Sticking with Gen Z

It's a conversation I've had with several HR Managers in the past year: Gen Z is stunningly whipsmart...but they are snowflakes, melting (or melting down) at the slightest criticism or re-direct. One HR pro told me recently that their firm was done tiptoeing around them, that it was depressing ROI and that older, more productive workers were quitting because Gen Z was impossible to work with.

And, it's not Gen Z's fault...it's ours for coddling them. Most don't know failure or defeat because we didn't allow them to experience that emotion...and many are now utterly incapable of accepting it.

I thought of those conversations when I saw this fascinating article on the future of Malls in Fast Company. America's small regional and local Malls are failing, littering our destinations with blighted parking lots and outdated structures.

A group of High School students were asked to ideate the next generation of Malls. Their initial recommendations were mostly cosmetic...and unceremoniously rejected by Mall ownership. Not unexpectedly, half the students quit the Team...but the story is about the ones who stayed.

The remaining students devised a plan with more radical ideas, focusing on features that they, as teenagers, would want to use. The students proposed using vacant stores in the Mall for experiential offerings, like virtual reality rooms and an immersive themed spa. Their second presentation to the mall was received more warmly. “Victory tastes sweeter after the heartache,” one of the Team said afterward.

Which, of course, got me to thinking. As Destination Marketing Organizations increasingly engage in product development or upgrades, our failed Malls are often our biggest eyesores and missed opportunities. Should we take a page from this playbook and convene our teens and Gen Zs to counsel the experts on what would bring them back to the Mall?

'Cause the rest of us have moved on.

Just a thought...

Comments

[Lee T]

Our mall is methodically being taken over by a hospital system. They have rebuilt two anchor store spaces into a hospital, doctor's offices, lab, x-ray, phamarcy, the complete package. The only thing left is to turn the empty stores in between into senior rehab suites and independent living spaces. How is that for a curveball?