For employees and business leaders ages eighteen to eighty, a manual to building a team that's electrified by cogenerational collaboration
There's no doubt that the differences between employees fresh out of school and their more seasoned counterparts are vast. Fuse will show you how to create a mashup that fuses the experience and command of Boomers with the technosmart and boundaryless thought of Millennials, getting you and your organization ahead.
Jim Finkelstein helps you find the fusions--the places of fertile cooperation--that lead to an exhilarating, respectful, and fun work experience. Backed by extensive research and written by a cogenerational team, Fuse offers realworld solutions to common concerns and friction points: How can an older company draw in the hottest new talent? How can a recent grad thrive in an environment she perceives as steeped in cronyism?
As he answers these questions and more, Finkelstein colors his message with plenty of tips, anecdotes, and quotes, delivering a compelling vision of how workers can capture the energy wasted by generational divisiveness to cogenerate more productivity and satisfaction in the workplace than ever before.
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Jim Finkelstein is president and CEO of FutureSense, Inc., an advisory firm focused on organization development, incentives and compensation, succession planning and communications. Before founding FutureSense, Jim served as partner in a Big Five firm, CEO of a professional services firm, and corporate executive for Fortune 500 companies. He has served on boards of start-ups, and for-profit and nonprofit companies. Through all of these views, he truly understands the convergence of environment, culture, development and rewards in order to improve business performance through people. Jim has an MBA from the Wharton School.
Mary Gavin is president of GavinMedia2.0, a firm specializing in communications that integrate the arts of strategy, content, and new media. Mary has designed and implemented successful communications strategies for Fortune 500, national nonprofit, and government organizations, and has edited or contributed to books on law, economics, mergers and acquisitions and public relations in addition to Fuse. Mary has a JD from the University of California.
Product Details
Hardcover: 184 pages
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press; Reissue edition (October 1, 2011)
See full bio & more information at http://www.fusethebook.com/, or http://www.futuresense.com/
MY LIFE What a wonderful ride! The lenses I have looked through include being a parent, husband, friend, Big Brother, YMCA camp counselor, entrepreneur, child psychology and economics major, soccer referee, book author, movie producer, non-profit Board member, singer and actor, start-up company domain expert, and above all, a learning member of and contributor to the communities in which I have lived. I have been a Fortune 500 executive, a CEO of a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, a partner in a major accounting firm, a coach, a consultant and an employer.
MY INSIPRATION Call me a dreamer or a perpetual fixer, but I believe people can be happier at their jobs and organizations can be more effective at what they do. I want this thing called work to be more fun and more engaging. I am a student and a leader of people and organizations. Understanding what motivates people and what melts their butter pays off as a consultant helping people in business move the meter. For me, work is about blending my business side and my helping side. And I believe in efficiency and common sense. Speed of Thought, Speed of Action and Speed of Results™ is my mantra.
MY INTEREST IN THE COGENERATIONAL WORKPLACE™ As a Boomer, I work with Millennials -- my son, my web designer and several people on staff at my consulting firm, FutureSense. As a young man, I worked with both adults in planning Model Congresses and with kids in being a unit leader in camp. At Trinity College (CT), I published research on the effectiveness of adult/child companionship (the Big Brother program). Throughout my life I had great advisors. As an adult, I have been a coach (to both of my sons), a mentor, a board member, and have worked extensively with older and younger people. I have always spanned the 18-80 age frontiers. I've tapped the power of the Cogenerational Workplace™ and want to help other organizations and people do it too. That's why I wrote FUSE and launched THE FUSE PROJECT.
MY PERSPECTIVE Books on generational stereotypes bother me because they miss the point. They focus on why we can't get along. If we focus on similarities (and there are many) instead of differences, I believe we can achieve true collaboration and ignite the power of the Cogenerational Workplace™. And it matters more now. Boomers aren't retiring, seniors are returning to the workplace and Millennials want in. We need to play better together in the corporate sandbox longer.
MY ORIGINS My first summer job as a counselor and unit leader at YMCA Camp Becket (MA) taught me why excellence in communications, building a foundation of solid values, and having fun is essential to effective collaboration. I had a chance to test my theories at The Wharton School where I went to get my MBA to go into Social Work. I sat in my jeans and a t-shirt surrounded by classmates in business suits all wanting to go to Wall Street and discovered my love for organization development and coaching, counseling and consulting.
MY COMMUNITY Working with kids and shaping their world lights me up. I went to Trinity thinking I'd become a Child Psychologist. Nowadays, I get my fill of helping kids through coaching. I've coached soccer and basketball and been a team manager. My younger son's soccer team won State Cup twice. I wear my referee uniform many weekends, officiating at high school and youth soccer matches. Yes, it keeps me young (and in shape)! Over the years I've given my time to community Boards - YMCAs, independent schools, soccer clubs and music organizations. My wife and boys have been very involved in Guide Dogs for the Blind and I have started a foundation to assist young talented soccer players with the scholastic side of their life.
