Yesterday I wrote optimistically and enthusiastically about the social skills of some U.S. teens. Then I read a news article regarding Chinese youth, and realized that a comparison is in order.

The article, “Web-savvy & cynical: China’s youth since Tiananmen,” quotes and compares Chinese citizens who either lived through the June 4, 1989 military crackdown against demonstrators in Beijing, or who were born after it. The difference in political knowledge and concern is striking.

Here is one portion of the article:

Wu Xu, 39, was a Tiananmen participant. His generation was plagued by insecurity, he says, and hoped that China could “catch up” to the West politically and economically.

“This generation is totally different,” says Wu, author of a recent book about Chinese cybernationalism. “There is no kind of feeling of inferiority. … They have had the advantage of the last thirty years of China’s economic performance.”

Wu contends that China’s youth know more than they let on, and while they tend to be fiercely proud of their country they are also highly critical of their government. He calls them “a double-edged sword with no handle,” because their opinions cut in many directions and are not guided by any single ideology or organization.

Although young people in the United States also have opinions that go in many directions and are not guided by any single ideology or organization, they have something that Chinese people don’t: the freedom to speak their minds and to hear dissenting views.

The last presidential election is a case in point. Young people in large numbers supported the ideas of Barack Obama, and used social media tools and techniques to energize that campaign. But Obama’s opinions and promises weren’t unopposed, and voters were able to sift through messages from every candidate (Republican, Democrat and several others).

Further, as a Christian, I appreciate having the freedom to speak truth as I have learned it, in a country where people with other views also have the right to state their views. The mention of a double-edged sword in the article above reminded me of the verse in the bible that states,

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. — Hebrews 4:12 (New International Version)

I truly believe that the situation in China cannot be sustained, and someday, that nation will face truths that have been long suppressed.

I recently shared with you that I don’t find much credibility in the generalizations being spread about distinct and universal differences in employees based on their “generation.” I just don’t see an automatic one-to-one relationship between the year someone was born and the person’s approach to the working world.

My 15-1/2 year old son, Kevin, has been regularly confirming for me that at least one of those stereotypes isn’t true: Teens are not becoming socially inept due to a huge reliance on communications tools such as social networks, texting and lots of time spent gaming online.

One nice example: Kevin (pictured here batting) made a real-life connection with a gaming friend during a baseball game today. As we drove home from his game (which his team won), Kevin described to me how it transpired.

For some time, Kev has been playing “Gears of War” online with several high school friends, and other people he has “met” online. One of the gamers he met was a sophomore at the same high school that Kevin attends. Kevin soon learned the gamer’s first name and that he was of Pakistani heritage.

During the game today, one of Kevin’s teammates mentioned that he knew a sophomore on the other team, and he stated his name. The name of the Pakastani ball player was the same as the gamer’s. Kevin wondered whether it was just a coincidence.

An inning later, Kevin was playing third base and the Pakastani ball player advanced to third. Kevin decided to ask the ball player whether he played Gears of War. When the player said that he did, Kevin asked whether his gamer tag was the one that Kevin knew. Sure enough, it was the same person.

The two of them smiled and made some small talk, and now have a connection that they otherwise wouldn’t have made if two things hadn’t occurred:

• Kevin needed to be social during his online gaming time (which he and his friends are, in general).
• Kevin had to be social in person, asking a stranger a question that might make Kevin feel or look foolish. Isn’t that what we do during networking sessions in the “adult” world?

My point is that the tools that some adults say are making our kids socially inept actually, in some cases, are making it easier for our kids to be social with their peers.

This blurry photo of me with former Eastern Illinois University (EIU) Journalism Department Chairman Dan Thornburgh (DT) is so appropriate. The photo was taken on April 25, 2009 during the annual EIU Journalism Department Banquet.

Why is the photo appropriate? Because DT had trouble remembering who I was (it had been a few decades since we last talked with each other), and because the years have passed in a blur.

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the department’s founding, led by the tireless efforts of DT and those who followed, including John David Reed, James Tidwell and John Ryan.

I’m an EIU Journalism grad, and served on the university’s daily student newspaper, eventually having the honor of being named one of its editors. I’ve drifted away from EIU over the years, just as I drifted away from newspaper reporting.

