Category Archives: Generational Diversity

Is age holding you back? Generations vs. Social in The Workplace

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social media and generationsToday’s guest post is from my pal Mila Araujo discussing one of my favorite topics – Social Business and how it affects the workplace and generations. Enjoy!

As humans we doubt ourselves, we fight change, we fear things we do not know. When it comes to social in the workplace, the situation is further compounded by misconceptions about the “abilities” that different generations stereo-typically possess. The saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” comes to mind…However this type of stereotype is among the most harmful for business. The belief that older employees will face too  great a difficulty to adapt to new technology is harming employers and workers. Workers deserve a chance, and employers need to make sure their teams are the best they can be!

Social business tools provide huge opportunities for any organization, whether it be large or small. To avoid implementing new tools because you lack the confidence in your workforce is ridiculous. You have two options: 1. Have faith in your people, give them proper training and patient  support during the learning process – or 2. Eliminate the employees who refuse to adapt with the times. To do anything else is not only costly, but will put your business behind the times as well!

Having worked  with employees from all ages I can assure you that  if you choose the first option, you will not only empower your employees, but you will profit by:

  • Increasing efficiency
  • Giving everyone a chance to have their voice heard – to feel supported and listened to.
  • Improve processes
  • Improve employee engagement and retention
  • Increase and amplify communication
  • Provide opportunity for innovation

All of this leads to increased sales, profitability and stronger customer service.  So why would anyone hold back?

In the video below  from  a case study @OgilvyInsurance (originally presented at <a href=http://Impact99.ca> Impact 99</a>  employees share their views on one of the social tools they’ve been using successfully. Ogilvy Insurance  is  a third generation family run business with employees from all generational groups who must work together,  there are no boundaries based on age. The employees comments speak for themselves.

Encourage employees to take on new challenges and coach them into a comfort zone with new technology.  I challenge you with this question  for the new year, is it the age of employees that holds companies back, or is it the rigid and prejudice mindset of management that is stumping the growth and development of the company.

2013 will be a year for social business to empower employees, what will you be doing?  Bridging the gap between generations with social tools, or continuing to create reasons why you can’t do things?

Photo Credit: Sparkboutik

About the Author:

milaMila Araujo is a Social Business Speaker and Consultant, as well as Director of Personal Insurance for Ogilvy & Ogilvy in Westmount, Quebec. Mila has a diverse background in management, public relations, non-profit, and events. She’s a contributing author for several sites on the topics of Leadership, Social Media and Customer Service including “12 Most”, “Social Media Today”, “Grow” and her Perspectives blog  featured in AllTop. Connect with her on Twitter @Milaspage 

Can we all just get along? Generational Diversity according to Malcolm Gladwell

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From selling $8.00 T-Shirts to author and keynote for #SHRM12′s annual global conference, Malcolm Gladwell began his session with the phraze, “The tipping point of society is that magic moment when social behavior tips and spreads like wildflower.”

This is something that we are terrified of happening in our cushy little world be it with our children on social media or in our workplaces – where we totally feel loss of control.

Let’s face it, we are in the middle of a cultural fundamental shift in how generations choose to not only communicate (think social web) but how they see the world.

Here are a few take-aways from Malcolm’s session on the distinctions of generational diversity and our organizations:

There are major distinctions about this generation. Let’s look at the Occupy Movement.

  • Did they have a leader? No Where they following a bunch of ideas? No. Did they have an organization? Not really, only a general assembly and if someone wanted to speak or had a contribution they pulled your name out of a hat and allowed you to speak. It was about building a network of folks who had similar beliefs and were passionate about it, but they all had a say.
  • There was no organized manner of doing things. There was no hierarchy.

We are seeing a fundamental shift in how generations view the world, their beliefs and their work places. It’s critical to the success of our organizations that we roll with this generational paradigm shift with them.

We’ve had these paradigm shifts throughout history and if we were to go back we wouldn’t even recognize the workplace.

The New Social Organization

The new generation of folks who were born in the 80’s have a profoundly different notion of how organized groups behave. These are those who grew up on video technology. These are the new millennial’s who are invading our organizations.

