INSIGHTS Leadership Tip: Know What You Don’t Know By Marge Axelrad Tuesday, January 27, 2015 8:30 AM Someone once gave me some good advice. He said, “Be confident about what you’ve learned. But try to understand what it is that you don’t know. That’s how you’ll really widen your understanding— and make better decisions.” Somehow that advice seems especially true when it comes to the need for all Boomers and Gen-X’ers to better understand Millennials. And that’s the thinking behind our year-long, multi-platform (print, web, live events) approach to Vision Monday’s Millennial Project. In tandem with our sister publication, 20/20, who will address this phenomenon via its GenEye features, we will zoom out high above and dive in deep to examine the attitudes, predilections, affinities and aversions of this huge and influential group of people. Whether it’s their ethnic diversity, their love of individuality, their interest in carving out their own futures for themselves, their friends and their own families (yes, a good portion of older Millennials are young parents), these are customers and patients who are reshaping the way virtually all businesses will (or not) succeed. This is also not a futuristic “trend” that you can take care to pay attention to “one day.” This is a cultural sea change making waves right now. Deirdre Carroll, VM’s senior editor who is heading up VM’s Millennial Project, reports in the kick-off cover story this month that “Millennials’ relationship with technology has completely changed their relationships with just about everything.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found, “With brands and services, what used to be a one-way conversation is now a multifaceted, 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week dialogue between brands and their customers and among their customers.” This “intrinsic technological connectivity,” has a tremendous impact on their consumer (and patient) behaviors. It’s a development that’s requiring those optical businesses and eyecare professionals who want to reach them—the ones who are current and future eyewear customers (60 percent now use some form of vision correction)—to step up their game. Stay tuned for future Millennial Project stories and interactive VM LIVE events. And, starting next month, visit VisionMonday.com/MillennialProject for a full range of resources, clips, stats and tools that can help you and your practice teams/associates learn what you may not yet know.