Don’t worry, I’m a GenXer too.  I caught a New York Times article today entitled Embracing the Millenials by Tom Agan, where he made the age old claim that “Older generations of workers are sometimes annoyed and perplexed by millennials, many of whom want to take on big projects and responsibilities right off the bat, whereas earlier generations expected to pay their dues first.”  Really, with that sentence, you could replace “perplexed by…..” any generation and you’d have it right. GenXers were entitled, not willing to work hard, expected fast promotions, and to ‘have their cake and eat it too’ by making their own rules about work. Sound familiar?Believe it or not, Baby Boomers were somewhat sneezed at by the “Silent Generation” and the “Greatest Generation” when they came into the workforce too. This is a historic complaint by older generations leveled against younger ones.

Mr. Agan did follow that up with something that is unique to the Millenials: “Millennials are also accustomed to living in a world of vast transparency — tweeting, texting and emailing one another in a nonstop exchange of information and opinions.”  This commitment to transparency is what very well may change the fabric of work as we know it. As he deftly points out, when information can be controlled people can be controlled, and that has been a defining characteristic of managerial principles since the industrial age in America. The Millianals are poised to shatter that paradigm, and new management constructs will have to emerge that can exist effectively within an ever more transparent world.

Sure there will be those who resist, who remain committed to old models of control, who seek to fight the tide. But they will eventually be washed over, it is a question of when, not if.  So what happens then? I see a whole new form of organizational structure emerging, one in which information flows more fluidly throughout the ecosystem, and where checks and double checks happen real time about what “management” is saying. It is the fearless who will win in this construct – those who are willing to speak plainly and truthfully rather than obfuscating in ‘consultant-speak’ or ‘management-speak’.

I, of course, am a GenX offender in that regard – blame my almost 25 years in consulting for that. My only mea culpa is that I recognize it and have some levity towards it as a result. I love where the Millenials are taking us, and where the Millenial mindset, adopted by anyone at any age, can lead.  Give it a try and see what happens.