The generational landscape: teaching all dogs new tricks

There are at least four generations in the workforce right now. Four separate generations, with completely different histories, values, technologies, and attitudes. We are far more different than we are alike. How could we be similar? Millennials don't know what it was like to grow up during the Vietnam war, Baby Boomers don't know how to post on Instagram. Black, white. Day, night. Working in a multigenerational workforce is an exercise in compromise. Training a multigenerational workforce even more so. How do you implement training that accommodates vastly varying generational needs, capabilities and preferred learning modes? What if one generation strictly prefers one-on-one learning, and another can't stand anything face-to-face? Being an instructional designer in this social landscape can be like trying to bake a cake in a fry-pan: the tools just aren't quite right for the job.

However, maybe we're making things harder than they need to be. Maybe things aren't so bad. Maybe this is just how we perceive things to be. For example, let's look at some stereotypes:

Baby Boomers:

Ah, the Baby Boomers. Loyal. Hardworking. They've got that stick-to-it attitude. Completely tech-illiterate, though. Put a phone in their hands, they text one painstaking letter at a time. If you send them an email, they'll print it out. On paper. Physical paper. Like someone longing for days gone by.

Millennials:

Lazy. Narcissistic. Still live with their parents. Mooching off them. Can't do anything for themselves. Obsessed with social media. Such short attention spans they move jobs every second month. But they do speak fluent tech. They pick new stuff up like that.

I'm only doing these two stereotypes because:

1. They're the most prevalent in pop-psychology. They're the stereotypes we know.
2. The fact that they're the only two stereotypes we know illustrates my point: it's not so much that there are differences between generations, but that we perceive there to be. If the differences between generations were truly as vast as we believe, then we would have clear ideas about what a Gen X person is like, and what the silent generation is like. Instead, we may have vague notions, but not the clear-cut categories we put boomers and millennials in.

Evidence (or lack thereof) of stereotypes

If you're looking for evidence that we truly are more similar than we are different, google "millennial stereotypes" or "baby boomer stereotypes". Every page you find is going to be titled "debunking millennial/baby boomer stereotypes", you'll be hard-pressed to find anything reinforcing them. Not enough? Here are some stats:

• A study of 3,535 managers and professionals by Wong, Gardiner, Lang and Coulon found some slight differences in workplace attitudes between generations, however, these differences were primarily contrary to pop-culture stereotypes. For example, Baby Boomers were found to be the generation least focused on career advancement, while their findings suggested millennials to be the most focused on career advancement. Further, contrary to the notion that millennials have lost the ability to talk to others and prefer the comfort of their own phone, their findings expressed them to be the most sociable and focused on maintaining relationships at work. 
• The Journal of Business Psychology published an analysis of generational differences across nearly 20,000 subjects across four generations. They found small to nearly zero differences in attitudes across three-work related criteria: job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and intent to turnover. To quote the authors themselves, 'The findings suggest that meaningful differences among generations probably do not exist on the work-related variables we examined and that the differences that appear to exist are likely attributable to factors other than generational membership.' What those other factor differences may be attributed to will be discussed below.

Accounting for difference

I'm not crazy. I understand that there are differences between the old, the middling, and the young. I'm not arguing that we're all the same with the same dreams, needs, and wants. My argument is a bit more nuanced, and comes in two parts:

1. Perceived differences between generations are more likely the result of age differences, not generational differences.
2. Even where there are differences, they're largely inconsequential and for workplaces to effectively manage and train their employees, they need to focus on individual needs rather than generational differences.

Now I'm going to prove it!

Point 1: Differences are attributable to age, not generation

The stereotype is that millennials are rebellious and lack respect for authority, and boomers are conservative and respectful. If you made a cross-generational survey on attitudes towards authority right now, you could probably support this statement. You would then come to the conclusion that those born between 1982 and 2000 tend to be more rebellious, and those born between 1942 and 1962 are more respectful. You would have evidence of stereotype founded in fact.

However, this methodology confounds age and generation. Maybe Baby Boomers are conservative now, but what were they like at 22? The problem with generational stereotypes is that they presume stasis: that certain generations will have the same traits at 65 as they did at 22. When I was 22 I drove more aggressively, got annoyed at 'bad drivers' and would change lanes to try and get somewhere quicker. Now 15 years later, I have kids and other more important life stresses, I'm much calmer and more conservative behind the wheel. People change.

So, point 1 conclusion: if you're going to presume something about a person, you also have to presume that that characteristic is bound to change.

Point 2: Differences aren't all they're cracked up to be

I concede, there likely are differences between Jeff, 60, and Carol, 25, in your workplace. But, in saying that, there's probably also differences between Carol, 25 and Georgia, 25, and Jeff, 60 and Paul, 60. The thing about difference though, is that it's not inherently problematic. In fact, it's often a good thing (diversity and all that). 

Perception: difference

What can be problematic, however, is when we perceive differences as a problem. For example, one experiment had undergraduate students train another person on a technological task using Google's chat function (meaning they weren't physically present with their trainee). The experimenters would alternatively convince the trainers that they were training either an older or a younger person by showing them photographs of people who were either young or old, and using voice-altering software to make the trainee sound correspondingly young or old. They found that when a student believed they were teaching an older person, they had lower expectations and provided worse training than those who believed they were training a younger person. You should be concerned - it suggests that inferior training (and consequently reduced learning outcomes) can result due to perceived generational capacities. 

Reality: harmony

The reality is that we're far more similar than we are different. Yes, millennials may be more comfortable with technology than older generations because they are 'digital natives' and the rest are 'digital immigrants', but ability is not stagnant. We are all capable of learning more and performing better. 

Enough with difference, let's look at some similarities. The Learner Voice took a random sample across 4,700 workers across four generations and found:

• Nearly everyone likes to learn via collaboration with other team members.
• 63% of over 51s and 63% of under 30s use Google or other searches to help themselves learn.
• Over 90% of people across all generations liked to be able to learn at their own pace.
• 31-40s were the most likely to use a personal mobile device to access work-related apps, with 56% of that age group responding that they do so. 36% of over 50s and 41% of under 30s responded that they also use personal devices for work-related apps. 

All generations were motivated to learn by the same factors, as all generations responded that they were motivated to learn because they:

• Want to be able to do their job better
• Want to increase their productivity

However, the study did find one area of significant difference between generations: the time of day that each generation tend to complete their training. For example, 34% of under 30s tended to complete their training on the way to/from work, while 50% of over 51s completed training on evenings and weekends. Their findings here are also interesting as there was no dominant time to complete training, suggesting that the need isn't based on generational preference, but circumstantial need. We all have varying schedules, as such it's more important to accommodate for varying lifestyle and time commitments, rather than preference due to age or generation. 

What we've learnt about learning

I've thrown a lot of research at you, so I'm going to summarise it before it all gets overwhelming:

• There are bound to be differences across generations, but there are also bound to be differences between people within those same generations.
• The perception of generational difference can be more influential than any actual difference; if we perceive that someone has a certain ability based on generational stereotype we subconsciously adjust our behaviour towards them based on that perception.
• Rather than trying to deliver training based on generational preference we should aim to meet circumstantial needs. For example, by using training services that can be completed at any time.

The generational disparity of our workforce is nothing to fret over. Instead of trying to train the young or the old, just try to train the person. The reality is, is that if your training is easy to use, engaging, and flexible, any person of any generation can use it. Deliver based on need, not presumption. The rest will take care of itself. Keep it simple, it's not as bad as we think.

Learn how mobile training can help embed knowledge across any generation, on our microlearning page.