Fifteen year ago, David Brooks described a specific kind of young people in an essay titled\u00a0\u201cThe Organization Kid\u201d<\/a>. They were the highest achievers of American top universities. In his words,<\/p>\n \u201ctheir [schedules] sounded like a session of Future Workaholics of America: crew practice at dawn, classes in the morning, resident-adviser duty, lunch, study groups, classes in the afternoon, tutoring disadvantaged kids in Trenton, a cappella practice, dinner, study, science lab, prayer session, hit the StairMaster, study a few hours more\u2026 [\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n They are goal-oriented. An activity\u200a\u2014\u200awhether it is studying, hitting the treadmill, drama group, community service, or one of the student groups they found and join in great numbers\u200a\u2014\u200ais rarely an end in itself. It is a means for self-improvement, r\u00e9sum\u00e9-building, and enrichment. College is just one step on the continual stairway of advancement, and they are always aware that they must get to the next step (law school, medical school, whatever) so that they can progress up the steps after that\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Kids of all stripes [today] lead lives that are structured, supervised, and stuffed with enrichment [\u2026] In short, at the top of the meritocratic ladder we have in America a generation of students who are extraordinarily bright, morally earnest, and incredibly industrious. They like to study and socialize in groups. They create and join organizations with great enthusiasm. They are responsible, safety-conscious, and mature.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Much of that still resonates today, as I have seen in the college journeys of myself and many of my friends. We feel good about the kind of life we are going to lead, the skills we are improving daily and the promise of a better future. We work hard, sometimes too hard to the point of breaking down. We are then forced to decide what matters to us. We realize many pursuits don\u2019t matter, and even for those that do, we have our limits. Then we learn self-care and rein in our commitments. We take yoga classes and exercise regularly to achieve work life balance, because being a professional student is demanding. We have to learn to seek and accept help.<\/p>\n Being in college is an incredible opportunity that we want to make the most of by starting with the end in mind. Yet it is not as simple as it seems: Anyone who has travelled knows we cannot jam everything in our bag. We want to pack the essentials and leave enough room for surprise. What we picture as \u201cends\u201d may change quicker than we think.<\/p>\n The shift<\/strong><\/p>\n Fifteen year later from David Brook\u2019s article, I\u2019m starting to see a shift. My college is still a place for high-achievers, but what counts as \u201cachievement\u201d has changed. Many are looking to do meaningful work\u00a0and achieve <\/em>organizational success. Asking people in college \u201cWhat do you care about?\u201d and you will find a wide range of answers. Asking \u201cWhat does it look like in your life?\u201d and you will soon admire many of these young people for their energy and dedication to the causes they pursue.<\/p>\n The questions we ask ourselves have changed from \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d to \u201cWhat do I really want?\u201d It is heartening to see more generation Y asking these questions. Many are questioning the existing structures, skipping what is the traditional menu and choosing the create-your-own-future path\u200a\u2014\u200athe entrepreneurial journey.<\/p>\n In many higher education institutions, we see an explosion of many Entrepreneurial Leadership Study programs, business competitions, incubators and venture funds to support students pursuing this path. For the young people from elite universities, entrepreneurship is indeed the new black. On this, Peter Drucker remarks\u00a0\u201cThe popular picture of innovators\u200a\u2014\u200ahalf pop-psychology, half Hollywood\u200a\u2014\u200amakes them look like a cross between Superman and the Knights of the Round Table.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0While much has been said about this image, I think it does make a point: what Superman and Knights of the Round Table do have in common is that they are deeply engaged in their worlds. They are everything but bystanders.<\/p>\n There have always been entrepreneurs; those who look critically at current realities and act on the opportunities they see. But these were more exceptions than norms. As Peter Drucker in his essay \u201cPrinciples of Innovation\u201d said, if we want to make entrepreneurship an integral life-sustaining activity for organizations and society, we need to create the environment where it becomes a sustained practice. We need to shift the collective perception of entrepreneurship from desirable to necessary, for\u00a0\u201cgiving people what they want isn\u2019t nearly as powerful as teaching people what they need\u201d<\/em>\u00a0as Seth Godin, the marketing guru,\u00a0once mentioned.<\/a>\u00a0Not everyone wants to start her own endeavour, yet the entrepreneurial mindset has to be cultivated.<\/p>\n What does it mean for the individual, especially young ones like\u00a0me?<\/strong><\/p>\n One insight that Peter Drucker considers to be obvious but often ignored is that innovation is \u201chard, focused, purposeful work making very great demands on diligence, on persistence and on commitment.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0As such, the making of the \u201cOrganizational Kid\u201d is an important prerequisite for the \u201cEntrepreneur Kid\u201d for two reasons. Organization Kids are relentlessly goal-oriented, have high expectations, high performance and result. This drive makes them\u00a0willing<\/em>\u00a0and able to<\/em> do the work. Behind the glamorous image of Silicon Valley startups is the messiness of the entrepreneurial journey\u200a\u2014\u200athe infamous \u201cstartup grind\u201d. It is slow. It is work. And it is disciplined.<\/p>\n Where Organization Kids may fall short, however, is the ability to adapt, not so much because they can\u2019t but rather because they haven\u2019t allowed themselves to learn that while structure is crucial, it has to be fluid in order to respond to the needs and opportunities arising in the moment. An example I\u2019ve seen it in me and others is the temptation to schedule everything to the minute, and then wonder why creativity has gone missing in our lives. It took me a while to learn to create space for more spontaneity in my overbooked schedule. I never look back, for this new way of life has allowed me the space to explore so many previously invisible opportunities.<\/p>\n If day to day plans can change so much, imagine how hard it is when people ask me about my goals, let alone a specific plan, for the next 5 years. I don\u2019t know, and I don\u2019t want to pretend to know. It is far more engaging and likely to yield results to stay in the Now. By definition, innovation is an inefficient process because we do not know where we are going. Yet instead of getting frustrated, we can choose to embrace its messiness while keeping our eye on the original Why.<\/p>\n The Organizational Kids will have to embrace some spontaneity over planning so they can learn to see and think for themselves. This might be the most challenging yet important skill to learn, and they will need the help of more experienced journeymen. It is too tempting to get lost in the doing, especially when the formula has always been proven to work. Yet it is worth remembering that the best thing about habits and practices is that they give us time in our otherwise messy lives. We use that time to connect to the truly new. Drucker again has warned us,\u00a0\u201call that one can think and do in a short time is to think what one already knows and do as one has always done\u201d<\/em>. While I am in favour of the entrepreneurial \u201cbias towards action\u201d, maybe we also want to preamble it with a\u00a0\u201cbias toward perception\u201d<\/em>. How can we\u00a0first see<\/em>\u00a0more clearly with ourselves and with others so that we can\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0what needs to be done?<\/p>\n I\u2019m part of an exciting transition. The Organization Kid is still here, doing well, being more prepared than ever in history. And he is also evolving.<\/p>\n To paraphrase Peter Drucker\u2019s question, will his successor be the Entrepreneurial Kid?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About the author:<\/strong><\/p>\n Khuyen Bui won the Drucker Challenge 2015, and is a current senior at Tufts University. He is interested in organizational learning and development \u2013 how do people and groups come together, learn and evolve as well as how technology can help or harm that process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fifteen year ago, David Brooks described a specific kind of young people in an essay titled\u00a0\u201cThe Organization Kid\u201d. 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