Rating: 8
May 9, 2007
It’s a thick book, and admittedly, I didn’t read the whole thing. But it has a compelling thesis: the character of each generation goes through a four-part cycle — Idealists (like the Boomer generation) create Reactives (like Gen X) which in turn produces Civics (like the Millennials) who then give way to Adaptives, who then are followed by Idealists and so on. It cycles over and over again. After studying generations since 1584, they have seen that this has held for over 500 years, except during the Civil War.
When Idealists come of age, cultural creativity and new ideals emerge, and they challenge old values and insititutions as they go through a spiritual awakening. But when Reactives come of age, individualism flourishes, new ideals are created in separate camps and confidence in institutions decline. Then Civics come of age with growing collective unity in the face of perceived social peril and culminated in a secular crisis in which danger is overcome and one set of new ideals triumphs. And lastly, Adaptives come of age while society turns toward conformity and stability, and triumphant ideals are secularized. Then the cycle starts over. It feels eerily relevant in a post-9/11 era, though the book was written back in 1991.
Many leaders today are focused on the major philosophical shift in our culture from Modernity to Postmodernity, but generational shifts are also going to play a large role in the way organizations are structured and led. It’s full of little cultural details (if not a little dated), but I found the book’s thesis fascinating, and it’s helping me understand the differences between Generation X and the Millennials — and believe me, they are very different!
You can view its Amazon detail page by clicking the image above.
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