Millennials and the Meaning of Work

As you may already have seen, we had a great trip to “Folkemødet 2018” (a danish political festival, see here: wikipedia and here: folkemødet.dk). We met an bunch of amazing new people, and good friends, and was deeply inspired by some great talks. Also, we hosted our own debate, at Dagbladet Information, titled: Millennials and the Meaning. We are fully determined the set the meaningfulness and impactfulness debate a light, particularly concerning careers, and this was a great opportunity and a unique forum.

We quickly found that we, the panel, agrees on all the most important parts, so we didn’t really get that all out debate going. However, and equally important, it became more of a united Millennial statement in an otherwise non-millennial crowd. A statement i find to be ever more important as the movement gains momentum, and our quest for securing impactful jobs for our generation continues.

You can see the full debate below, but here are 3 key take-aways that you must know.

Generation Global Goal

Yes, we are – as Daniel points out. More and more studies show the same tendency throughout the broad millennial generation – corporate responsibility and sustainability is top of mind. The new “Millennial Survey 2018” from Deloitte, shows that only 48% of Millennials think that corporations is living up to their social responsibility – a steep drop of 17% from last year. This means that we are all on the same page, this is not just something you talk about with your friends, this notion is world wide, and it permeates all ages from 18-36. This also commits us to really make that changes that we want to see, at all corporations, new and old, big or smal. Corporations that fail to do this, to link their business with meaning and impact, will loose out on 52% of the global Millennials talents… Ouch! So keep in mind: You are not alone!

Sustainable knowledge

Knowledge and quality outlets is key – according to Kristian. Despite the internets democratisation of information and knowledge, most is still entangled in numerous interests. Interests that either blocks, distorts discredits the scientific results. Climate scientist are not alone fighting this fight – and it’s incredibly harmful. Obviously, the people that are occupying important, impactful positions needs access to high quality unbiased knowledge streams, sadly that’s not a given yet. If we want to save our future world, we need to know how. So keep in mind: Knowledge is key – high quality – unbiased.

Impactful branding

It’s all about branding – according to Lars. For many many years, at least in the western world, we have, for a large extend, tied social status and happiness to consumerism. A consumerism that is that root cause of most of our present climate and resource problems. Luckily, there’s an easy fix, and we are well underway. We need to make it cool to be kind. Kind towards other people, our planet and our future. We need to elevate this kindness parameter in our internal hierarchy of self-actualisation – and be sure to keep it there for the rest of our lifes. As time passes, our priorities shift, and as we can see from previous generations, it’s tricky business that carry the kindness parameter on top at all times. But, if it’s cool to be kind, we might succeed. So keep in mind: It’s cool to be kind.

I hope this all makes sense to you! Otherwise, let’s debate that.

Panel:
Kristian Lee Dahm Dickow, co-founder, Foresight – Climate and energy
Daniel Vamosi Marinussen, co-founder, #iLoveGlobalGoals
Lars Martin Haukohl, Founder, Impactfuljobs.org
Moderator: Katrine Pedersen, Head of Education, Arken