Generational Learning Styles

“What’s the best way to work with each generation?” is a common question that I get asked. My answer is, “It depends.”

In general, most people are managed by the academic technique: read, write or lecture. In 1983, Dr. Gardner from Harvard said that the academic technique doesn’t reach everyone. So he developed the Multiple Intelligences model, listing 7 different ways of learning and “smarts”: word smart, picture smart, number reasoning smart, body smart, music smart, self smart, and people smart.

The key to effective management is remembering that everyone has a different learning style, so you need to adapt your teaching and management style to their learning style. For example, Shayna may not respond to a typical discussion meeting. However, if you add some pictures, graphs and body language to the discussion, she may respond much better.

So which generation responds best to each learning style? There is no hard data. However, it’s clear that in general, Gen Y responds well to the fully experiential style, since they are used to multi-media technology. So in a 45-minute presentation, they will respond best when there is some lecture, some video, some music and some pictures. Don’t know how to create that? No worries…just do some reverse mentoring and ask a Gen Y employee to help you. That’s a win-win!