Being back on campus last month was very meaningful to me, and seeing former classmates and instructors was great. Some things that I can share with any students who are graduating this year:

• Hold onto the friendships you’ve made. The people who seem so special to you now, really are that special.
• Keep your ego in check. You may have excelled at school, but don’t make too much of it. Down the road, you will remember the accomplishments, but they will have been overshadowed by others. The benefit isn’t usually from creating something that lasts, but learning how to create something worthwhile wherever you are at that point in life.
• Don’t stop learning. I graduated from college nearly 30 years ago, and if I hadn’t kept up with communication tools, techniques and trends, I would have been as useful and appreciated as an IBM Selectric Typewriter.

On June 16, I’ll share some “secrets” of how VW Credit, Inc. continues to outperform industry norms in terms of employee engagement and satisfaction. I hope you can join me.

The discussion will take place in Chicago at the “Innovating Employee Engagement” and “Executing Social Media for Internal Communications” conferences organized by Communitelligence.

Participate in the two-day conference combo to get answers to issues related to employee engagement, keeping employees committed during periods of change, and gaining executive support for social media initiatives within your organization. The conference will include four keynotes, 11 case studies, eight roundtables, 20-plus expert speakers, a networking reception and dinearounds.

I’ll join a panel discussion on June 16 with Jeff Zwier, senior manager and communications leader, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; and Joe Spratt, director of internal communications, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP. Our session is titled, “When the Going Gets Tough: Low-Cost Sure-Fired Ways to improve Employee Engagement During a Downturn.

Frankly, these are tough economic times, and communicators are being asked to do more with less. We’ll provide some practical ways for you to build morale and engagement without breaking the bank.

I’ve titled my portion of the presentation, “Preventing Performance ‘Skids’ with ESP (Employee Stability Program).” It’ll be a lot of fun, and information-packed. I can’t wait!

Is your budget tight (whose isn’t)? Communitelligence is offering a $200 travel rebate for conference attendees.

Just weeks before the IABC 2009 World Conference, I received an email regarding cancellation of a pre-conference community project for which I was registered. That community project was to partner with the Fillmore/Western Addition Mobilization of Adolescent Growth In our Communities (Mo’ MAGIC), a collaborative of more than 50 programs and organizations helping under-served youth in San Francisco.

I was looking forward to spending the Saturday morning before the World Conference reading to kids. The event summary stated that “Studies also show that being read to or reading to others can help decrease summer learning loss.” What a great program, I thought. It fit well into my desire to serve the community using the skills and experience I’ve gained as a communicator.

Evidently, I was one of a very limited group of people, because the project was canceled due to low registrations. I’d better make it clear that I agree with IABC conference organizers who have to be prudent when planning these projects. My disappointment is with the situation, not the decision to cancel the event.

Was it budget cutbacks that prevent conference attendees from coming a day sooner? I hope that was the case, rather than a lack of interest in reading to kids.

Anyway, I’ll donate to the book drive in support of Mo’MAGIC, and have signed up to participate in the beach cleanup that day instead. Maybe I’ll pick up a few discarded bottled water containers. While that will be good karma in light of my struggle to stop using bottled water, I’m wondering if any kids in the San Francisco area are feeling discarded themselves. I hope not.

As I recently was putting in my son’s contact lenses, I realized that the experience could be beneficial as a communications lesson.

So just as I embarrassed my daughter years ago by telling a true story about whacking her with a golf ball, I’ll now embarrass my 15-year-old son by talking about how wearing contact lenses is like communicating in difficult times.

First, when I say that I was “putting in my son’s contact lenses,” I mean that I was putting them into my son’s eyes, not mine. He was just learning how to insert and remove contacts, and called for help after several frustrating minutes of trying to insert them himself.

Lesson #1: You should ask for help when you can’t see what you’re doing wrong. No matter how hard he tried, my son couldn’t see why his contact lenses kept bouncing off his eyes. It took the help of an experienced person to take a look from a different angle. In Kevin’s case, he was closing his eyes defensively just before the lens would settle onto his eye. In the communicator’s case, when a program, publication or campaign falls into your hands because it isn’t falling into place, you may need an outside opinion about how to redirect your efforts–and to find out if you’re blinking defensively.

