A piece of advice for Generation Y applying quality

Today I read an article “Why Generation Y is unhappy” that I found really appealing. It’s about  why when even accomplishing great things, like a quality management program, many young people may still feel frustrated.

It may turn out that you are working hard, but still your results are unclear, you may feel frustrated that you are not improving as fast as you would like to, and even more if you are from Generation Y, that is, born between 1982 and 1995 approximately. It happens a lot when applying quality management methodologies within an organization. Yesterday I was in a meeting with one of my clients, and he mentioned just that “I am happy with our improvement, but probably I was expecting to improve faster” (even when we only started a month ago and we already have results!).

The article mentions that “when the reality of someone’s life is better than they had expected, they’re happy. When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, they’re unhappy.”

What happens is that changes need time. It takes more time when you are working with a group of people that have all different views and different paces. To change a culture you need even more time to get used to it, you have to acquire new routines: now you not only have to check your emails first thing in the morning, but you also have to hold a 10 minutes meeting with your team to improve communication flow.

So going back to the article, to the generation Y or the Millenials that are business owners or leaders in the process of implementing quality management techniques, I would like to paraphrase the last paragraph of the article as a piece of advice: you need to stay ambitious, humble and self-confident.

1. Stay wildly ambitious. The specific direction may be unclear, but it’ll work itself out—just dive into your quality program, and look forward to being the best in quality among your competitors.
2. Stop thinking that you’re special. The fact is, right now, you’re not special. You’re another completely inexperienced young person who doesn’t have all that much to offer yet. You can become special by working really hard for a long time.
3. Ignore everyone else. Other people’s grass seeming greener is no new concept, but in today’s image crafting world, other people’s grass looks like a glorious meadow. The truth is that every other company may have the same issues you have, but they just don’t show the off. Realx, try to be the best you can be (tell the same to your team), and success will come eventually.

So if you are part of the Generation Y, and a bit frustrated with your business ongoing quality program, don’t quit before really getting into the game! I will quote Buddha “There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting“.

Luciana@biztorming.com.ar

CEO Biztorming Training & Consulting

[wysija_form id=”2″]