John Brubaker
John Brubaker
Play It Their Way
Q: I’m a veteran turnaround consultant, but I find I’m ineffective at motivating most “millennials.” Any pointers?
A: Motivating and training professionals from the previous generation has always been a challenge, but the differences between boomers and millennials is huge. Here are ways to bridge the gap:
Go digital. Consider incorporating elements of gaming in your training. Because gaming is so engaging, millennials are more apt to retain critical training and seek more of it independently. We live in a high-tech, instant, on-demand society. The difference with millennials is that is all they’ve ever known. They do everything faster: communicate, research, train, even change jobs.
Adopt the impatience of youth. In this economy, we need to do more-—better, faster, and with less. To quote new University of Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly:
“We don’t get five-year plans; it’s more like a five-minute plan and we’ll start to work on it immediately. I expect our young men to play at a high level immediately.”
Sound familiar, managers? If you expect your new hires to perform at a high level immediately, consider going about your training like Coach Kelly. He’s using video gaming to train his 120 millennials on his new offense. His concept is the essence of leadership: Getting your people to want to do what you want them to do. The natural by-product is creating buy-in from the team while simultaneously changing the culture of Notre Dame football.
Borrow successes. Taking advances from another industry and applying them to yours will elevate you from your competitors. The military has been using video gaming for training since the 1980s. Cold Stone Creamery and Cisco also use the interactive nature of gaming to educate techno-savvy millennials on technical and customer service skills.
Thinking slows reaction time, whether you’re an athlete on the field or a business person in the field. A simulation-based training game enables employees to gain the “mental reps,” which facilitates the correct response when it counts. It increases efficiency and reduces costs while allowing employers to accurately measure individual participation. The real victory is that the better you educate your employees, the better you serve your customers.
This month’s expert:
John Brubaker • Coach, Speaker, Author, & Consultant
John Brubaker is a speaker, consultant, and author of the forthcoming book Overtime Victory. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Brubaker helps organizations develop their competitive edge. He is a 1992 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and he also earned a master’s degree in personnel psychology from FDU in 1993. Brubaker has completed his doctoral coursework in sport psychology at Temple University.
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