The Don Tapscott Interview - Part I

The Washington Technology Report called him one of the most influential media authorities since Marshall McLuhan. Don Tapscott is the author of thirteen widely read books about information technology in business and society, most recently Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World (October 2008). The book is the sequel to Growing Up Digital (1998), which established him as one of the leading thinkers about the Net Generation. Immediately prior to this, Don wrote, with co-author Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006). Wikinomics was an international bestseller, #1 on the 2007 management book charts, and on The New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller lists. Translated into 20 languages, Wikinomics was a finalist for the prestigious Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Best Business Book Award and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by a number of publications, including The Economist. Don one of the world’s leading authorities on business strategy, is Chairman of nGenera Insight. He was founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition by nGenera. You can preorder his next book MacroWikinomics on Amazon by clicking hereAbhijit: There are many definitions of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millenials, Gen Y. How do you define these groups? Are these groupings applicable across countries? How do differences between generations evolve?Don Tapscott: I think of the Baby Boomers as those people born between 1946 and 1964.  The boom was heard loudest in the United States, Canada and Australia.  Following the boomers were Generation X, born between 1965-1976.  The Net Gen runs from 1977 to 1997.  The age groupings are roughly applicable across countries. Certainly our research showed that the eight Net Gen “norms” were quite consistent from country to country.

The differences between generations evolve from the

dominant influences in their youth.

For boomers the dominant influence was television. For Net Geners the dominant influence was digital technologies.Abhijit: Is media consumption the biggest factor for shaping a generation?Don Tapscott: There are many factors. Besides media consumption habit, generations are shaped by education, geographical, cultural and gender  differences. The Boomers spent 24 hours per week watching television which is a passive medium. Netgen spend their time on interactive and collaborative activities. In the 8 to 18 years phase of extended adolescence, the way we spend our time determines the synaptic connections in the brain. What we have now is a generation that has a very different brain. So they learn differently, they work differently and respond differently from other generations.Don speaking at TEDxTorontoAbhijit: What does it mean for a country like India which is one of the “youngest” countries in the world?Don Tapscott: A plurality of all young people in the world are in India.  Many of them are outside the formal economy, but nevertheless they are the biggest group of youth anywhere.  This means that the challenges facing India are enormous.  The country must make sure these young people have access to education and the Internet.  They must have the opportunity to be part of the global economy. Closing the digital divide should be the priority of the government, businesses, and of course the family to ensure that young people have access to technology.Abhijit: What can the managers of the net generation do differently to coach, mentor and engage them in the workplace? Does it mean that Managers need to be on Twitter and Facebook to be able to communicate with their team members?Don Tapscott: Use is a precondition for any kind of comprehension, so managers should be using social media tools.  Talk to your teenagers to find out how.  Companies also need to understand that it’s not just young people that need mentoring.  Companies should have reverse mentoring, where young people are assigned to teach their elders about using technology and the N-Geners outlook on life.  I have three mentors who are all in their twenties.  I learn just as much from them as they learn from me.Abhijit: What have you learned from each other?Don Tapscott: I share some of my wisdom with them. They are impatient. They often have difficulty dealing with the older generation. I mentor them with those issues. They often get carried away by new technology which I know is not going to go anywhere. We talk about that. On the other hand, one of my 23 year old mentors, told me 2 years back to get on to Twitter because microblogging would be good. Till the I had not looked at Twitter seriously. I took her advice and today I have more than 13,000 followers on Twitter @dtapscottAbhijit: This generation is often accused of having a very short attention span. They want instant gratification and they don't want to work hard. Does your research validate these beliefs?Don Tapscott: My research shows that this is not true. They just work differently. They have no difficulty focusing on a game for four hours.  IQ scores are up. SAT scores show an increase. There are more people graduating from college today than ever before. So they work hard and they are smart. They just work differently. This gen works in spurts. Taking a social media break is the equivalent of taking a smoke-break or a coffee break for the other generations. For this generation, working, learning, collaborating and entertainment are not separate activities. Working and learning is the same. There's no reason why work should not be equally enjoyable.Abhijit: How should classrooms be designed to reflect the changing roles of the teacher and the taught? How is their approach to learning different from the previous generations?Don Tapscott: Educators should retire their traditional "sage on the stage" approach to instruction. The new media, particularly the Internet, let us shift the emphasis away from the teacher over to the individual student. This doesn’t suggest teachers are suddenly less important; they remain essential for creating and structuring the learning experience.(You can read Don Tapscott's views on redesigning Univ Education at Innovating the 21st-Century University: It’s Time!)In the next part of the interview with Don Tapscott, read about how the NetGen in the workforce will change corporations, the opportunities, challenges... what is the model of the new leader and much more... so stay tuned