In this comment, I’d like to build a connection between two articles that I read recently, and then tie this connection back to comments I made at the end of my summary of William Powers’ book Hamlet’s BlackBerry. Here are the two articles:
2) Half of Fundraisers in the Top Job Would Like to Quit (Chronicle of Philanthropy (01.17.13) by Jennifer C. Berkshire)
At the end of my Hamlet’s BlackBerry summary, I wrote the following:
Powers (and others such as Nicholas Carr and Sherry Turkle) cautions that the Internet or digital generation (e.g., people age 30 and less) is currently stuck in “going out” mode. Another way to frame so-called “social media” is to view it as “going out” media. Sadly, as authors such as Mary Eberstadt and Kay Hymowitz point out in their work, there are very few adults or adult institutions around to help the digital or “going out” generation find their way home, to find their “going in” media. As a result, we as a society use such things as behavioral drugs and behavioral therapy as substitutes for true “going in” media.
In the above quote, I’m trying to point out that we must balance “going out” into the world with “returning home” or going inside. In Hamlet’s BlackBerry, Powers gives us this “showstopper” statement: “Attention deficit issues, Internet addiction, and other tech-related maladies are all about being stuck in [going out] gear.” Simply, there’s no returning home, to self, to body. It’s a perpetual state of discorporation or mind separate from body. At the end of my Hamlet’s BlackBerry summary, I simply state: “Learning how to go out while still maintaining confidence in one’s ability to return home is what safe and secure attachment relationships are all about.” Given the above, consider this quote from the article “50 May Be the New 70 in the Workplace”:
“More and more, professionals are feeling burnt out and discouraged, and are in turn leaving the workforce because they can’t find any level of alignment between work and life,” says Allison O’Kelly, founder and CEO of staffing firm Mom Corps.
My translation: Older professionals (age 40 and above) are becoming burned out because they are finding it difficult to balance going out with going in. Where possible these older professionals are bailing on the workplace in favor of spending more time in the home space. Both articles intimate that older professionals are having difficulty finding balance because in part they are increasingly surrounded by digital natives (age 30 and below) who (as Powers points out) are stuck in going out mode.
The second article on fundraising professionals profiles a study co-authored by Marla Cornelius (who surveyed 2,700 fundraising professionals). The article quotes Cornelius when it tells us, “Too many organizations lack a culture of philanthropy, which means that development directors don’t have conditions they need to succeed.” The article goes on to say that experienced development directors are “not going to hook their reputation to [organizations that lack] readiness.” Here’s my take on what’s going on here.
The other day I had lunch with a development director. This person said something like, “Organizations think that you now raise money by putting some magic link on the Internet and wait for the donations to just start rolling in.” This person then stunned me by pointing out that during the recent campaign President Obama raised hundreds of millions of dollars using just the Internet. I was stunned to hear this. Back in November of 2008 (after President Obama won the presidency for the first time) The Washington Post stated: “Barack Obama raised half a billion dollars online in his 21-month campaign for the White House, dramatically ushering in a new digital era in presidential fundraising.” I don’t know what the numbers were for his second campaign, but I’m sure they were just as good if not better.
I think this development director (and The Washington Post) are right: the age of digital fundraising is here, and it is decidedly different when compared to the analog age it seeks to replace. The old analog style was more face-to-face, it was about creating and sustaining longterm relationships, it was more, well, personal. The old analog workplace was the same—face-to-face, about creating and sustaining longterm relationships (especially job security), personal connections—and it too is being replaced by an impersonal, uncertain, unpredictable digital workplace. Both the workplace and the fundraising place are going (nay, have gone) digital and are locked in going out mode. And my guess is that older professionals are becoming burned out by being surrounded by this hyper going out mode and its close association with “attention deficit issues, Internet addiction, and other tech-related maladies” (quoting Powers).
