The 43% Change
What does it take to change the world? Governments? Businesses? Communities? Humanity is complex. We live in a world with endless beauty, yet there is also undeniable evil. War. Poverty. Pollution. Violence.
What does it take to change the world? Governments? Businesses? Communities?
Humanity is complex. We live in a world with endless beauty, yet there is also undeniable evil. War. Poverty. Pollution. Violence.
It’s not easy to change the world, but something amazing is about to happen. There’s a shift on the horizon — a very defining shift.
Generations X (1965-1981) and Y (1982-1995) are moving into power; political power for starters.
A report released by Pew Research Center this week reveals that Obama’s reelection can be attributed to capturing the youth vote in four swing states. In Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, 61-66% of young adults voted for Obama.
Political analysts at Tufts University agreed, stating that ignoring the youth vote cost Mitt Romney the election.
On the other hand, we have the oldest Congress in history right now. So while younger generations are exercising their power through voting, we remain woefully behind at motivating younger generations to run for office.
The team at XYZ University followed the election closely. We recently surveyed 125 membership association executives and while 83% promote advocacy as a member benefit, only 12.5% have engaged younger generations in advocacy.
The lack of participation among younger generations is a four-alarm fire and most associations aren’t even sending a fire truck!
In 2013, we hope more organizations will recognize the shift that’s taking place and make an effort to engage younger generations.
For nearly a decade, we’ve anticipated this shift in human capital.
The political shift is the first indicator of what’s to come. We can fully expect shifts in every sector of the workforce and consumer spending for starters. And the shift isn’t unique to the United States.
As a news reporter in Ireland wrote: “There is a lot of frustration, a lot of people wanting to see a change. Young people are faced with the options of leaving the country or staying and trying to make a damn difference.”
Right now, the team at XYZ University is tuning into the Global Youth Forum. Over 900 youth leaders from every country are participating in the Forum in Bali. Their charge is to address key challenges of their generation and develop official recommendations for the United Nations. In addition to the 900, more than 2150 people from 156 countries have registered as virtual delegates for the Forum.
Whether you realize it or not, this is a monumental occasion. In fact, this is way bigger than the presidential election.
A whopping 43% of the world’s population is under the age of 25, and the Forum marks the moment when the 43% take control of our shared future. This is likely to have a profound influence on future policy at national, regional, and global levels.
So, what exactly does it take to change the world? I think we’re about to find out.