Beatles May Become Extinct
I was conducting a workshop recently and the hotel meeting director, who knows me, learned it was my birthday, so she arranged for a cake during the afternoon break. I thanked her, and told her I am 64.
“You don’t look it,” she said tactfully.
“Well, who ever thought I’d be singing that song?”
“What song?”
“When I’m Sixty-Four.”
“I’ve never heard it.”
“It was the one by The Beatles.”
“Who are The Beatles?”
With that the room stopped, and everyone stared. Our very competent, charming, and energetic meeting director is 25 years old, and doesn’t know anything about the Beatles. (When her boss came by, only slightly older, she was able to name two of The Beatles and cite about six words to one of their songs.)
My message to you is that we are dealing with demographics with starkly different reference points from our own (and so are our client executives). They don’t know what life is like without texting or cable or Wikipedia, and they view Kennedy’s death in the same way they view Lincoln’s death—distant and remote events in dusty history books. The take the net for granted the way we take electricity for granted.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming everyone has the same contextual connections and reference points that you do. Take pains to ensure that you’re reaching out in relevant, contemporary terms. There are bright, talented people in organizations and entering organizations every day whose greatest influences are in many cases alien to senior management.
Icons only exist over centuries when they are carved into marble. Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles—you can’t rely on any reference point without testing. I notice that I don’t recognize and couldn’t identify about a third of the presenters on major awards shows. Apparently, others can.
We need to be sure the proper translations are in place.
© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.
Pat Tith
…or else we will be lost in translation! Couldn’t resist that
Regards
pat
Tim Wilson
Alan,
Very appropriate and timely advice. I made a similar mistake several years ago when I mentioned the Temptations and Four Tops to a class I was conducting. A few people knew of whom I was speaking but most did not. I couldn’t believe it, who doesn’t know the words to My Girl? left to ask what you were talking about.
Alex
Beloit College publishes a wonderful “Mindset” list every year that really helps me get a perspective on where the younger generation’s heads are at:
http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php
There’s a pulldown menu at the top where you can pick the year.
russ stalters
Great advice Alan.
a colleague and I (both in our 50’s) were presenting to a younger group of employees and he made reference to a Warren Zevon song that made perfect sense to me. Unfortunately we looked out at the group and only saw blank stares.
It was an instant wake up call to make our analogies more generation appropriate.
Alan Weiss
Remember the wine given Pseudolis in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum? He said, “Was one a good year?”
Alan Weiss
I’ve come a long way, baby.
Tim Wilson
Alan,
When you speak of wine, I’m reminded of a funny (at least I thought it was funny) wine story that you were part of.
A couple of years ago you were the keynote at an IMCNE event. During your presentation you made a comment about Thunderbird Wine. I was sitting in the second row, was taken aback that you even knew of its existence, said out loud, “what do you know about Thunderbird?” You didn’t answer you just looked at me with a smile of a young lad who many years ago who participated in right of passage which included imbibing oneself of Thunderbird which was more proximal to kerosene than wine.
You had to leave before I could get to you to compare experiences, but I walked away thinking, there’s someone that’s not afraid to try anything once.