Followers

Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Comments on the article Generation Flux: it’s not about Age, it’s about Attitude.


How do I relate to Generation Flux? How will it affect my career success?

I found this article extremely interesting and even empowering. As sometimes we live our lives wasting time trying to plan things 5 years ahead, and when our plans wouldn’t work out we get upset.. But probably the author is right and we have just to accept the Chaos theory, that suggests that sometimes it’s useless to predict things.. What’s important is to identify when the things are chaotic and when they are not.
One of the participants of the interview who used to work as a researcher on weather patterns says:  There are some times, when you can predict weather well for the next 15 days. Other times, you can only really forecast a couple of days. Sometimes you can't predict the next two hours. According to the author of the article, the business climate is a lot like the weather. And we have entered a next-two-hours era.
The speed of change in our economy and our culture is getting faster, fueled by global implementation of social media, mobile, and other new technologies, and our visibility about the future is declining. It is getting real hard to predict what will happen next.  When we increase speed it is logic that we have less time to think what is waiting for us ahead, but we should be fast in our reaction in respond to the change and be skillful ‘drivers’.
Reading this article was for me like reading about my personal and career experiences and I have been always longing for the change and growth on my way. The article says that not everyone will enter the GenFlux, but those who enter should learn how to be successful. And it is hard as we have been always taught ‘a liner’ way to live our lives: school, university, work, work, work, staying at the single industry, and then retire.  GenFlux is all the opposite of it. They are individuals who crave novelty constantly; therefore the most important here is the ability to acquire new skills.

“Every time I update my resume, I see the path that I didn't know would be.”
"I'm a collection of many things. I'm not one thing."

What defines GenFlux is a state of mind that embraces instability, which not only tolerates it, but enjoys it, changing careers and business models. The important thing is not to be afraid of the change and of the future, and to welcome each change like a new possibility, not a loss. That is the way I look at my future carrier, too. If one thing doesn’t work out for me I won’t dwell on it, I will change it, find something else and fast. Another attitude that I have adopted already but will have to remember in the future, that in order to be successful in our fast-changing society, I will have to constantly be learning new things, as I would have to be well-informed about what is happening around, be curious, in order to stay on the edge and in-sync with the fast-changing business evolution.
For the companies this fast change in business means they would need to be adoptable to change, flexible, fast-moving, prioritize the team building and working in groups for faster pace. If we learn something new and stop, we would be hit by the next train of innovation. The reason the Facebook is so successful is because it is changing constantly. It is also imperative to be future-focused. If ambiguity is high and adaptability is required, then you simply can't afford to be sentimental about the past, as past mistakes make us vulnerable.

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