ASK JIM Do you have employee engagement, development or leadership problems that are intractable and detract from your core business? Jim is expert at skillfully and confidentially resolving the thorniest organizational people problems, and has an excellent success rate at the highest levels of the organizations he serves.
Contact Jim Finkelstein at jim@futuresense.com, 415-453-1514 (office), or 415-302-5805 (cell) for details about scheduling a session today!
. Not too long ago, I participated in a workshop with employees at the college where I still teach on a part-time basis. It finally hit me that I'm not quite as young as I used to be when I noticed that in attendance were some 20 of my colleagues. Half were there from when I still taught full-time and were roughly my age; the other half looked like they were fresh out of college. (And some of them probably were.)
I mention that as an introduction to FUSE: MAKING SENSE OF THE NEW COGENERATIONAL WORKPLACE (Greenleaf Book Group Press) by Jim Finkelstein with Mary Gavin. . . this enlightening book clearly shows the differences between the experience and command of Boomers and the techno-smart and boundaryless thought of Milennials . . . more importantly, it points out ways that they can and should work together.
Through the use of plenty of tips, anecdotes and quotes, the author delivers practical advice that can be utilized by any organization . . . for example, he recommends to:
* Revamp your employee reward and recognition programs. Skip the gold watches. Rewards that please Milennials will probably cost less but mean more. Time off, flextime, pro bono work, networking opportunities, and concert tickets are all great motivators.
I also could relate to many of the passages, including this one:
* I can't imagine a day without the Internet. In fact, just the other day, my younger sister was complaining about looking up a few facts online for a research project. Consequently, I couldn't help but bring up the fact that there was a time when (believe it or not) the Internet didn't exist and that she may well have been flipping through the pages of an encyclopedia at the library if it hadn't been invented.
Lastly, the book shows you that change doesn't have to be difficult or even expensive:
* Provide the simple pleasures. Invest in a Wii or a Ping Pong table. Open a coffee shop or cafe instead of a break room and watch your employee satisfaction scores climb.
FUSE will get you thinking, that's for sure. It will also be something that you'll want to share with others. In fact, that's just what I'm going to do; i.e., I'm going to share it with some of my peers at the aforementioned workshop.
Boomers and Millennials view employment with very different attitudes, and Fuse does a great job of examining those differences. By taking a deeper look at how those differences effect relationships and management styles, businesses can better embrace the current workforce. For better or worse, the older generation (Boomers), doesn't understand how the younger generation (Millenials) think and solve problems. Technology stands between them and creates a wedge that divides company and impedes progress. Fuse addresses that problem head on.
I would recommend this book to a Boomer in a management position that is frustrated with the younger generation in the workplace. Particularly to anyone in a recruiting position looking to expand their talent pool with Millennials.
The read was fast and while it tended toward redundant it was simplistic enough to allow easy skimming. The first half is theoretically providing the specifics of the premise (boomer vs. millenial), the middle could have been pulled from any basic hiring self-help book and the end is mostly focused on highlighting that technology changes and impacts us (wow) and traditional workplaces are resisting non-work related social media while millenials want it. Overall a generic attempt to get your money.
The most problematic part is that it is clearly focused on selling the millenials to an unimpressed workplace. There is little constructive advice for the millenials, its all praise and unsupported assertions about their value. Is it inability to focus or ability to multi-task? Is it open communication or unwillingness to think before you speak? It's both obviously and all about the individual, but this book assumes tweeting about the mundane activities of your day = empathy. It doesn't, it actually indicates narcissism and a lack of empathy. It repeatedly says millenials are 'more efficient.' Again its about individuals and all generations have time wasters. Inefficient meetings is a traditional problem, non work related social media is a newer problem. This book should have compared and contrasted the generations more since reality is that these generations have A LOT of similarities and understanding those is the key to communication and positive interactions. The advice to boomers is basically to accept millenials are unmanageable and hope it all works out. Also, to allow millenials to mentor them (mostly in new technology.) It barely tells millenials to listen to the mentoring boomers may attempt to provide.
The book provides few insights of its own and mostly cites other self-help books and USA Today (really, USA Today). It does say a few nice things about boomers, but is pretty transparently pandering to their vanity and only enough to smooth the edges of its 'please hire a millenial even if they came off poorly in the interview' agenda. It happily posits the 'why' a millenial or boomer has a preference or behavior and then adds a judgement to that behavior (consistently pro-millenial to the point even the millenials should be offended by the contempt it shows for their self-awareness.) I was hoping for some 'why' answers that would allow me to extrapolate for my personal interactions. At best this might help me with a generic marketing campaign, but that is doubtful too.
Anyway, I was very disappointed. I work in a multi-generational situation and wanted some specifics to hang onto that are readily evident from everyday interactions. There were few. The one idea I'm taking away is the 'just in time' employee concept. It's not on point for the topic, and I'm not sure if it really is the future or what it means but it does deserve some thought. As for interacting with boomers, Gen X or millenials - it gave me no new tools. But I was able to multi-task while reading it so I guess I started out too good for any new information anyway.