So, I guess if you want an old style, analog approach to workplace performance in general, and fundraising in specific, hire a qualified person with well developed EF or executive function skills (i.e., planning, organizing, modeling, empathy, future-oriented, etc.). If you want a new style, digital approach, find a magical link and put it on the Internet. I’m sure the results will just start rolling in (as the old analog Baby Boomers continue rolling toward home).
COMMENT: Baby Boomers Wish to Leave Workplace to Find “Going In” Media
In this comment, I’d like to build a connection between two articles that I read recently, and then tie this connection back to comments I made at the end of my summary of William Powers’ book Hamlet’s BlackBerry. Here are the two articles:
1) 50 may be the new 70 in the workplace – Business on NBCNews.com.
(Mark Koba – CNBC.com)
2) Half of Fundraisers in the Top Job Would Like to Quit
(Chronicle of Philanthropy (01.17.13) by Jennifer C. Berkshire)
At the end of my Hamlet’s BlackBerry summary, I wrote the following:
In the above quote, I’m trying to point out that we must balance “going out” into the world with “returning home” or going inside. In Hamlet’s BlackBerry, Powers gives us this “showstopper” statement: “Attention deficit issues, Internet addiction, and other tech-related maladies are all about being stuck in [going out] gear.” Simply, there’s no returning home, to self, to body. It’s a perpetual state of discorporation or mind separate from body. At the end of my Hamlet’s BlackBerry summary, I simply state: “Learning how to go out while still maintaining confidence in one’s ability to return home is what safe and secure attachment relationships are all about.” Given the above, consider this quote from the article “50 May Be the New 70 in the Workplace”:
My translation: Older professionals (age 40 and above) are becoming burned out because they are finding it difficult to balance going out with going in. Where possible these older professionals are bailing on the workplace in favor of spending more time in the home space. Both articles intimate that older professionals are having difficulty finding balance because in part they are increasingly surrounded by digital natives (age 30 and below) who (as Powers points out) are stuck in going out mode.
The second article on fundraising professionals profiles a study co-authored by Marla Cornelius (who surveyed 2,700 fundraising professionals). The article quotes Cornelius when it tells us, “Too many organizations lack a culture of philanthropy, which means that development directors don’t have conditions they need to succeed.” The article goes on to say that experienced development directors are “not going to hook their reputation to [organizations that lack] readiness.” Here’s my take on what’s going on here.
The other day I had lunch with a development director. This person said something like, “Organizations think that you now raise money by putting some magic link on the Internet and wait for the donations to just start rolling in.” This person then stunned me by pointing out that during the recent campaign President Obama raised hundreds of millions of dollars using just the Internet. I was stunned to hear this. Back in November of 2008 (after President Obama won the presidency for the first time) The Washington Post stated: “Barack Obama raised half a billion dollars online in his 21-month campaign for the White House, dramatically ushering in a new digital era in presidential fundraising.” I don’t know what the numbers were for his second campaign, but I’m sure they were just as good if not better.
I think this development director (and The Washington Post) are right: the age of digital fundraising is here, and it is decidedly different when compared to the analog age it seeks to replace. The old analog style was more face-to-face, it was about creating and sustaining longterm relationships, it was more, well, personal. The old analog workplace was the same—face-to-face, about creating and sustaining longterm relationships (especially job security), personal connections—and it too is being replaced by an impersonal, uncertain, unpredictable digital workplace. Both the workplace and the fundraising place are going (nay, have gone) digital and are locked in going out mode. And my guess is that older professionals are becoming burned out by being surrounded by this hyper going out mode and its close association with “attention deficit issues, Internet addiction, and other tech-related maladies” (quoting Powers).
So, I guess if you want an old style, analog approach to workplace performance in general, and fundraising in specific, hire a qualified person with well developed EF or executive function skills (i.e., planning, organizing, modeling, empathy, future-oriented, etc.). If you want a new style, digital approach, find a magical link and put it on the Internet. I’m sure the results will just start rolling in (as the old analog Baby Boomers continue rolling toward home).