I found the boomers!

A few days ago, my question was begging the answer, “Where have all the boomers gone?” in my post regarding the shift in the workforce and knowledge base.  Well, last night I found them!  They were all at The Temptations and Four Tops concert at Chastain Park in Atlanta.    It made me smile to see all of us boomers singing the songs that we have known for about 40 years and dancing and clapping.  It occurred to me in the middle of “My Girl” that we boomers really do have collaboration in us!  Look at all the great tunes that just get you humming and tapping to the beat AND they cry out to the generations younger than us also.  How many of us know “20 somethings” and younger that love that music that came out of great musical collaboration? AND we do know how to pass it on and have done so successfully.  These bands that have withstood the test of time are not unlike great project teams and corporate environments.  The great ones getting you humming and tapping but yet are always looking forward, wanting to create more, wanting to share with others.  So, let’s take a lesson here!  Working together, creating together, having fun together and passing it on– that is true collaboration!  Happy Collaborating!

Where have all the boomers gone?

That will be corporate America’s theme song shortly down the road.  With more and more boomers leaving the workforce to enjoy their 401k’s and retirements, knowledge is walking out the door as well.  That should be sounding the alarms across all industry.  The answer– get them to share all that stuff before they leave!  Why?  So you can still function after they are gone!  How?  Collaboration and Social Media– these are the tools that are needed inhouse to get that transfer of information going!  At least 1/2 of the internet population now has a social media presence.  That doesn’t mean they all have a My Space account (although many do!), but it does mean that we are getting more and more accustom to sharing our opinions and thoughts on line.  This is a great avenue at work as well.  Setting up a social presence at corporations is a great way to capture not only who is who but what do they know.  Make it searchable and you have an infinite source of knowledge about your company, best practices and tricks of the trade that employees discover over the years.  Don’t run from letting your employees use Facebook at work, but give them some reasons WHY, some guidelines on how to SHARE INFORMATION effectively in this space and EMBRACE IT! AND use your next generation of workers the Netgeners to evangelize it for you!  They know how to tap into it effectively. Happy Collaborating.