Lesson #2: Which side is up? If you’ve never worn contact lenses, you may have trouble understanding how difficult it can be to discern whether a lens is “inside out.” Only a keen, practiced eye can spot the subtle angles that indicate whether a contact lens is flipped inside out or not. That spells the difference between completing the task in comfort or losing all pretense of sophistication as you shout in agony, “Get it out, get it out”–while you hop around the room, hunched over, frantically trying to remove the wrongly inserted lens from your now extremely irritated eye. Same lesson for communicators: If you don’t have the knowledge or experience to accurately gauge the angles of your project and the people involved with it, you may wind up hopping around a conference room, shouting in agony, “Get me out, get me out.”

Lesson #3: Keep it clean. This may be debated by some communicators, but I believe that just as a clean contact lens prevents irritants from building up, keeping a professional demeanor with coworkers, vendors and anyone who crosses your path can prevent a buildup of irritants in the workplace. Now some people might say that their workplace is full of irritating people, and that’s the way they like it. Okay…and I’ve spit on my contact lens before reinserting it at times when I didn’t have solution. But I didn’t feel good about it, and my eye knew the difference.

Lesson #4: The focus can change over time. Does your strategic communication planning involve using the same basic concepts year after year? Just as eyesight changes over time, communications needs and opportunities change constantly. Give yourself at least an annual checkup to see whether your vision has become a little fuzzy.

Lesson #5: When all else fails, radical surgery is an option. After wearing contact lenses for about three decades, I faced a tough choice. My eyesight and eye shape had finally made it difficult to find affordable contact lenses that balanced comfort with clear vision. So I decided to undergo laser eye surgery. A radical (for me) choice, that has given me great mid- to far-distance vision. Goodbye, contact lenses. If your communication programs just don’t seem fixable, maybe it’s time for a radical change. Just don’t do it without the guidance of an expert!

Lesson #6: Be realistic about the radical choices too. I had a choice with the laser surgery. It would be simple to correct my vision for the mid and far distance vision. But my eyes also have trouble focusing close-up. I had to decide whether I wanted one eye corrected for distance vision and one eye corrected for close vision, or whether to have both corrected for distance, and use reading glasses. I chose the reading glasses. If you need to consider a radical change to your communication programs, you may have to be ready to compromise on the probable results.

How do these lessons look to you?

thought last night about the struggle that my son had with wearing contact lenses for the first time,

Does anyone else have issues deciding which mother(s) to honor on Mother’s Day?

My wife, the mother of my two children, wants Mother’s Day to be low-key this year. No getting together with my parents and siblings, or her mother and siblings.

We will start the day by cooking Kim breakfast. Then church, and an afternoon of watching my son play baseball with his team. Then I’ll barbecue ribs for dinner.

What about MY mother? She and my dad will go to the home of one of my brothers, where they and my other brothers and their spouses will enjoy a brunch.

Kim’s mom will have a quiet afternoon with Kim’s sister, who lives with Kim’s mom.

It will be impossible to please all three moms. Of course, I choose to please Kim first and foremost. I called my mom today to explain it, and fortunately, she completely understands.

Of course, I’m out of her will (just kidding).

Is this day a mother of a problem for you?

Oh, and by the way, Happy Mother’s Day to one and all!

I’ve attended many conference sessions and training courses during the past few years that tried to explain the significance of generational differences in the workplace, and why Baby Boomers like me were going to have to adjust our thinking and actions as “Gen Yers” begin to work alongside us.

The topic has become so overworked, in my opinion, that last September, I nearly skipped the Keynote Session at the Melcrum Strategic Communication Management Summit in Chicago. All I saw was its title: “Unlocking Gen Y’s Loyalty, Creativity, and Performance.” “Not again,” I thought. After all, I had just participated in a training course at work on the topic of generations in the workforce, and the presenters at a pre-conference workshop at the 2008 Melcrum “Summit” event in Chicago had included the same discussion as part of their session.

What else could I possibly learn?

