Six Ideas to Unite Five Generations at Work

As organizations enter the fall season, they’ll likely encounter a challenge. It can either be invigorating or frustrating, depending on how they see it. I have known Will, the president of a privately owned company, for several years. He’s “preparing for impact” already, based on his experience this summer. Here’s how he described it:

• He had some recently graduated employees who had very different priorities and approaches to work than their veteran colleagues. The water cooler conversations became divided based on the life stages of his team members.
• ??Interns from Generation Z spoke a different language that befuddled managers, leaving them irritated at their inability to interact with older teammates. It’s as though their interpersonal skills were two years behind. They felt unready for a career.
• ?Will watched tenured trainers voicing beliefs that clashed with younger team members. Issues got politicized and people were divided over masks, vaccines, and marketing strategies. People were talking about each other rather than to each other.
• ??Builder generation maintenance staff spoke to Will, mourning that they just didn’t understand the “kids” today and felt they ought to retire. They were tired, they were questioning themselves, and they’d forgotten their “why.”

According to a report by Market Watch, “More than half of employees believe they aren’t likely to get along with a co-worker from another generation.” Companies from every industry, including Google, IKEA, IBM, Citibank, Marriott, and WeWork, have all been sued for age discrimination in recent years, by both young and old. It’s a bit crazy.

Why is this a bigger deal today than in the past? First, we now have seven distinct sociological generations living at the same time, since people are living and working longer, and babies continue to be born. Each generation tends to see the world in a different manner and each now feels they deserve an equal voice in all that matters. Sociologist Adam Grant calls it the “democratization of the workplace.” Second, because generations can live in a niche, based on the social media platforms they’re on, when team members interact with each other, it can feel like talking to foreigners, who use a different language and possess different values. Bottom line? Our veterans and rookies may just live in different worlds. They need different words.

Author Bill Bishop suggests, “It used to be that people were born as part of a community and had to find their place as individuals. Now people are born as individuals and must find their community.”

This is our job as leaders. To broaden the community.

Elders and Geniuses

Airbnb’s Chip Conley says we now have “modern elders” and “digital geniuses,” working side by side, describing the older and younger generations that coexist today. We’ll benefit from both if we can get them to collaborate and help each other. Below are some ideas to connect your elders and geniuses so you can better engage teammates and reach your goals.

Six Ideas to Connect Multiple Generations on Your Team

1.?????Clarify your decision-making process to everyone.

Perhaps the biggest challenge multiple generations of staff endure is who has decision-making rights and how decisions are made. Leaders must decide how this will take place and articulate it to everyone so there’s no confusion. It’s an agreed-upon expectation.

2.?????Host an exercise called: “Ask Me About…” to discover each one’s superpowers.

This is your team’s chance to hear from everyone and learn each person’s strengths so you can apply it to the team. Each generation has expertise to offer—you just need to find and capitalize on it. Give 10 minutes to allow each person to share their “value.”

3.?????Determine communication norms.

Often trouble brews between generations because of different communication preferences. It’s the leader’s job to clarify the “norms” you’ll utilize with all staff and faculty. We use “Slack” to help us stay in touch with four generations of our team.

4.?????Pair up “modern elders” with “young geniuses” to invest in each other.

I’ve encouraged “reverse” mentoring for years. It involves matching up older teammates with younger ones; asking them to swap stories to find common ground, then assigning them to mentor each other in a strength area that the other doesn’t possess.

5.?????Identify what are demands, preferences, and expectations.

Employees may not have differentiated their demands and preferences. Good leaders find a way to help people distinguish between what they prefer, expect, and demand in their job. When we do this, it clarifies who doesn’t fit the culture.

6.?????Invite all generations to marketing and communications meetings.

As you consider communicating with your stakeholders and team members, why not invite someone from each generation to the meeting to offer the best ways to convey messages to their cohort? Any idea you want to “sell” should be relayed in a fitting way.

Remember the words of Lucy Thorn: “You’re never too old to learn, and you’re never too young to teach.” Let’s leverage every generation to fulfill our mission this year.

Good news: We now have an event that covers this topic for organizations, as well as a new book coming out on October 25th, entitled: A New Kind of Diversity: Making the Different Generations on Your Team a Competitive Advantage. Explore hosting an event by contacting: [email protected] . To pre-order the book visit: NewDiversityBook.com