

Read the complete 2013 Beloit College Mindset list.

What events did the Beloit College list miss?  Share them with us by posting them here or on our Facebook fan page.

Comments? Post them on my blog.

To learn more about how to manage multi-generational workforce and turn clashes into collaboration, I recommend my new book Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization. It is filled with background on the four generations in the workplace plus tips and solutions about how to recruit, manage, motivate, and retain each generation. Enter code GGG10 and receive an additional special discount.

Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

In 1997, 21 percent of employed older workers had less than a high school education compared to only 10 percent of those ages 25-64. By 2007, older workers with less than a high school education accounted for just 13 percent of that group's employment, compared with 9 percent for younger workers.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

For more workforce and hiring trends. subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog.

Purchase the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 books (soft and hard cover versions) at PerfectLaborStorm.com.

Q:  I just took a DISC "test" in a team-building workshop.  In a previous training, my DISC report only had one graph.  This new report I received has two graphs.  What's the difference? Is one better than the other?

A:  First of all, DISC is based on a behavioral style model with a very long history - way back to 400 BC when Hippocrates discussed the Four Temperaments.  But within the past 60 years, behavioralists and psychologists have been designing instruments like CriteriaOne DISC for people to understand their preferences.  All of these instruments assess how individuals prefer to respond to the 4 Ps: problems, people, pace, and procedures.  The questionnaires in one way or another ask participants what they prefer the most and least.  Their responses are translated into two graphs - primary style and adapted (how people believe they need to adapt their behavior at work or at home).  Our CriteriaOne model follows the research that there can be distinct differences between primary and adapted behavior, therefore requiring separate descriptions.  Many of our competitors believe you can take the average of the two graphs to create a third graph from which a report can be generated.  We disagree. For those people whose graphs are similar, either model is accurate.  But when an individual makes an extreme adaptation to respond to job or cultural demands, we believe an "average" of the two graphs doesn't accurately represent an individual's natural preference for doing the job and overlooks the performance challenges often presented by large adaptations in behavior.

We recommend the 2-graph system. If you would like more information on our 2-graph DISC system, click here.

42 online assessments for employees, managers and leaders. Some of these are competency-based and focus on a specific competency, such as Coaching Effectiveness, and break it down to the behavioral level so that individuals can examine and rate individual behaviors that can be mastered to boost that competency and increase effectiveness. 
 
Some are style-based and break down a topic area into a four-quadrant grid so that an individual can better understand his or her own, dominant style in an area like Emotional Intelligence.  Often, trainers or OD specialists use style assessments in advance of a workshop or other learning event to determine participants' dominant style and least-used style and then plan the learning around "style-flexing."
 
What you also may not know is that ...
 
We have Facilitator Guides that go with assessments that you can use to plan your training and coaching interventions.  These facilitator guides describe the assessment in detail by providing foundational background, different ways to train or coach others, exercises, hand-outs, slides and flip-charts, and supplemental activities - everything a trainer, coach or facilitator needs to help participants develop and grow.
 
We also have Detailed Coaching Guides that include ALL of the coaching suggestions and actions for each assessment. These comprehensive guides cover the full range of competency-building materials so that your library is complete and learners can put together detailed self-development plans.
 
To visit our Ready to Manage webstore, click here and save 20% off selected Facilitator Guides.

Test for Office Skills Accurate & Affordable   

eSkill assessments are an effective method of ensuring your candidates have the skills needed for your jobs before an extensive interview process. eSkill's online testing tool creates valid, job-based tests by combining multiple subjects and skill levels as needed into a single assessment.  

• Accounting
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Quotes from Hire Authorities

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."
 
Nelson Mandela

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Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2009 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.