INNOVATION IN MULTI-GENERATIONAL WORK ENVIRONMENTS

Once upon a time, there was a simple workplace.  The manager was easy to spot, he was the one with gray hair.  Most the workers were similar in age to one another, going through the phases of life together, they understood each other very well.   People retired after a set number of years of service and they were replaced with those of a similar age and stage of life.   This story is not a tale of diversity- that is a chapter in another book.  This story is one of age profile.  It is a very short story because it lacks the specific kind of conflict that happens when people are in different stages of life or from different generations.

In another story, there are coworkers, of different generations.  They range in age from 16 years old to 80 years old.    The workers ages are, at least, shaped by the worldview of their generations.  In this span of time, there would be GenZ, Millenials, GenX, Baby Boomers and Vetrans.  If you think this is a fictional story, think again!  Go to any Walmart and you will see that the employee landscape is highly age diverse, which is fantastic from a diversity perspective, but somewhat concerning form a human relations perspective, if workers cannot navigate their expectations of others, their biases and their own self awareness.

What kind of biases?  Millenials may be judged as being tech obsessed, while Baby Boomers may be judged as disconnected from modern times and so on. 

I was once told that diversity is the golden ticket, as long as people can positively navigate their differences.  I think this is especially true when you consider innovation as a work output.  The value of having multiple points of view in any problem solving endeavour is a clear positive, but none of those gains can be realized unless biases are overcome.  Once the biases are set aside, then innovation can be realized.  This reminds me of my own definition of innovation in GDPI811, in which I emphasized that, in order to be innovative, an idea has had to have had third party validation.  This is where my ideas intersect with mutli-generations and innovation:  to get that validation, the idea needs to be understood and embraced by other team members.  I assert that this cannot be done with a barrier of bias.  If the bias is there, it squashes innovation and it leads to a lose-lose for the team.

So, what can be done?  I think that teams need to be given the opportunity to discover the generation gaps that exist, what enhancements come from this and the inherent risks.  Awareness is key.  Having managers who are as bias-free as possible is another important factor to having generational teams lead to innovation.  Teaching, through modelling accepting behaviours is another powerful consideration.

One of the things that I think teachers don’t get the opportunity to experience very much is the benefit of generational learning.  Does the first story sound familiar?  To teachers, it should…. It is the typical high school set up.  It used to be the classic workplace too.  But, times are changing and we need to find ways for our youth to acclimatize to this new reality.  And so, I leave you with a few questions:

How can we create opportunities for Millenials and GenZ’s to learn about the shared values and world views of Baby Boomers and Genx’s?

What are the job search and career planning implications for today’s youth?

How can we foster a sense of identity, without denying the need to embrace other worldviews?