Recently we’ve tackled the concept of “words we throw around professionally.” We’ve made an effort to disseminate an initial understanding of leadership, relationship culture, etc. Here are a few others we can toss into that mix: “Ok Boomer!” “Damn Millennials!”.
OK, so what’s up with this? What’s up with the vilification of “other” generations? As often repeated, there’s a reason for everything: here are a couple:
As humans, “fear of the unknown” is a natural and understandable response to new things (people, concepts and actions etc). As humans, we prefer and gravitate towards routine, the expected, the known and understood. “New” is strange, different, and sometimes uncomfortable. Humans, by and large, covet comfortability, predictability, ordinary and regular. Fair to say? Different generations are, well, different, so we stick with our own. It’s also a natural and understandable reaction to make “the other” generations the bad guy so that as a group, we are able to see ourselves in a positive light and reassure ourselves that “we’re fine” and those others are just outdated dinosaurs or young whippersnappers who are completely out of line and “doing it wrong.” It’s a useful evolutionary tool our brains employ to keep us safe from the new and scary. However, not so useful for intergenerational communication and reconciliation.
Generational discord is not a new phenomenon, honestly, it’s been around forever. “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” Sound familiar? (Socrates said this sometime in the 5th century, B.C.! Just sayin’). There’s always been a younger generation that thinks the older one is outdated - think of the ‘60’s and the revolution of Rock ‘n Roll, free love and weed (pesky, wild young people!). We do, however, find ourselves at an inflection point these days. We currently have 5 unique generations all working together at the same time for the first time in history, each with a unique (different!) method or preference of communication, interaction and connection, and the aspersions thrown around have never been more vocal, vitriolic or widespread than with the advent of technology, social media and the 24-hour news cycle.
Institutions like Harvard and M.I.T. have been studying this shifting cultural phenomenon for years. This is, in fact, is “a thing.” Everyone has had a workplace interaction that leaves a bad taste in their mouth - having to communicate over a series of emails when a resolute five-minute conversation would have sufficed, younger generations experiencing the fear that comes with picking up the phone to talk with a (sometimes) scary boss, teams not communicating effectively. SO, our oft asked question: what are we doing about it? Are we figuring out the underlying causes? Are we aiming to cess out a solution?
No surprises here - this is straight out of the FIG playbook. We want to understand the “why” behind the generational discord professionally and personally. Why are Gen Z and Millennials so steadfast in their commitment to send an email or text instead of calling or meeting face-to-face? Why are Gen X, Baby Boomers, and Traditionalists so critical of the younger ones? Truth is, we are collectively losing our ability to build meaningful, intentional, interpersonal relationships, professionally and personally, because we don’t practice the skills we need to interact with others. We can’t eliminate this gap unless we choose to practice the skills needed to understand each other, learn about each other, pull back the curtain of the “different” so that the “different” becomes understandable and commonplace.
We’ve touched on some of this in our generations series a few months ago and thought we’d revisit with a supplemental offering. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Stephen Jaye from the Actions Antidotes Podcast to discuss the causes of our current situation professionally, and ideas to help us eliminate it.
Understanding, of course, that one of the attractive aspects of these weekly blogs is their brevity, but if you have a spare 45 minutes over the lunch hour or after work, I think the discussion is valuable and worth a listen.
If so, enjoy! If not, absolutely no worries at all.
Until next time…….