jack@inspire

They Don't Know What's Going To Hit Them!

Ever since the financial crisis became a harsh reality, I've heard many people (invariably older - most 50 yrs plus) comment along the lines that young people don't know what's going to hit them. 

The story goes - and correctly so - that most young people today have only known times of economic growth and opportunity.  But tnen what follows next is the interesting bit. 

The Concerned are genuinely worried for young people that this will be an especially tough time for them on top of all the challenges that young people currently face.  They remind that despite (or some would even argue because of) the economic growth youth mental health issues are one of our biggest societal challenges today.  In a given year as many as 1 in 4 young people will suffer from a recognised mental illness and this is not just about having a couple of bad days.  While suicide rates have declined for young people over the past decade in many Western countries, in recent years the decline has pretty well plateaued out.   Australia is one of the stand out exceptions in that suicide rates are now down by 56% since their 1997 peak - hopefully the rates will continue to decline in Australia but we can't take this for granted in light of the current situation.

The Resenters see the economic crisis with a degree of glee in that "young people with their unrealistic expectations will finally get their comeuppance!" - a youth directed schadenfreund if you like.  These are people who felt Gen Y had it far too easy - funny thing is that they are often the parents and role models of the young people they complain about.  "A good war would sort them out".

The Resilients are a third group of people who are upbeat that young people today will actually do OK in the current crisis.  They believe that through their seamless integration with technology many young people understand both the interconnectedness and impermance of things - many of them have seen their parents' marriages end in divorce and so don't take things for granted and have an ability to weather the storm and adapt in the way that previous generations did not.

As the layoffs increase I'm curious to know whether or not age will be a consideration in who gets laid off.

But as to how young people will deal with the economic crisis I don't have a crystal ball.  What I do know however is that those who believe in young people's ability to deal with adversity will be the ones who contribute the tools and resources for young people to get through the tough times that are ahead of us all.  

From Making A Difference to Being of Service

Earlier this year Inspire held its first Appreciative Inquiry Summit in Sydney with some of our US colleagues and supporters joining us.  It was a pretty amazing affair as we shifted from being a tribal team of staff to a broad-based community with a range of supporters - it somehow made our ambition to make a global contribution to young people's mental health and wellbeing much more possible.

In the lead up to the summit we did work around our values using the work of Richard Barrett and synthesised by Lisa Doig and others who had worked with McKinsey.  This included mapping our organisational values - both stated and actual - alongside our personal aspirational values.  To our relief there was fair consistency across all which was very reaffirming.

The values were mapped against Maslow's hierarchy of needs with the highest two levels being Making a Difference and then Being of Service at the peak.  It is interesting that the highest value is around being rather than doing although of course being of service might involve doing but it doesn't start with the action - or the urge to act.  I feel this is a very important thing for us to appreciate as we look to take the impact of our programs global while also building a coherent international network with distributed  leadership.  Making a difference has the notion of putting my view of what needs to be done to the fore whereas being of service calls on you to do whatever is appropriate in a given situation.  The former, while noble, carries with it vestiges of ego wheras true genuine service is devoid of ego - very easy to say but a much bigger challenge to embody.