Daily Lesson from Life 31 October 2008

"Fri, Oct 31, 2008 my paper

Not all Gen Y-ers are spoilt brats

In August, a survey done by the Singapore Human Resources Institute revealed that those belonging to the Generation Y demographic - those between the ages of 19 and 30 - are perceived to be people who are always late, disloyal, prefer branded apparel and tend to set unrealistic goals. Going bankrupt is one of their last fears.

As a former National Youth Council officer, the reporter worked with zealous youths who devoted weekends and much of their spare time to realising community projects.

In short, youths do grasp the meaning of independence and self-sacrifice. So, how can Gen Y be all that bad?"

It is obviously unwise and irrational to stereo-type any generation of human race! So, the heading: "Not all Gen Y-ers are spoilt brats" is true.

In each generation, we will have the good, the bad, and the confused. It is likely to be a bell-curve or normal distribution curve. X% of Good, X% of Bad, and (100-2X)% of the in-between.

Lessons for me when dealing with any human being are:

1. avoid stereo-typing. Do not say: this generation or that nationality or this race. Rather, focus on the person you are interacting with. Who is she or he? What behaviors are he/she exhibiting? Why did he/she has those behaviors? How can we help them if the impact created by their behaviors is negative to himself/herself, to you the working partner, to the job at hands, or to the organization or country?;

2. behaviors are like the tip of the iceberg, it is actions that we can see or words that we can hear but it does not explain why they do what they did. Unless the behaviors endanger life imminently, we should exhibit patience and try to ask probing but not threatening questions to draw the reasons behind the actions out. When issues are clearly identified, through confirmation after withholding the urge or habit to jumping-to-conclusion, can we begin to solve the problems;

3. enlist the help of the GOOD Gen-Yers. There will be plenty of them. They will influence the in-between to swell to the GOOD side. The middle-ground folks are just waiting for someone to ignite the fire in them and do the right things. Regardless of race, religion, nationality, and gender, most normal human being want to do good. This we must explore and encouraged.

May the Gen-Yers take up the challenges of continuing to keep the prosperity and peace of the world so that the next generation of human being can enjoy this world!

p/s: We closed October 2008 as we move into the last 2 months of 2008!! Have a blast!!