I am an early entrant of Generation-X, which means I’m older than a Millennial and not quite old enough to be a Baby Boomer. Although my smartphone has at least three or four social media apps installed it is unlikely I will ever use a Snapchat streak as a way to communicate with my peers. Frankly, the term streak still brings up images of my college roommate running bare-butt naked across the golf course. Not a great way to communicate, however I’ll admit both streaks and streakers do have a common narcissistic bent to them.

Unlike my mostly grown, iGen offspring, it is still second nature for me to want to dial a phone number before I text. Of course this could be because I never have my reading glasses with me, and having the font large enough that the fellow sitting two rows back on the airplane can read what I’m painstakingly tapping out on the screen with my thumbs feels like an invasion of my privacy.  I may as well just call and talk out loud so the entire plane can participate.

It’s true that I can remember what it was like to conduct business and communicate without email, cell phones and social media apps at my fingertips, but I don’t pine for those days to return (except at the dinner table when I’m with my teenage kids). Honestly, I love technology, as do most my GenX peers. The instant gratification and access to data to make decisions and influence even more change is both addictive and empowering.  

I love change because as a Gen-Xer I was raised on it. Due to the rate of change during my lifetime, I would argue that Generation-X, more than any other generation, had to actively evolve the way we communicate, interact, purchase products, get from point A to point B simply to survive and grow in today’s world. Unlike millennials, the internet was not part of our dialogue when we learned to talk, and unlike Baby Boomers we are far enough from retirement that refusing to purchase online, have any social media accounts, online banking options, or download an app to hail an Uber would put us at a great disadvantage. Our growth and survival in business and life, and frankly our ability to earn enough money to help pay for our children’s college degrees over the next decade is dependent on not just recognizing, but continuing to embrace change and encourage growth. 

Now I’m not so archaic that we did not have computers when I went to school. In fact, in middle school I was one of a handful of 7^th graders to be selected for the first programming classes ever offered at my public school. This was well before the first Apple computer however, and long before the screen was our liaison to the rest of the world.  The internet was yet to become part of our vocabulary, and a long way from becoming inseparably integrated into our everyday existence, decisions, and interactions. 

This pre-teen experience writing BASIC programs on an IBM 5150 to get a little circle to gobble up dots on the screen was my first peek into the future of technology. In hindsight I was not just witnessing, but I was participating in the beginning of personal computing, something that would become the catalyst of a massive paradigm shift, changing the way we do business and communicate today. Of course at that time in my pre-adolescent head it was just a cool insight into the science behind Pac Man, and a bragging right as a girl to be there.  This however, was the beginning of my love of change, and addiction to new product development. 

It wasn’t until years later, as a college student in my second year of engineering, that I realized what I even liked better than developing was understanding what motivated people to actually use and adopt new technology. I recognized I did not want to just be part of the evolution, I wanted to influence actual adoption and change. I wanted to motivate the world to race forward and engage.  So I switched my degree from electrical engineering to marketing and took an internship with an advertising agency that specialized in introducing and selling new product categories.

I started my marketing career at the tail end of the 80’s, and instead of voicemail and email my messages were given to me by the receptionist on little paper message slips. I had to wait until I got to my desk to return the phone call on my landline phone.  At the end of the day, I took the floppy disk out of my computer, shut it off, closed my office door, went home, and did not receive another message until I arrived at the office the next morning. If the receptionist was not yet in I would have time to sit while my computer rebooted, think, and organize my day in peace without worrying I had missed anything.  I could even daydream about an upcoming meeting, or mull over an idea with a comfortable assurance that nobody was waiting desperately for an urgent answer to a problem that came to their attention in the middle of the night that they frantically off-loaded to me via an urgent text message with their thumbs.  There was time to reflect, and time to worry. I admit without the instant access to data, sometimes finding solutions to a problem did take more time because you had to find somebody that knew something. You had to communicate and network and learn from your peers.

Water cooler conversations were not just cliché but an actual necessity to know what Dave’s team in engineering, or Mike’s sales team was up to, and why George’s finance team had said no to an investment.  Yes, most of my colleagues, unlike me, had male identities.  I was working in the technology arena, gender diversity was another source of much needed change yet to come.

This was my reality when I started work. By the mid 90’s, only a few years later, I had a cell phone, albeit far from smart, an email address and I was on the product launch team responsible for bringing to market the first printers that were network connected. My paradigm had shifted and my world had sped up. A few years later I introduced the first HP All-in-One printers, and helped grow the category to more then $800 million. Shortly after I left to work with a startup that was a true pioneer in digital music, well before iTunes or Spotify existed, in a race to introduce the first digital music application and services before Apple could. My cell phone was never off, and my laptop never fully shut down.

I was not alone, this always on connectedness was my new reality, and I had been part of creating it. I was surrounded by a lot of amazing Gen-Xers, and to be fair a handful of baby boomers that enabled and embraced this change, creating disruptors that would only bring more change in the decades to follow. To further this point, according to a Sage research report, 25 percent of Gen-Xers have started their own business, and they represent 55 percent of startup founders.  Per a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, the average age of a founder is actually 45. The reason for this, and why the image of most founders is a nerdy, male, college kid, that hasn’t even reached the legal drinking age, is something we can explore in future posts.    

The fact remains, that gen-Xers not only understand change, we are masters of change.  It is our generation that actually wrote Who Moved My Cheese?, a book about dealing with change that was handed out in most fortune 100 companies as required reading in the late 90’s. At this point, a bit more than halfway through our careers, if we haven’t already learned how to evolve we have probably been left behind.

Since most genXers can remember what it was like to work before the internet and cell phones, we come to the table with often forgotten strengths. These hidden strengths are the first hand knowledge of what old fashioned communication can enable, and a recognition that taking time to slow down, reflect, and think brings it’s own advantages and rewards. Some of the best genX leaders today never forget this and go to great effort to encourage both in their workplace. When you find one of those leaders you should race to be seated at that table.

Today many companies are rushing to hire younger employees, and to encourage millennials and the new iGen college grads to join their ranks to get the latest thinking because they are the future. I don’t belittle this, its a very good idea to make sure the future is indeed at the table. Diversity of all flavors is important. In the meantime don’t forget the 65 million gen-Xers that have not just witnessed, but enabled the change and created the world as we know it today. These folks have maps in their smart phones that offer short cuts to places you did not know existed.

I encourage you to reach out to a genXer, and ask them about the change they have witnessed. Better yet, if you’re in a position to hire, make sure you have a strong mix sitting with those millennials at that table as we forge forward in the decades ahead.