BostonBlog

I go to a lot of sessions on generations because the topic really interests me, and Claire Raines was hands down the best one I’ve been to so far. I thought she really distinguished herself form other speakers about this topic in many different ways. She presented clear differences among the generations that seemed to resonate with the people in the room. She did put out the “Generation X are not joiners” line, which in the association context needs a little more thorough exploration, but ultimately I felt her description of Generation X was accurate and (unlike many others) not overly negative. Similarly, she did not make fun of Generation X or the millennials, which I think is common when the speaker and most of the audience are Boomers. She warned everyone about the danger of using these generalizations to stereotype people, which, again, many speakers on this topic seem to leave out. She also made the important point that generation is just one of many factors of our identity that impact who we are and how we behave.

She also did her homework about associations for this talk and didn’t merely re-state points in her book. Some of her recommendations to associations:

-Develop generational literacy
-Use a generational lens to review things like marketing, products, etc. regularly
-Solicit feedback from focus groups or representative individuals
-Ask members and prospects about their needs and preferences
-Foster acceptance of other generational perspectives throughout your organization.