It turned out that I could learn a lot, and am very glad that I decided to stay at the Keynote Session. The speaker was Jason Ryan Dorsey, author of books including “Graduate to Your Perfect Job” and “My Reality Check Bounced.” Dorsey is funny, well-spoken and in-touch with the latest generation to enter the workforce because he is a member of Gen Y. In fact, I learned a couple of things about Gen Y that I want to share with you, and you can learn more by visiting Jason’s website.

First, don’t believe anyone who tells you that you can instantly tell everything about a group of employees simply based on their birth dates. That’s too much like Horoscopes, and most of us know to keep a skeptical eye on something that is generalized to such an extreme.

Jason will tell you that. He pointed out to the Melcrum Summit audience how Gen Yers are said to be technically savvy–after all, they were handed laptops right after their first pacifiers, and latched onto text messaging long before they completed DARE training in middle school. Yet, the reality is that someone who knows how to operate a device such as a mobile phone and its texting option is not necessarily a technical savant.

“Usually on the first day of a new job, some Baby Boomer comes up to us and says that he couldn’t figure out how to hook up the PC to the printer, but he figured that we would know how to do it,” Dorsey said. “Well, we have no clue, but we can look at the pictures in the user manual and try to figure it out.”

Another generalization about Gen Y that Dorsey discussed was the lenth of time they are willing to wait until deciding to leave a particular job. Whereas the World War II generation expected to be at the same job for an entire career, and Baby Boomers typically gave a new job 1-2 years before deciding to move on, “Gen Yers know by lunch whether we’re going to come back the next day,” Dorsey said.

Well, I’ve hired and worked with people from a range of generations who held that same attitude. And a little thing we call the “economic meltdown” probably has skewed that job-hopping statistic a bit.

Age isn’t the only measuring stick, and it isn’t one of the more reliable, in my opinion.

I’m beginning to think that the recent “stress test” applied to U.S. financial institutions has stressed at least one of the institutions to the cracking point: Citibank.

How else can we explain the financial institution’s decision to intentionally hinder its customers from paying credit card bills?

Here’s the background: I use a corporate card provided by my employer for business-related expenses. It happens to be a Citibank Visa card.

When I received the corporate card some years ago, it included the URL of Citibank’s corporate customer service website. I typically access the site at work, and have the URL saved there in my browser favorites.

Today, on my mental health vacation day, MY stress level went up when I tried to pay my corporate card bill from home. I didn’t have the URL saved in my home browser favorites. “No problem,” I naively thought. “I’ll just get it off of the credit card.”

But I quickly realized that the current corporate card that I’m carrying has a customer service telephone number, but no website URL. “Weird, but I’ll just get it off of the Citibank statement,” I optimistically opined.

You guessed it: No website URL of any kind on the statement. Just line after tiny line of legal blather regarding what do if the credit card is lost, stolen, or embroiled in a billing dispute with a merchant. But if you want to actually pay Citibank on-time and conveniently through a website? Forget it!

Well, if you are a regular reader, you know that I didn’t forget it. I called the customer service telephone number, and after teasing the website URL from the friendly sounding phone representative, I asked the “elephant in the room” question as sweetly as I could.

“I was wondering…wouldn’t it be a good idea to print this URL on your credit card and statement so that customers like me could more easily pay our bill?”

“We don’t publish that information,” the representative replied in a tone that instantly turned from friendly to very guarded. “Why not?” I asked, not yet convinced that this was a problem…until she replied.

“That’s sensitive information,” the representative said, trying to sound shocked that I would even suggest such an absurd idea. “In fact, we can’t publish that information because the websites are going to be changing.”

“Umm…if you’re going to be changing the website addresses, how are customers like me going to be able to find the site to make payments?”

At that moment, the representative must have remembered that these calls can be monitored for training purposes, and she definitely was in need of training. “I wasn’t supposed to say that,” she said, quoting Hagrid from one of the Harry Potter novels. “Scratch that.”

Hmm…a financial institution that is struggling with unsecured debt from its credit card customers has made the decision to make it extremely difficult for those customers to make an online payment. Then, it apparently is embarking on a secret plan to change its online banking URLS without notifying its customers. And the response of its customer service representative is, “Scratch that”?

No Citibank. Scratch THIS!