We better start texting, and skyping, and heytelling.....our kids

Some more thoughts on the "transition generation" thread ... we're going to have to come up with a concept "bigger" than "multitasking" for the next generation. Much bigger.

My daughter checked in at the homefront during spring break. While she was here, she routinely sat at her laptop, simultaneously accessing her mifi device, watching tv, skyping with a college buddy, monitoring her iPhone for text, email and heytell messages ... all while playing SIMS with a network of friends ... and sort of having side conversations with me. Wow. Made my head hurt. But her and her friends appeared to be functioning at a fairly high level.

As my career has progressed I have learned and heeded the time-honored "focus on one thing, and do it well" personal time management approach. I am not a good multi-tasker. But the younger generations seem to multi-task with ease. They were raised surrounded by "interactive technology" ... and so they just might be able to get more from the use of these devices than the generations before them.

Should we expect the next generation to bring a new core capability of being able to effectively focus on more than one thing at a time? How can we best leverage this new capability? What existing organizational management processes will need to change? Maybe we should send all of us "old MBAs" back to school for a refresher on what these "kids" are going to be capable of...

Can this function as a management tool to groom and encourage staff effectiveness?

Developed this concept / approach for a recent grad school guest lecture that focused on IT professionals gaining a better understanding of P/L drivers, making better decsions, grooming future leaders, etc. Would like to further develop and leverage the concept...

“Norm to the Optimum” Reaction and Related Decision and Action Model

A key aspect of any organization’s growth is the development of future managers and leaders. One of the key traits of an effective executive is the ability of the individual to ensure that the elements of the organization that they are responsible for operate in an efficient, focused manner.

The typical employee does not comprehend the real impact his/her reaction and subsequent decisions or actions can have in any given situation. As an employee matures and increases in effectiveness and decision-making, they tend to operate in a more ‘controlled’ or ‘programmed’ manner. As the employee assumes management and ultimately executive-type responsibilities, they begin to develop a true understanding of the impact of their actions.

An effective employee is in complete control of his/her reactions, and can influence others by “pushing” and/or “pulling” the optimum operational mode target up or down the reaction scale at different stages of the decision event / scenario cycle, in order to achieve the desired outcome.

My contention is that this model can function as a management tool to encourage more effective reactions and decision making. Organizations can utilize this model to reduce over/under unnecessary reaction variance and encourage organizational culture norms that trend to optimum operational values.

Basic scenario:

* An event occurs that causes a reaction and requires a decision;
* The line employee reacts;
* Dependent upon the over/under reaction from the line staff, management attempts to push/pull the decision to the optimum norm;
* Executive input might be required if the initial reaction varied too greatly.

If the initial stages of this sequence were more inline with the optimum norm unnecessary input from management could be eliminated and overall organizational performance improves.

Thoughts??