“I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird; now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird.”—Paul McCartney
You may recall the 1964 cartoon classic, “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which comes on television every Christmas season in the U.S. My favorite part in this stop-motion holiday special is when Rudolf and Hermey the Elf stumble upon the Island of Misfit Toys. In this abandoned land, you would find a train with square wheels, a boat that wouldn’t float, a spotted toy elephant, and, instead of a normal wind-up Jack-in-the-Box, a Charlie-in-the-Box. This is the place where all the broken toys live because nobody wants them.
This is the analogy I proudly use to describe the Hard Rock staff. The company has, indeed, become the Island of Misfit Toys for many employees. It’s a safe haven for physically and attitudinally diverse individuals that no one else wanted. But the brand does not look at these folks as charity cases. Rather, these are unbelievably great, service-oriented people who happen to look and behave differently, but who nonetheless can do an amazing job. They were just square pegs in round holes to previous and potential employers. Yet they eventually found a home—a place where they could be accepted for who and how they are—the Hard Rock brand.
As one of my mentors, MK, often said in his presentation to new company managers:
“We’ll take people how they are; we care what they contribute.”
Therein lies the symbiotic relationship between people who are different and culturally focused brands.
Since team members make the difference in the guest experience, we need to better understand them if we have any hope of hiring, training, developing, and retaining them.
The Times They Are A-Changin’
In 1965, the wildly successful singer-songwriter Bob Dylan made a significant change to his musical style. To “amp up” his sound, the troubadour shifted from acoustic guitar to electric guitar. This was a drastic transformation by any measure: Bob Dylan adapted his style and altered his approach to reflect the changing times. Hence the name of his album, “The Times They Are A- Changin’.” For some, that was the moment the “every man” artist sold out to the popular sound of the day and became a part of the mainstream money-making machine.
This is the type of inflection point I envision when considering today’s workforce. I compare that turning-point moment in Dylan’s career—and the way it felt to his most loyal fans—to the way the employee base has evolved over the last 50 years. They both represent significant cultural shifts.
Although it certainly hasn’t been as dramatic or instantaneous as Bob Dylan’s conversion, the talent pool slowly has transformed over the past half-century, evolving from a laid-back, subtle acoustic vibe to a louder, more in-your-face, aggressive electric sound. That is, employees have discovered the amplifier. And they have plugged in.
All you have to do is sit by the front door of any business and observe as the youth of today strolls in to apply for a position to know things have dramatically changed over the last five decades. This is not a negative comment about any specific generation—I both celebrate and long for this type of uniqueness and diversity—but the reality is talent is quite different today. Potential employees have priorities, needs, and learning styles that are vastly different than those of generations past. They look different, behave differently, and have different expectations of an employer. These are crucial traits for businesses to understand.
It’s been called the Nintendo Generation, Echo Boomers, Generation Next, and Generation Y, but let’s refer to the group of people born between the years 1981 and 2000 by its most widely used moniker: the Millennial Generation. Like every generation, Millennials have a variety of priorities. Understanding these needs is critical if you want to use them to benefit your business.
As a record number of Baby Boomers exit the workforce and Gen Xers move up to fill their executive ranks, the Millennials have become the predominant entry-level workforce. Every organization taps into the Millennial ranks sooner or later. Many companies are already there and clearly have their culture steeped in Millennial entrepreneurship—and now they have to turn their attention toward the next generation.
The employees of tomorrow (born after 2001) will require a much more experiential and tech-savvy approach than even the Millennials. While some have labeled this up-and-coming group Generation Z or the iGeneration, I prefer the more appropriate and unique name “Digital Natives,” because it captures the way this group lives symbiotically with technology—it’s the only life they know. In fact, Digital Natives can be compared to an infamous race of villains on the popular TV show, Star Trek. Sci-fi fans will instantly know exactly what I mean when I compare our future workforce to…The Borg.
The Borg is a race of beings composed of both organic and cybernetic material co-existing in a single symbiotic life form. They are half-human, half-robot entities that cannot survive without both parts. Digital Natives affectionately remind me of this fictitious alien race as they are practically born with a technology chip in their heads, allowing them to easily access and wield technology as if it were a natural part of their existence.
The reason I’m singling out these specific generations is that organizational culture is simply a collection of individual behaviors. If you belong to a company that sells a product or provides a service and your goal is to create memorable moments for your consumers, you’re going to have to rely completely on human beings. And if you believe as I do that smart and pleasant employees can certainly deliver good service, but only unique ones can create memories, then attracting and understanding the “misfits” you’ll eventually want to hire is too important to dismiss.
Understanding the key drivers and hot buttons of your labor force is essential to planning for their needs and adjusting the organization to accommodate them. We need to revolve our internal business systems around them, rather than trying to fit them into our internal business systems.
The innovative and flexible organizations that understand this will boldly rush toward this group of talent, like first-in-line concertgoers racing to the front of the stage when the venue doors are opened. They recognize specific traits in the potential employees of today and have moved to reshape their internal organizational cultures to address their high-value needs. Your company can do the same when it understands these critical traits.
Here are the key drivers vital to understanding Millennials and Digital Natives. They are:
- Experience-obsessed—They crave memorable moments in their personal and professional lives.
- Identity-oriented—They covet individuality as a priority and see it as a non-negotiable in life.
- Visual learners with short attention spans—They prefer and respond to photos, graphics, and video over text.
- Technology dependent—They are savvy about technology and heavily rely on it for functionality in life.
- Purpose-driven and socially conscious—They want to do meaningful work, usually something bigger then themselves, and they care about the planet and social causes.
In order to leverage this unique crop of talent to represent and perpetuate our organizational culture, we need to be able to relate to them, value them, and appreciate their unique attributes and behavior.
To better understand how each of these key drivers directly affects and motivates these groups, visit www.culturethatrocks.com.
Excerpt From Chapter 11: The Island of Misfit Toys from “Culture That Rocks” by Jim Knight.
Jim Knight is a leading training and development expert who has worked with some of the world’s largest brands, including more than 20 years with Hard Rock International, where he led the renowned School Of Hard Rocks. Knight has built a reputation for innovation and ingenuity, producing award-winning, cutting-edge training concepts that focus on guest service and creating a “culture that rocks.” Based in Orlando, Knight owns two separate companies: Knight Speaker, offering keynote speaking and action-oriented facilitation; and PeopleForward, a business solutions consortium providing organizational expertise to the restaurant and hotel industries. A portion of the book’s proceeds and each of Knight’s speaking fees goes to Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, to aid in the organization’s efforts to eliminate childhood hunger in the U.S. To learn more, visit www.knightspeaker.com.
