Mission: Possible
Good afternoon, Mr. and Ms. Professional Millennial/Boomer.
On today’s 21st anniversary of Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day I have a challenge for all millennials who don’t yet have children and all boomers whose children have outgrown this tradition. Let’s call it: “Mission: Take Your Boomers/Millennials to Lunch Day.”
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves the reworking of an effective workplace. You may select any two team members from your office, but it is essential that the third member of your team be a millennial if you are a boomer or a boomer if you are a millennial.
The three of you must go out to lunch and any cafe or restaurant will do.
Once you have been seated, you must discuss each of your individual answers to the following four questions:
Where do you get your news? In case you were wondering where I get mine – I receive a free daily email from Need 2 Know – think of it as the “Cliff’s Notes” of news. With the catchphrase “News Over Easy,” Need 2 Know manages to make reading the news fun and something you look forward to every morning. To keep up with what happens throughout the day I use the Zite app – it aggregates news in real time based on your personal interests.
Where have you been shopping the most lately? Again, for anyone who cares, I’ve been making the majority of my recent purchases from etsy since I have a lot of bachelorette and bridal parties coming up and love that you can not only find anything you could ever want on the site, but, most importantly, you can get almost everything personalized.
Which ad/s has caught your eye over the last few months? I wrote about my most recent favorite ad in a post two weeks ago so I won’t bore you with that – it’s the third example in my post and I hope you agree with my reasoning. Dodge, the automobile company, just released an ad campaign celebrating the automaker’s 100th birthday by putting the spotlight on centenarians born about the same time and providing them with the opportunity to offer their words of wisdom to viewers. This video effectively and poignantly highlights the power of storytelling and of human connections.
What’s your favorite magazine article, book or blog post that you’ve read so far this year? I listened to my mentor Ted Rubin’s advice and finally read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. As usual, he was right and its points are even more relevant now than when it was originally published in 1936.
Starting today, you have twenty-four hours to recruit your two team members and to complete your assignment.
Once completed, you will undoubtedly find that you have uncovered certain previously confidential information that will enable you to better relate to your co-workers and thereby increase your workplace productivity, morale, understanding, and appreciation.
As always, should any member of your team fail to attend this lunch due to another meeting or due to being slammed with work, the author of this blog will disavow all knowledge of your actions and intentions. This blog may self-destruct in five seconds, so do your best to memorize and follow its instructions to the letter. Goodbye and good luck.
Image credit: chrisdorney/Shutterstock
