TGIM

How often do you say TGIM? 

If you are like most people (well, especially Baby Boomers), you don’t say it enough. Instead, you say TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday). 

Why?

Because that’s what you were trained to do.

As a kid, if you are over 50, you probably played outside – a lot.

You made up all kinds of games and played traditional ones too, like:

Hide n’ Go Seek

Kick the Can

Red Rover

Sardines

Ding Dong Ditch

Spin the Bottle….

The most important part about growing up was playing outside UNSUPERVISED.

It was the unsupervised part that gave you the skills that you needed to #thrive.

When you played, you had the freedom to be creative. The time to dream. The strategies for taking calculated risk and the knowledge of what your passions were.

But then, as you got older, your parents (the Silent Generation), told you it was time to “Grow-Up” and get RESPONSIBLE.

So you did.

The problem was, as much as your learned skills developed into your grow-up traits of hard worker, team player, dedicated to your job and a natural mentor , you started to wonder…

Where did the fun go?

For some of you, you made a SHIFT out of your job into something you loved.

But for most of you, you just said that you will have fun again, when you…RETIRE.

Adobe licensed

The problem with that strategy is that retiring in getting further and further away for many. It used to be 65, now it’s 67 (for those born in 1960 or after). 

It’s getting more expensive too, due to rising healthcare costs.

Let’s add in the fact that you are the SANDWICH GENERATION. Taking care of your parents, yourselves and your kids.

So how in the world can you even think about TGIM, when all you can dream of is TGIF? Getting a little break from the weekly grind. Enjoying yourself, even a little bit, because you may be working for a long time.

Let’s shift to your children – primarily Millennials (born between 1981-1997).

Do you remember this magazine cover?

Don’t forget, that in addition to lazy, narcissistic, entitled and living off their parents, we need to add in ‘job hoppers.’

Millennials get a bad rap.

But who created them?

You did!

That’s right. The ultimate HELICOPTER parents.

Think about it.

Boomers started overseeing their children’s every move.

They wanted their kids to be better than them, so they lived through them. 

These poor kids were scheduled before they were even born!

And those of us in the Boomer generation, gave them a trophy just for showing up.

We scheduled all of their activities; gave them private coaching, tutoring and enriching experiences so that they wouldn’t just keep up with the Joneses, they would surpass the Joneses (which gave us bragging rights too).

Then technology came along.

With the click of a mouse, we could find out what crimes were happening in our community or if a savory character lived nearby. We started locking our doors.

Add in 9/11 and fear became the driving force in how we raised our children.

We didn’t let them out of our sights.

Unsupervised play? I don’t think so!

So when it came time for our Millennial children to enter the work force, they rebelled.

They wanted the freedom that they never had, and darn it, they were going to have it.

If it took job hopping every few months until they found a company that they believed in, so what.

Stuff isn’t as important to Millennials – purpose is.

They don’t want to surpass the Joneses, they want to get to know the Joneses.

So now we have the two largest workforces in the history of our country – Boomers and Millennials

Millennials will make up more than 75% of the workforce by the year 2025.

Millennials won’t settle for anything other than TGIM, and they are leading the way

So how do you shift your thinking to TGIM, like your kids do?

It’s actually easier than you think.

You COLLABORATE – with a MILLENNIAL.

What do I mean by that?

Take the Collaboration Challenge

Next Monday when you go to work, seek out a Millennial and get to know them. It’s even better if you don’t like them. Have coffee or lunch and find out what makes them tick. 

Millennials, you seek out a Boomer.

Gen Xers – if you are at the older end, seek out a Millennial, if you are at the younger end, seek out a Boomer.

Once you get to know the other person: what they love outside work, why they are at their job, what motivates them, frustrates them, etc., agree to do a project together.

In my role of helping companies develop engaging and connecting corporate cultures, we have come up with many cool projects. These can be things you do for team building, problem solving, new solutions, products, services. Think big.

Here are a few examples:

Adobe licensed photos

My favorite project is this one:

Create a solution board, a creativity board, an idea board.

Let people put up ideas anonymously and rank them.

Those ideas are voted on within a team, a division or entire company. Vote on them and implement them.

But I want to take you even further outside your comfort zone, by challenging you to do a MISOGI

This is a challenge that must have a 50% or greater chance of failure.

Whether you undergo a collaborative project or a MISOGI, watch your happiness rise, your productivity rise and company profits rise. It’s an amazing shift and transformation. And it’s up to you to take the risk to reach out and do it.

Stay tuned for Part Two of TGIM and see how amazing people and companies are taking MISOGIS by storm and creating success beyond their wildest dreams….