Surf’s Up

This short concluding chapter provides a summary of the volume and the key insights drawn from our analyses to assist executives in learning more about the Post-Millennials, anticipating who they will be and starting to adapt to harness their potential. Our conclusion is that the key to the success of any enterprise will be to shift from a workforce comprised of knowledge workers to one with expert thinkers: individuals able to apply the independence of thought and creativity required to not only identify a novel way to solve an emerging problem but to do so by critically analyzing the context and by challenging assumptions to first understand what the problem is. Thus, employers will not only have to identify the skills needed for future work requirements but to also create the types of work environment, organizational policies, managerial and leadership styles and reward systems needed to first, attract the best and the brightest, then, focus their efforts on the organization’s goals and, finally, to retain the right mix of talent over time. Given the time needed to implement effective culture change initiatives, it is important that employers start to examine how they will do so very soon.