Right on the heels of our own team-building event, where we also talked about millennials in the workplace, Keven Clark wrote about the Rams efforts in the Wall Street Journal. Coach Jeff Fisher and General Manager Les Snead knew they had to do something when they observed that the working habits of their young players were completely different from those of the older set around Rams Park.
To their credit, they dug in and did some research on the subject, and came away with some very useful ideas to implement:
The Rams learned a few things that anyone who has spent time around a bunch of 20-somethings already knows: Attention spans are shorter but they are savvier than ever, because of their exposure to technology. They also need to know “why” to everything: If you explain a concept to them on the field, they need to know the reason behind it. Millennial players questioning everything is something that’s helped the Rams, the team says, because it forces coaches and executives to examine their own methods (Why are we doing this?). Lastly, they learned that younger players like to share everything, whether that’s directly or through social-media outlets like Instagram.
To their further credit, they also realize that it’s not all about the millennials, the older crowd has to do some of the adapting as well:
Fisher has relaxed wake-up times. “Nobody wants to get up at 5:30, have a big breakfast and go into a classroom and fall asleep,” he said. He’s stacked the coaching staff with two types of people: older, veteran coaches who are “changing their ways” to adapt and young coaches who already know what the Rams are trying to accomplish.
Check out the entire story in the Wall Street Journal.
