As more and more companies are doing business across country lines — whether it’s through satellite offices, having vendors or suppliers in other countries, or having customers in different countries — it’s important to know: Are generations globally relevant?
Unfortunately, this answer is not cut and dry. In this video, I’m going to address this subject by looking at four different factors:
- the cyclical nature of generations,
- birth years and how they do and don’t translate across country lines,
- the economic conditions of a country and
- the cultural environment of a nation.
The cyclical nature of generations
First, speaking to the cyclicality of it all. The phenomena, the cyclical, archetypal predictive phenomena of generations is the same 2000 years ago in the Middle East, as it is today in the United States, as it will be, say, 40 years hence in Peru. The phenomena of generations and the cycle of the archetypes is part of the human backdrop story … it’s part of the human experience, whether people are conscious of it or not.
How often and intensely it expresses varies from country to country, with the United States being the mega expression of generations, at least at this moment in time in the last couple hundred years or so.
Birth years
Second, in terms of birth years, you gotta be really careful with this one.
For example, we know that Millennials are born 1982 to 2005 in the United States and in Canada (because the United States and Canada synch on birth years); however, you can’t take those same birth year boundaries and simply transfer them onto another country and call somebody born in 1985, say in Namibia or Portugal, a Millennial because someone in the US born in 1985 is a Millennial.
Generations don’t work that way at all.
While it does appear that defining birth years are synching up more and more across countries, we need to remember that a generation’s worldview is formed during its childhood years. And by the generation that is about 55 years old at the time. Generational formation is connected to the economic conditions and the outer world events that are happening during the childhood and coming of age years.
Economic conditions
Basically what you’re looking at with economic conditions and generations is how well synched a country’s post-World War II economic recovery is to the United States’ recovery. The post-WWII economic recovery timing makes the birth years more similar.
For example, say there’s a country in Europe that had its post-WWII economic recovery start about five years after the United States’ did, then you would take the United States years of a generation, tack on about five years, and then you’ll get a pretty decent understanding of what the generational years are in that other country.
Cultural environment
The final thing to look at is cultural considerations and the cultural environment of a country. What I mean by this is that there are specific circumstances that create very fertile environments for generations to express, and the United States is very, very, very ripe with these conditions. Has been since its founding.
The conditions that support strong generational cycles are, overall, that the coming of age youth are allowed choice, personal expression and self determination in terms of
- dating and marriage,
- careers and interests … hobbies and things like that, and
- taste — dress music, personal expression, self expression and so forth.
My future’s so bright …
There’s one more factor connected to the cultural conditions which is that the youth of a nation have to feel that there is a future for them that they can carve out for themselves.
If you have a country that has a lot of upward mobility, where people feel that they can make their way, build their own business or find their way to success if they work hard, then you have more generational expression in that society.
If it’s more like you can’t go beyond a certain level, no matter what, no matter how hard you work–say for a country with strong class lines or a class system–then the generational engine doesn’t work as strongly in those circumstances.
International resources
I don’t know of any list or source for tracking the generational archetypes in various countries, though whatever Neil Howe says, I’d recommend following that. If you know of any sources, kindly link to them in the comments section below.
Thanks! Have a great day!
