I recently read a post about coworking being a generational thing for the millenials. True, maybe? But for those of you hanging out in the coworking places, is everyone a millenial? Not even close. The founders of most of these coworking sites are smart entrepreneurs who are beyond the millenial age, at least chronologically. Just look at the photos from events at places such as IndyHall and Citizen Space and you notice that coworkers have embraced a common philosophy regardless of birth age. At Cubes&Crayons, we have coworkers, coworkers with young kids, and coworkers whose kids have long out grown our space.
What occurred to me is that coworking is generational if you change your definition. Coworking is about this “generation” of people altering the perception of “professional,” “work environment,” “colleague,” etc. It is about hip people writing their own ticket for work. Coworkers are skilled individuals who are prepared to be part of the global community. They are interested in programs that are developing like PACTFund, where they can exchange their skills with other people’s skills.
And businesses need to be aware of and adapt to this changing workforce. I have been researching this avenue quite a bit and as much as “coworking” is hip and trendy, it is smart and necessary in our changing economy. When software engineers end up doing business with colleagues halfway across the world, what’s to motivate them to come into a traditional office? Isn’t it more interesting for them to be in a coworking space where they can meet people in all walks of life? Businesses will be getting educated if they want to survive and stay competitive. It is just a matter of time before this “generation” of coworkers changes the way businesses do business.
This is a very real observation, but I think its important for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, though, our movement is doing an excellent job of testing the waters for this new cultural shift. As these tests succeed (and inevitably fail as well), trends and solutions can be extrapolated and, over time, we’re the ones who are going to be able to provide solutions for the “old business” to keep them from falling any further behind than they already are.
Coworking, in my mind, is an early indicator of not where we work, but *how* we work, and we’ve got a very real opportunity to pioneer this and take it much further than the walls of our coworking spaces!
Felcity, I was going to try to add something but I don’t need to, so all I’m going to say is Yes, Yes, and Yes!
– Todd/Bandit