Tamara Erickson is a well published author of books and articles on the themes of changing demographics, employee values and how successful organisations work. Here she combines 30 years experience of assisting global companies strategically in addressing workplace issues and change, with five years research into what makes Generation X'ers tick. In doing so she also explores why different generations often seem to think and act in different ways.
The book research is based on discussions with Generation Xers and also large surveys carried out by the author and her colleagues. The book is specifically targeted at Generation Xers (those born between 1965 and 1979) in helping them to reflect on and identify what to do next in their career choices. The author states “One critical and timely consideration is how to manage what have traditionally been the peak years, to your full advantage, given today's turbulent economy”. The text is also useful to those of other generations seeking to understand the relationships and dynamics across generations.
The book is structured in two parts.
Part One: “You as a Generation” consists of three chapters. The first, “Shaping Gen X – teen years” explores the range of influences which have shaped the generation, whilst the second “Taking stock: Generation X today” identifies critical world and workplace changes and the effects of these. Chapter three: “What are they thinking?” outlines the differences (and sometimes similarities) between the other four generations, namely the Traditionalists (born between 1928‐1945), the Boomers (1946‐1964), Generation Y (1980‐1994) and the Re Generations (born after 1995).
The initial three chapters set the context for Part Two “Evaluate Your Next Steps” which provides tools and scenario's designed to assist the reader in evaluating next steps and to consider the changing workplace and evolving opportunities. This is composed of five chapters:
- 1.
“What do you want: resetting your life and work priorities”. This chapter is intended to help you identify the key characteristics of work that engages you and to provide you with exercises to evaluate career progress to date and to shape direction for the future.
- 2.
“A hard look at the options ahead: the reality of the changing workplace”. This explores the challenges of the changing workplace in terms of identifying future influences, their effect on the individual and the organisation and what the shape of future jobs may be.
- 3.
“Trading up: making the organization you work for work for you”. Practical advice for defining what you regard as success and planning how to achieve it in an organisation.
- 4.
“Branching out: alternative workplaces and portfolio careers”. Consideration of whether alternative arrangements within or outside an organisation, including entrepreneurial activity, may be a route for you and if so how these may be achieved.
- 5.
“The NeXt Generation leader: why you're what we need now … and how”. Identifies and expands on what the author considers to be the five most important responsibilities for tomorrow's leaders and how these might impact on you as a leader going forward.
The book is well presented and structured and overall the reader is not overwhelmed with the volume of text. A notable achievement in this regard is the inclusion of Your Voices highlights in each chapter, which represent the views of those with whom the author has had discussion or contact. In essence these are responses in the form of blog posts to the author or responses to a BusinessWeek's feed of ten Reasons Gen X'ers are Unhappy at Work from 2008. Their inclusion aids the relevance and practical nature of the text.
Perhaps this also is a downside in that in the 2010, two years have since elapsed and world influences and continuing rapid change make writing anything that remains totally up to date for very long difficult, particularly in terms of shelf life of text and content. However the very competitive price of the book as a hardback makes this an attractive addition to the bookshelf. The Notes section comprehensively identifies books, articles and websites for the reader to follow up on.
The author's previous two books have covered the Boomer and Generation Y generations and this book is the third in the trilogy. This is a thought provoking text throughout which Tamara Erickson remains eternally optimistic, which is a key strength of the book.
