Why Generation X Cares About Culture

I spoke last month about culture at the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) meeting (and yes, there IS an association of associations). And I was pleased that the panel on culture that I was doing had a packed house. People stood at the back the whole time. After the session, I commented to a CEO friend about the crowd, explaining that I’ve been doing sessions on culture for a while now, and three or four years ago, it was hard to draw that many people to a session on culture. His response was interesting:

What was the average age of the people in the room?

They were mostly older Gen X, with some younger Boomers and a handful of Millennials. I can’t believe I didn’t see this trend before, actually. The oldest Gen Xers are 55 this year, which means as a generation they are now starting to move in larger numbers into CEO and COO roles. That is coinciding with a spike in interest that I’m seeing around culture. Now, the spike is not all because of this generational issue, but I think it’s adding fuel to the fire.

So why does Generation X care about culture? This may sound odd, but I think it’s because Generation X cares so much about truth. When Gen X hit the scene back in the 1990s, we were quickly labeled “cynical slackers.” While the slacker part was not true, cynicism is a real part of our generation. We grew up being promised one thing, but then delivered another, and that naturally generates cynicism. I sometimes refer to Gen X as a “show me” generation, as in, “It’s lovely that you have the title of Vice President—but show me through your behavior that you deserve my respect and I’ll give it to you. I’ve been burned too many times before.”

All cynics really want is the truth. They don’t want spin, and they don’t care as much about image. The cynicism Gen X has as a generation means that they’re on the lookout for the truth, a lot. And now that Gen X is moving into the top spots, they are realizing that the espoused culture is probably not matching up with the reality, and that is going to bug them. I think that disconnect mattered to Boomers too, over the last couple of decades, but it never made it to the top of the priority list, because they are not a cynical generation. They are idealistic, so when they see the disconnect, they’ll just double down their efforts on mission and vision and working hard together. Getting knee-deep into the complexity of aligning the image and truth of culture probably felt slow to them; a waste of effort.

I don’t think Gen X sees it that way, and looking at that sea of Gen X faces at conference sessions on the importance of organizational culture, I might be onto something here. And to be clear, I’m not saying ONLY Generation X cares about culture. Every generation cares about culture. But Generation X is going to give it a different kind of attention in the C-Suite. Smart leaders from every generation will be staying ahead of that curve.