Book Review: Hip & Sage

Last year, my dad and I were interviewed by my friend Lisa Haneberg, who has just published the terrific new book, Hip & Sage: Staying Smart, Cool, and Competitive in the Workplace.  Lisa wanted to have a conversation with us regarding how workplace values have changed from my dad’s generation (Early Baby Boomer), to mine (Generation X) to the young professionals I study (Generation Y). 

Born in 1964, Lisa’s a “red-caboose” Baby Boomer herself.  Though she’s written several books for the HR uber-organization the American Society of Training and Development and consulted for top companies like Amazon.com and Intel, Lisa has never lost her own unique sense of cool.  She’s been active in the blogosphere since 2004 and has been known to do her cross-country book tours via motorcycle.  She’s the perfect person to teach older professionals how to stay relevant and successful in today’s techno-driven workplace.

Boomers and their Traditionalist siblings and parents should be proud of their sageness, or their natural strengths, characteristics, experiences, skills, and judgments, which have been honed and polished through the years.  When I tell young professionals that they should have deference for their older colleagues’ wisdom, this is what I’m talking about – their sageness.  Lisa instructs readers to recognize and cultivate their sageness by increasing their self-awareness, setting better goals, doing one great thing each day, unpacking their bags of distractions, and volunteering to be a mentor.   As for hipness, older professionals need it to communicate, connect, and collaborate with younger generations.  The book is an excellent primer on how to do this, from signing up for cross-functional projects and setting up open-dialogue forums at work to being an expert on a social network and telling your stories via the podcast and blog mediums.

Hip & Sage concludes with how to create your own definition of success and how to take advantage of your hipness and sageness during the job hunting and hiring processes.  If you’re a more seasoned professional or you work with one, this gem of a book makes for witty and insightful evening reading. 

 

 

Comments

[BothEyesOnTrends]

Very interesting blog, Alexandra. Kudos. But it’s missing an important part of the equation: Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X.

Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. The Associated Press' annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009.

It is important to distinguish between the post-WWII demographic boom in births vs. the cultural generations born during that era. Generations are a function of the common formative experiences of its members, not the fertility rates of its parents. Many experts now believe it breaks down this way:

DEMOGRAPHIC boom in babies: 1946-1964
Baby Boom GENERATION: 1942-1953
Generation Jones: 1954-1965
Generation X: 1966-1978

Here is an op-ed about GenJones as the new generation of leadership in USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm

Here's a page with a good overview of recent stuff about GenJones:
http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html

And here's a five minute video featuring dozens of America's top political commentators discussing the importance of Generation Jones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ta_Du5K0jk

[Alexandra Levit]

@BEOT: Thanks for the links, they are much appreciated. That's a cool video (don't you love You Tube?) I've heard of Gen Jones, but I thought they were a subset of the Baby Boomers. Maybe I should start making this distinction in my speeches about generational dynamics.

[Tpyvvlcu]

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