Understand the Gap: A New Kind Of Diversity - Part 3!

Did you know that each generation had a personality? My dad used to say "Don't teach an old dog new tricks" whenever I tried to tell him that he needed to change his thinking about certain things we saw differently or disagreed on.

For example, my dad read a newspaper (paper version - see picture above) every morning and when he visited us here in USA I told him that we had a digital version of the same newspaper which he could start reading. He was not a "happy camper" and I decided to order paper newspapers for my dad to continue his daily habit of reading the news on paper. This is just a simple example of how our brains are wired at an early age and as we get older it is not that we can't change, it's simply that it requires harder work to do so.

When I read Tim Elmore's latest book "A New Kind Of Diversity" and started reading this in chapter 2, I was not surprised at all.

MIT Professor Deborah Ancona says "When the brain is young and still forming, there's a lot of flexibility and plasticity, which explains why kids learn so quickly". After 25 years of age, we are less flexible and it is harder for us to change our behavior, our thinking and our approach.

The next question that arises in our mind is probably: What factors foster the Personality of a Generation. Tim Elmore says that the social science of understanding different generations is all about recognizing the personality of a population of people.

The keyword here is "RECOGNIZING" which is only possible if we understand what shapes their personality.

Let me share a few of the factors that resonated with me the most (you can join my upcoming MasterClass to do a deep dive study on this topic):

1. Their Time In History: My children are from 2 different generations, my oldest child is a Millenial (Gen Y) and the younger 2 children are from Gen Z (refer to the chart in my earlier article published on Oct 10, 2022). Millenials who were born between the years of 1983 to 2000 were shaped by technology, mobile devices, laptops. Gen Zs who were born between 2000 and 2015 were shaped by the smart technology, tik tok viral videos, pandemic. Fear has crept into their minds at an early age, Mental Health is a big concern for this generation. WHEN a person spends their first couple of decades, helps determine what the brain absorbs into their mind and how they are molded.
2. Family Environments: In the Oxford dictionary, during the early times - Family was defined as "a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit." Over time, the definition of family has broadened and you can see that with the wikipedia definition it says "Family is a?group?of people related either by?consanguinity?(by recognized birth) or?affinity?(by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society." [Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family]. Families play an important role in how individuals turn out as adults, the family dynamics shapes us in our early growing years.
3. Entertainment: I remember the first television (TV) set that my dad got for us was a Black & White TV with no remote. Later on, we were the first household to have a color TV in our community. I got my first mobile phone when I came to America in my late 20's. My children had the privilege to grow up with a color TV and a remote for the television are at their finger tips from the moment they can hold something in their tiny hands. The last 4 generations have been deeply influenced by the entertainment industry.

As per Tim Elmore, he elaborates on this topic and shares his research on how entertainment topics have also changed dramatically. For example, music moved from topics that revolved around love & romance (in 1940's) to social protest and personal space or feelings are more prevalent in the song lyrics.

Next time I will share with you, "Steps to bridge the Generational Gap - An Important Challenge".

When the younger generation enter the workforce, it's often a clash or a false start. This creates a conflict in the team and it results in wasted time and lost productivity within the organization. As per the survey results shared in the book, only about 20 percent of those surveyed said that their organization has created a program or strategy for intergenerational relationships.

It is going to take work but we must bridge the generational gap and that is one of the reasons I have partnered with Tim Elmore who is one of our Thought Leaders on the Maxwell Leadership Team to bring this teaching to leaders and help put together an Action Plan for "Diversity Training" followed by a "Unity Training". The graph below explains why this is so essential (referred from page 53 of the book).

A couple of books that I recommend to my children are :

1. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
2. Believe It by Jamie Kern Lima
3. A New Kind Of Diversity by Tim Elmore (a new addition to the list!)

We need to encourage our younger generation to read books (especially biographies) that would help them learn from the experiences of older generation and not fully depend on social media which portrays a different picture and honestly it is not very reliable. The younger generation tend to follow their peers, folks who are like them, instead of building a bridge to connect with older people who can provide life experiences and perspective to really understand an issue at hand. What are you doing to bridge the gap?

Contact Anupama Kinatukara, PgMP?, PMP? to collaborate and bring this teaching to your organization, let's do this together and bridge the generational gap!