NextGen: Preaching to the Choir

Working in our diverse profession has the happy side effect of keeping us both interested and interesting, especially when we have the courage to learn from others and are willing to acknowledge the benefits of different perspectives. Interacting with others who are in some way unlike us can move us out of our comfort zone and helps keep us from falling into an uninspired group-think.

Comfort and complaint

It is human nature to gravitate toward people who are in some way like us or toward those who make us comfortable. At its best, this is positive, allowing us to form alliances, friendships, and partnerships and to create communities. Unfortunately, settling into a comfort zone can also make it much easier to sit back and share our complaints rather than work together toward real solutions.

Peter Bromberg, program development coordinator, South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, Gibbsboro, notes that the biggest value of having a NextGen community is that “there is a support group” for many librarians entering our profession. “However,” he adds, “there is a downside to NextGens segregating themselves from the rest of the library community and using the support group as a place to reinforce complaints.” Part of the dynamic, he explains, creates an “us” (i.e., we're “NextGens”) but also creates a “them” (i.e., stodgy old people who won't listen to us or pay us decently).

It's all too common. When others in our communities are cranky, we tend to pick up on that crankiness. When others tend to focus on problems and personal issues, constant repetition makes us hyperaware of these issues and less likely to seek alternative perspectives or solutions. When others pinpoint a given group as the cause of those problems, it affects our own perceptions of that group.

NextGen librarians sometimes pretend to be exempt from this, working under the perception that youth, recent education, or some other nebulous factor keeps the focus on “real issues.” None of us, however, are exempt. This is just as true for longtime librarians who discount the possibility of communicating with their Millennial or GenX colleagues. We all need to be aware of that line where comfortable gets just a bit too comforting.

Networking and “neoteny”

What do we lose by sticking only with those who are “like us”? In Geeks and Geezers (HBS Pr., 2002), Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas studied two sets of leaders: “geeks”—those under 30—and “geezers”—those over 70. Bennis and Thomas found some interesting commonalities. Strikingly, both groups of leaders were avid learners. Each relied on “building and maintaining networks across generations, organizations, and cultures” to enable continuous learning and gather varied insights and perspectives. Bennis and Thomas stressed the importance of a quality called “neoteny,” which, in biology, means the quality of “carrying youthful characteristics into adulthood.”

Extending the concept, they noted that those who retain “youthful characteristics,” such as a sense of wonder and possibility, curiosity, and excitement, are more likely to be successful leaders and remain active and interesting people, whatever their chronological age. What's one way to retain neoteny? By building networks of people of all ages and backgrounds, leveraging their insights, and bouncing ideas and experiences off one another.

Building bridges

Each of us should make a conscious effort to connect with colleagues from multiple generations and backgrounds. If you are a Millennial, invite a Boomer to lunch. If you are a GenXer, take your break with a Millennial colleague. If you are a Boomer, strike up a conversation with a GenXer.

For every “NextGen” or “newbie” email list you join, join a subject-specific or general professional list. For every high-level directors' or administrators' group you join, volunteer for a more general committee or round table that mixes newbies with longtime members.

If you've worked at your library for decades, make an effort to get out and about. Go to a career day at a local library school, volunteer as a mentor for a new librarian or for the American Library Association's New Members Round Table's résumé review service. Perhaps, just talk to new employees about their ideas.

If you are a new grad, on your first professional job, or work with a number of veteran employees, think about the institutional wisdom locked up in your colleagues' heads. Take the time to find the key. As librarians, we make a big deal about valuing and locating expertise. More often than not, that expertise is right in our own backyard. Why not take a look?