How to Make the Most of Your Brain Based on Your Generation

I just made a discovery. For the first time in my lifetime, I realized I know people who are from seven sociological generations.?

• My aunt and uncle are from the Senior generation (1902-1928)
• My mother and father-in-law are from the Builder generation (1929-1945)
• My wife and I are both from the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964)
• My teammates Shawn and Nicole are both from Generation X (1965-1982)
• My children are from the Millennial generation (1983-2000)
• My spring intern, Hannah, is from Generation Z (2001-2016)
• My little buddies Wilson and Weston are from the Alpha generation (2017-2030).

Each of these individuals possess a little different perspective on the world. Why? They were shaped by different events in their early years. Our brains develop a little like wet cement. Our neural pathways are very pliable in our first twenty years and begin to solidify afterward. It isn’t that people can’t change as adults, it’s just that change is more difficult as we age. Dr. Britt Andreatta released a book years ago called,?Wired to Resist, about how flexible we are in our early years and how resistant we are to change as older adults.

I recently began to feel a little despondent about this. Reviewing the research and knowing that I’m clearly past midlife, I wondered if I was washed up. I’m not kidding. Our world needs innovation and at my age, most of that will come from the emerging generation, not the retiring generation. This is one of the reasons I’m committed to developing a new generation of leaders. Our hope lies in developing them. It doesn’t lie in me.

Then, I discovered some good news for my old brain.

Two Kinds of Intelligence

More than fifty years ago, a British psychologist named Raymond Cattell discovered some fascinating insights as he researched human intelligence. In 1971, he published a book called,?Abilities: Their Structure, Growth and Action. In this book, he posited that there are two kinds of intelligence all people possess, but they ebb and flow at different points in life.

The first kind is?fluid intelligence. We experience this most in our early years. Our brains are young and are best at thinking flexibly, reasoning, and solving novel problems. These abilities are strongest in our early adult years and begin to diminish in our thirties and forties.

The second kind is?crystallized intelligence.?We experience this most in our second thirty years. This is defined as the ability to use a stock of knowledge learned from the past. It’s the capacity to collate information, summarize it and express it to others. We do this best past midlife.

Arthur Brooks, a social scientist at Harvard Business School says, “When you’re young, you have raw smarts. When you are old, you have wisdom. When you are young, you can generate lots of facts. When you are old, you know what they mean and how to use them.”

Darwin and Bach

Two examples from history inform us. Charles Darwin is considered a brilliant scientist. Did you know he made his initial discoveries in his twenties? When he was 13 years old, he?set up a science lab in his garden shed. When he was 16 years old, Darwin was sent to Edinburgh to train to become a doctor, like his father and grandfather. He transitioned to biology and took a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle to study species around the world at 22. Some of his best work happened as a result. Sadly, he died years later a very disappointed man. He grew despondent about not staying on top of his field. The problem was—he expected himself to continue in “fluid intelligence” instead of learning to capitalize upon his “crystallized intelligence.”

Johann Sabastian Bach may have managed his career better. He wrote groundbreaking music in his twenties and thirties. He grew famous for composing every major Baroque genre, including concertos, sonatas, cantatas, and numerous organ pieces. Along the way, he fathered twenty children. One of his sons, C.P.E., actually introduced the world to classical music. Bach’s son was considered the most talented in the family. Instead of brooding over this, he celebrated his son’s success and became his best teacher. Bach could have become embittered like Darwin, but instead, he took pride in his son passing him up. He shifted into crystallized intelligence. In his later years, he taught and multiplied his talent in others. He actually died while teaching.

Repurposing Your Life

Many of you reading this care deeply about the emerging generation. If you’re like me, you want to make a difference, but you may feel a distance between your mindset and a young person’s mindset. You may even feel a little like a dinosaur. As I said earlier, I felt washed up for a while. But I am repurposing myself again. My career has a new spark to it. Why?

1. I am allowing the young to play to their strength and welcome their new ideas.
2. I will even expect their innovation and ask them to help me adapt to it.
3. I am pushing myself to play to my strength, which is mentor and teacher.
4. I intend to put wind in their sails as they innovate and come up with new ideas.
5. I’ll celebrate their success, helping them stand on my shoulders and pass me up.
6. I won’t try to be “cool” or “hip.” No one looks to me for those cues. I am who I am.?

I came to realize that Johann S. Bach’s career had two parts. At first, he was a music innovator. Later, as his musical creativity declined, he was a music instructor. He wrote a textbook that a century later was considered a guide for students and a piece of literature. His best trait was his resiliency, transitioning from creator to coach. Far from frustration or depression, he finished his career a happy father and a marvelous teacher. Like him, we must change where we draw our fulfillment. Let’s?pass?wisdom on to the young, so they can?pass?us up.

Interested in a video course on managing different generations in your organization? I call it, “A New Kind of Diversity.” Email?[email protected] ?for information.

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