NASHVILLE, Tenn.–Seth Mattison acknowledged from the outset it’s a topic that makes CU audiences want to “puke.” But it’s also a topic CUs must rethink if they wish to “future-proof” their own organizations, he said. The topic: Millennials, Gen Z and youth. The why: Relevance.
“How do we stay relevant to marketplaces that are evolving? How do we stay relevant as an employer of choice?” asked Mattison. The answer: It can only be accomplished by paying close attention to where trends start, he said in remarks to CU Student Choice’s Empower U Conference here.
“It’s not that youth today are more intelligent or are going to reinvent the world; it’s that they simply give us clues about how the world is going to change next,” said Mattison, who is the founder and chief movement officer of Luminate Labs. “Youth by their very definition are fringe-dwellers. They sort of live on the edge of society, they are experimenting and tinkering and sending signals back to the rest of society about where the next change will come from. What we have found is these trends that start out with the youth often expand out to become universally adopted behaviors of nearly every generation.”
What is a Generation?
Mattison, who said he has spent the past 10 years in generational studies, said he defines generations less by age and more according to events and conditions that took place during a group’s formative years, the preteen and teen years.
Before any credit union leader can engage any generation, whether internally or externally, Mattison said that leaders must ask themselves “Do I personally have what it takes to make us relevant? Do I have the skills to step up to this? Can I change as fast as the world is changing around me?”
He said his studies and others have found that the best leaders at adapting to change are those who have high levels of self-awareness and reflection. Those individuals, he said, “do not lie to themselves about their capacity to change.”
Similarly, credit unions have varying degrees of ability to change, according to Mattison.
“Some of you embrace it readily. For others it’s like moving a grand piano up a flight of a hundred stairs just to try to pull off one new policy,” he said. “So you have to be brutally honest with yourself.”
4 Questions
Mattison said there are four questions to ask in assessing “change readiness:”
- Do we understand the change that is coming? “If we don’t, then education has to take place.”
- Do we have the ability to change? “We understand the change, but are we still facing resistance or lack the skills? When you go home with great ideas, you will have staff committed to waiting you out.”
- Are we emotionally aligned with the change? “If you go back and nothing happens, what was the point?”
- Do we have the intent? “The intention we set in any situation will ultimately determine the outcome of that situation.”
Driving that change he said, requires people who are “future-makers,” those who are responsible for making the future happen and inspiring others to do the same.
Mattison said there are four “imperatives” around being a future-maker:
Imperative One: Trend Hunting
Trend-hunters are people who own the concept and don’t defer on the challenge, Mattison said.
“With Millennials, I wade into these waters with caution,” he acknowledged. “There is fatigue around this issue, but it does negate the opportunity that does exist.”
Before his audience of student lenders, Mattison said Millennials are not the target market for the product, which now rests squarely with Generation Z. Instead, he said, Millennials are prime targets for student loan refinancings, although he stressed the way the product is marketed by many CUs likely needs to change as there has been a “transformation” in life-stages.
“For decades, the American Dream was owning a home, with other markers of adulthood being a job, marriage, having a family, and starting to save for retirement, and those things would happen in a certain order,” Mattison said. “All those life-stage markers of adulthood have changed with Millennials. This has been delayed, and not only because of the weight of student loans, but also the Great Recession.”
Video, Video, Video
With total student debt now at $1.5 trillion, Mattison said financial institutions must now speak in a different way to those holding that debt, and use different media. He noted younger generations now communicate in “video, video, video,” very often using Instagram stories that are 15-second clips.
“There are a billion people on Instagram now and it’s not just kids, but it is conditioning people to what they expect in communications,” Mattison said. “Testimonials are particularly important with Millennials and youth. The trust factor has to be acknowledged. We are in this era of alternative facts and fake news. While trust in institutions is at an all-time low, our trust in the community has never been higher. With refis, instead of saying or positioning that you are refi’ing to buy a home, it’s refi so you can save breathe and relax, not be filled with anxiety and stress.”
Redefining Success Markers
With Generation Z, Mattison, said, there are new definitions around personal expansion and fulfillment. It’s a generation one institution calls “Generation Edge,” he noted, adding it’s a generation that is far more sophisticated than earlier generations, that has never known the U.S. not to be at war, that sometimes feel hopeless around huge challenges, and that is more engaged in social issues and politics than earlier generations.
It’s also a generation that is resilient, realistic and resourceful.
4 Emerging Themes
According to Mattison, there are four emerging themes to pay attention to with Gen Z include:
- More measured. “Gen Z, for instance, will not attend a university until they know exactly what they plan to do. Sixty-five percent of them feel pressure to have real-world life experience before they attend college” (these are their Gen X parents influencing them, said Mattison).
- More informed. “Seventy percent of Gen Z’ers were doing research and analysis on the universities they were looking at.”
- More proactive. “They are more proactive in their own personal development. Eight out of 10 already earn their own spending money and 25% are putting plans in place to pay for university out of their own earnings.”
- More Wary. The top concern among Gen Z across the board is the ability to pay for college, Mattison said. “So who is the trusted advisor in my community who is going to help me navigate one of the biggest financial challenges I am going to face. Don’t BS me. Just tell me the truth, and we’ll be friends. So when I think of key ways to differentiate the credit union with Gen Z.”
The Side Hustlers
One big change in Generation Z, said Mattison, is their embrace of the so-called “side hustle.”
“This is the opportunity to be entrepreneurial and future-proof yourself,” he said. “As a credit union, I can talk to a 19-year-old or even a 14-year-old as an adult, as they are already thinking about how to create independence for themselves with a side hustle, by being entrepreneurial. Who is going to be there to help them do their own thing? Talking to them in this way also excites the parent. This is very different from the way we speak to Millennials.”
Imperative Two: Future Casting
Future casting, said Mattison, is the ability to clearly articulate a compelling vision of the future as to where we’re going to go as an institution.
“You want to be able to go back to the credit union and articulate the vision for this particular niche (student lending),” Mattison told the meeting. “This is the future for how we grow our institution, and you need to do this with a clear and compelling message.”
Without a vision such as “Accelerating growth with the next generation of members through the vehicle of higher education financing,” Mattison told attendees, “You’re not going to get the support.”
Imperative Three: Experience Shaping
Eighty-nine percent of enterprises say the number-one way they are going to differentiate is around experience, according to Gartner research, said Mattison.
“Experience is the new battle ground,” he said. “This is journey mapping, CX initiatives, thinking about every touchpoint at the credit union. This is how and where you win. Member experience and, even more critical, employee experience is the next evolution of what we call employee engagement. It’s thinking beyond the fringe benefits of how we keep people engaged.”
Mattison urged his audience to look to the example set by Airbnb.
“Even if you have no interest in using Airbnb, download the app, and see what they are doing. They have rolled out a new app: experiences. They know it’s not just about where you stay. It’s about connection. How do we shape unique experiences that shape people’s emotions and allow us to connect?
Imperative Four: Connection Seeking
Technology, for all the ways it has connected people, observed Mattison, has also in many ways also made people feel more disconnected than ever before.
“There is a deep desire to be want to come together to share experiences,” said Mattison. “Technology has hijacked our minds. In order for us to create more connections with our members and our colleagues, and more importantly with the people we love the most, we have to step more into the present moment, the here and now, and not allow the technology to pull us out of this moment. You cannot connect with others if you cannot first connect with yourself.”