Dilophosaurus

The Dilophosaurus is the final and somewhat secret of the main dinosaurs that we are introducing – the centennial generation that is due to start hitting our workplaces from the year 2020…

Centennials are very similar to millennials so if you think of the Carnivores then you;re off to a good start.

The major difference however, is that centennials were born with touch screen devices and raised with them!

Millennials at least grew up with dial up internet, analogue phones, most of them remember when the first consumer ready mobile phone was mass market ready – we’re talking Nokia 3210 / 3310 models here…

The Dilophosaurus’ among our colleagues however work on a whole new level of tech readiness and impatience – why can’t I use this as a cloud service, why do I need to have a ‘local program’, why isn’t there an app?

This is a generation that is expecting high speed data, 4G connectivity and integrations across platforms as a ‘lowest common denominator’.

In a common workplace the Dilophosaurus will self educate and self challenge in many respects. If an organisation is working with clunky old technology they simply won’t have the curiosity to even engage with them in the first place.

Why should I work for someone that isn’t able to embrace the capabilities that we all use every day…of course the experience and life lessons of the Herbivores and Omnivores are still essential to any long term business success, but the challenge now becomes how do you engage and capture the mindset of the Dilophosaurus to help you take your solutions to cutting edge of today’s markets.

There is such an abundance of contact and access being enabled by the myriad technology platforms and ecosystems that we are launching that the Dilophosaurus doesn’t want to go and work in a cubicle for ‘ACME Corp.’ – but you as an organisation need the Dilophosaurus to help stimulate new world thinking and push the boundaries of your products.

Mindset

The good news is that the mindset of the Dilophosaurus is actually not that different to that of the Carnivore – just faster (or a shorter attention span, depending on how you want to look at it).

This means you don’t need to cage them or drown them in process, this is a surefire way to lose the brightest among them. Process is a part of business, and any successful organisation will always ground itself in process so don’t misinterpret this as a recommendation to can all process forevermore!

The goal is to create freedom through process. Focus on macro or meta goals, not micro organisation. The Dilophosaurus is highly capable when given freedom to adopt an approach that tailors to the environment – there is no one process fits all, and neither is there a schedule for innovation and creativity.

The beauty of the Dilophosaurus mindset is that they love to think and break things and change them and in that process, they almost fix them again as it comes full circle. It is not an exercise to give them control of all they do. Rather use their energy and creativity – instead of forcing yourself through an exercise to come up with creative solutions to problems you have not fully understood yet, let them do it naturally, then build on their early ideas with your experience to create the next process.

Challenges

The challenge with the Dilophosaurus comes in reining them in. Obviously no one wants to create a workspace where the inexperienced team members have a false sense of control or dominance as this is detrimental to the experienced, senior players.

The Dilophosaurus is often looking for more than a ‘job’ so focus on creating a community and cohesive environment within the workspace. Involvement, open communication and freedom to communicate are all high motivating factors for the Dilophosaurus.

Be sure to focus on creating clear and concise boundaries and standards for what is required, and what is professional, without these everything is open to interpretation and the Dilophosaurus can run rampant.

That being said, it is not a matter of seeking opportunity to abuse a workspace, there is simply a higher demand now for a workspace that ‘I believe in’ and a team that ‘I can deal with’.

The days of clocking in 9-5 at an office job and having your work and social life are fading, for some they never truly will but the Dilophosaurus is looking at new ways to balance the work / life scales, and part of this is by finding work that can be part of life.

This only happens when you create an environment where life can thrive, not the other way around.