Walk into any office, take the elevator to the top floor, walk into the boardroom, step directly onto the person behind the largest desk and ask him or her the following question: “What is essentially different today than in the past?"There is a good chance that you will get an answer in the direction of: “the world today is changing faster than ever”. With Of course the follow-up question How is it that nowadays you can so easily step into the boardroom with your annoying questions…
With the exponentially growing digitization, the strongly emerging platform economy with young, disruptive companies, leadership often faces major challenges. This rapidly changing world requires an agile and innovative organization. The top of the organization recognizes this, but also often finds it exciting; this means experimenting with new ideas, which entails many risks. However, without visible behavior change from the top, nothing will happen and one continues to live according to the law of insanity: wanting to see continuous change while we all continue to do the same.
Wait a minute. Innovation, speed, experimentation, change... these Terms make the hearts of the young generation in the workplace beat faster. They are often struggling to tackle and accelerate these necessary changes with both hands. But aren't these just those pesky, fickle millennials again? Aren't we talking about those bubbling quinoa troelas and hip beards who want to’travel ‘3 times a year and are already looking forward to the company after a year and a half? If they are not already overexcited by this time, or are sitting at home with a burnout..! Call them whatever you want, but today's organization has a very interesting and Useful Group with this new generation of employees, provided you can address them in the right way…
In this time of rapid change and digitization, the perfect time has arrived for the Chief Millennial Officer to stand up. Indeed; someone who holds a full-fledged management position and is allowed to interfere in everything. As a management, don't hold back with this trendy CMO and set up a flex space next to the frappuccino device where he/she can hang the office bike on the wall and talk to his / her heart's content about what is going on in the workplace, what the latest digital developments are, which course the company should take or in internal start-ups must be invested. Above all, the CMO must be given all the space and freedom to be able to ride his racing bike from coffee shop to yoga class with a laptop (including stickers) in order to maintain his work/private balance properly.
Above all, give this person the opportunity to connect the management team with the millennials in the organization by setting up a platform together where they can enter into dialogue about the issues that are playing out in the organization today. In this way, you are not only served with the solutions of tomorrow, but you automatically create engaged ambassadors who support the implementation of these new realities and bring others into it. Maybe these young talents will stay a year longer…
Which company shows its true innovative power and launches the first chief Millennial Officer of the Netherlands today?
Niek van Droffelaar, The Transformation Group
