Sep 15, 2008 - A change is going to come! by: Diane
The Upcoming Presidential Election
Since everyone has an opinion about the up-coming presidential election, I thought I would throw in my two-cents from my professional perspective.After many years of giving diversity awareness workshops to thousands of people in the workplace, I found myself looking at the current events from the perspectives of generational diversity.Who are the voters?As many of you know there are four generations in the workplace – so that means there are four generations eligible to vote in this election.Based on the demographics, change is going to come regardless of who wins.
I identify each generation as follows:
The Radio Babies better known as traditionalists
The TV Babies better known as the Baby Boomers
The Computer Babies better known as Generation X
The World Wide Web Babies better known as Generation Y
Remember each generation sees life differently.Of course, each has a different set of experiences which impacted their values, thinking and behaviors. Now Senator McCain (age 72) is a cusper (people who share the characteristics of two generations and can relate to both).He can relate to Radio Babies and TV Babies and has a broad appeal to those generations.He was a part of experiences such as Kennedy, Vietnam, civil rights, assassinations, women’s rights, and he can also relate to the experiences of WWII, depression, FDR, Truman, etc.
Senator Obama is a Computer Baby (age 47) and has a broad appeal to the Computer and World Wide Web Babies as well as some TV Babies.(TV Babies are all over the place!)He is connected electronically with the World Wide Web Babies.This generation can identify with him.He is the first post-boomer politician to run for president of the U.S.
The demographics indicate that the Radio Babies are living longer but are starting to die out.(However, John McCain’s mother is a healthy 96 years old.)The TV Babies, a much larger population, are maturing and will eventually start dwindling in numbers.The much smaller population of Computer Babies are now raising their children.The World Wide Web Babies are coming of age.This group is about as big as the TV Babies.
It is just a matter of time.Change is going to come.Will the World Wide Web Babies vote?Will this generation make their impact similar to that of the TV Babies?
What do you think?
Dianne Floyd Sutton is President of Sutton Enterprises, author, trainer, educator, facilitator, expert witness, coach and actor. She has twenty-five years of combined experience in Human Resource Development (HRD) and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) training. And she has twenty years of business experience as Sutton Enterprises.
