[Alicia Davis] All right, so as a manager, you probably have a wide range of people on your team. Maybe age range, maybe ethnicity, like there are so many different ways that we are individual human beings, and we get asked a lot, Stacie, about the generational competency thing. What is that all about?
[Stacie Watson] Yeah, it really is interesting how often people will approach us with the question about how we might support a team on the topic of multi-generational competency, right? And, I mean, when it boils right down to it, there’s about four “generations” of people in the workforce. And, you know, it sort of starts with Boomers, with a little bit of Silent Generation, not a whole lot, Boomers and Xs, and then you’ve got Generation Y and Millennials, and then some younger folks that are coming in brand new. And it’s interesting, because even though stereotypes never work, there are some kinds of differences that managers notice with younger workers versus older workers, or at least some younger workers versus older workers. And the question really becomes kind of, “So, what?” You know, what do we want to do about this? The fact is that there have always been a variety of ages on teams, and that’s not changing anytime soon. And so it really becomes a really interesting question of how can we really understand the strengths that people bring to the work that they do, and leverage that across the team so that we’re able to take advantage of the variety of ways that people think, their perspectives, etc, etc, right?
[Alicia Davis] That’s right, and it very much is about not making assumptions, right? Like my dad used to say, right, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. You know, I think we can make assumptions. We make assumptions about everybody all the time. It’s just what the brain does. And I think that part of this having a conversation about different ways that we perceive, how we do work, what’s important to us, personally, professionally, what our values are, I think when we can, instead of labeling, when we can just say, hey, I’m really curious about your perspective on this, or your opinion on this, or what’s important to you about this. That’s when we can really begin to start collaborating, right, focusing on the solution, focusing on how might we bring our strengths in different ways together?
[Stacie Watson] Absolutely!
[Alicia Davis] Right? And that’s part of the talent is being able to have that communication.
[Stacie Watson] It really is. And, you know, I think many, not all, but many leaders find themselves in the older generation buckets in terms of age. And it can be really helpful to remember, if we’ve been in the workforce for a while, that it is really helpful to be sure we’re making space for other perspectives. And I was just with the team the other day, and one way that we did that was – they were making some organizational changes – and just to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to express either whatever concerns they had or ask questions. Everyone wrote them on index cards – their concerns, their questions -and then I, as the facilitator, just read them out loud. And so I thought it was a really helpful way to ensure that whether that person had been in the workforce for 30 years or five years, or with the organization for 30 years or two years, everyone’s thoughts had a voice, and it really led to, as you’re saying, kind of a curiosity-based, really robust conversation.
[Alicia Davis] So we’re having a session on this in our Learning Academy, “Multi Generational Competency,” on December 11th in the morning, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. So feel free to check it out. You can see us at tlstransforms.com, go to the Learning Academy tab. I’m Alicia Davis…
[Stacie Watson] And I’m Stacie Watson…
[Alicia Davis] Thanks so much for listening.
[Stacie Watson] Thank you.
