Each year the news magazine Time releases a Most Influential Teens list. Alongside the expected names of young industry-managed pop singers, fresh-faced actors, and teen celebrities are some ordinary young people doing some extraordinary things. They range from a youthful entrepreneur who raised nearly $6 million in venture capital to fund his speed-defying drone designs1 to a UK teen who developed an antibody that can detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.2 On the list of no-names now making a big name for themselves are young climate-change activists, rising civil rights leaders, creative artists, innovative white-hat hackers, title-winning athletes, and culinary geniuses. All under the age of twenty.
Time features about twenty-five new young people every year. Each new account of their excellence is more impressive than the last. I look forward to watching their stories develop as they grow into adulthood and inherit the world we are preparing to give them. Understandably, there isn’t enough room in Time’s yearly publication for the countless number of young people who are doing great things. Empowered with new and better resources than any generation before, they are quickly establishing themselves as global change agents. Unfortunately, the range of needs calling out for their assistance is as vast as the world is large. Sorry, kids.
In many ways, premillennium generations set our children’s generations up with a clear path to greatness. This is because twentieth-century generations left two indelible marks on history that act as clear reset points for better days to come. First, we made a global move out of the Industrial Age and into the Information Age, also called the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age. The parents and grandparents of today’s youth took the big step out of an era fueled by the textile, wood, brick, mining, and steel industries into a global paradigm powered by information technology. Second, we kind of trashed the place and hurt a lot of people along the way. The twentieth century saw a dramatic increase in pollution, human trafficking, political corruption, and the scars of war. Just to scratch the surface. We pass these debts and many more on as an inheritance to our children, grandchildren, and . . . well, you get the idea. If we can’t do more to fix these issues before we go, they will be forced to bear our liabilities.
To right our many wrongs, the next generation will need to make another big step forward, from the Information Age to an Innovation Age. To accomplish such a significant step, we need to agree that true innovation often begins with a break from old ways of thinking. To be clear, this will include a need to break from many of our old ways of thinking. But even this is not a new concept. To quote Albert Einstein, one of the world’s most innovative minds, “A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.”3
The challenges we have covered in Guiding the Next Great Generation require a new way of looking at the world and how we will guide the next generation to steward it well.
Living and sharing ways to cross the growing gap between generations should be one of our highest priorities. As we rethink ways to guide young people to Build Bridges, Practice Stewardship before Leadership, Transform Raw Talents into Valued Strengths, and Live with Purpose, I believe we will see something remarkable take place. Those of us born way back in the 1900s will witness the Next Great Generation come of age, doing and being even better than us.
CONSIDER THIS:
How do you want members of the Next Great Generation to remember you?
YOUR TURN: