Mind the Gap…and Have Some Fun!

Let’s face it. Under pressure, people have been known to say regrettable things about other generations. Things like:

Why do they have to print every email on paper? (about Baby Boomers)
Why are they always online? (about Generation Y)
Why do they have no time to chat? (about Gen X)

And leaders have also been known to say regrettable things about managing generational differences, such as:

We need to:
…conquer the generational differences. (Anne says: I didn’t know this was a war.)
…convert generational differences into growth and profit. (Anne says: I didn’t realize this was an issue of forced conversion.)
…overcome generational differences. (Anne says: This isn’t an insurmountable hurdle.)

There seems to be a pervasive negativity in all these choices, an idea that  generational differences have to be converted, conquered, overcome, and/or capitalized on.  Where’s the sense of joy and possibility that occurs when people work together to create high-performing teams?  Where’s the sense that bridging generation gaps might be fun, exciting, uplifting, groundbreaking, innovative and energizing? This idea got lost in the shuffle, which is a shame.

After my workshops, I’ve heard people say, ‘Now I understand why Jolie does X. She’s not trying to be difficult; she just sees the world a little differently than I do.” I’ve also heard, “No wonder Matt acts like that; if I grew up in his decade, I’d act the same way.” These insights are priceless to an organization. It’s no longer ‘us vs. them’; it’s ‘we’. And ‘we’ can positively impact the bottom-line much better than ‘us vs. then’.

After the ah-ha insight comes the ‘now what?’ moments. Now that we understand each other, how do we work together to create the team we want to be? There are many ways to do this, none of which include converting others, conquering others or overcoming huge hurdles. Instead it involves using a common language, simple tools and evaluating the process on a regular basis. This takes time, probably more time than a leader wants. Yet it’s vitally important. Because when you do, you go from converting to bridging…a much more powerful way to work with the different generations.