They are not hip to a hierarchy like we were where, where we accepted rules, went along with the flow and  if you got beat up you just.didn’t.fight.back. We were passive in our growing up with hierarchy’s where  one guy at the top made all the decisions in the organizations and you just went with it. Like it or get the hell out!

The new millennial’s don’t think this way. They don’t even think in terms of a hierarchy. They have swung full throttle and believe in an even level playing field.

  • It’s about their network. It’s not closed, it’s opened.
  • It’s not centralized, it’s decentralized.

In the end, understanding that one form is not better than the other and are instead simply two different forms with each having their own strengths and weaknesses. Not, that one is wrong and the other is right.

It’s key that millennial’s understand that they need to learn from others and their experiences. Many kids don’t understand that. And our challenge is to understand that both can coexist and work together.

The most successful companies understand these two models (think Apple). They have the best of the hierarchy and the best of a network. When you incorporate these two things you have the best of both worlds.

Photo Credit: MojoRising

PSU, Generations and Culture

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Today’s guest post is from one of my online friends in the HR Vendor world, Chris Capozzi. Chris and I have been connected online for awhile now, engaging and so forth, and had the chance to meet IRL at this year’s Illiniois SHRM State Conference. Take it away….

Are there lessons we can learn from Penn State?

Is there a generational consideration that should be given to Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky and others involved in the allegedly horrific crime committed on the campus of Penn State University?  Did the perspective on life that is shown from their generation lead to the actions of the alleged cover up in this case?  Could we learn more on what this teaches us about similar situations?

The answer is yes.  The generational perspective in this case comes from a generation known as the tradionalist group.  This group is from the WWII era and Coach Paterno, born in 1926 falls right in the middle of this group while Coach Sandusky born in 1944 is on the edge of the baby boomers. Let’s examine the key characteristics of this generation and see if this sheds some light on the relationship between these two individuals.

The tradionalist generation are loyal to the employer and expect loyalty in return; possess strong interpersonal skills, enjoy flextime so they can work their own schedule; believe promotion, recognition and raises should come from job tenure. They build a legacy – expect a lifetime career with one employer or at least in one field and have a sense of personal responsibility to work.

Coach Paterno was the leader of this program for over forty years and developed a culture of loyalty from those involved. The corporate culture within the system was solely directed by his life experience.  He has built a legacy but regardless of all the good will that he has built over the years his moral judgment will be forever in question.  While we may never know the truth and circumstances in this tragedy, what we do know is if the culture were different within this team all of the cases that occurred after 2002 could have been prevented.

What would this legacy look like in the corporate world?

The leader that has been in place for decades setting a culture of “this is the way we have always done it” and expects everyone to fall in line with the culture the leader has built as his legacy.  In this company if a scandal was brewing we would see the leader take care of it and expect that he can handle the situation in the way he knows best.  The leader would know that if such a scandal was public his reputation and legacy would be destroyed.

Can we learn from this?  Sure we can. Has this happened before in the corporate world and a different direction taken?  Yes it has.  Think back to 1982, potassium cyanide was placed in Extra-Strength Tylenol throughout Chicago. Seven individuals died from this form of terrorism. Johnson & Johnson (the makers of the pain reliever) could have simply taken Tylenol off the counters in the Chicago area. Instead, the company immediately recalled Tylenol from the stores nationwide. Consumers, advertisers and other businesses praised J&J for its swift actions. Today the company is one of the most well-liked companies by consumers (Bickel, 2011).

Will Penn State University be able to recover from this scandal?  Yes, if they put safe guards in place to ensure this can never happen again.  The school must work to create a safe environment for all staff, students, and visitors. PSU will need to carefully create a standard of operation procedure in reporting and handling such situations in the future.

Future leaders of the institution will need to have a greater understanding on the impact that child safety and the handling of this situation will have on the future enrollment of students and families supporting youth camps on campus.  A policy is not enough.  A culture change is needed and respect for people should be at the foundation if they indeed want to return happy to the valley.

About the Author:

Chris Capozzi is the Director of Business Development for Legacy Business Cultures whose workshops, train-the-trainer programs, and employee climate surveys have touched thousands of organizations, millions of employees, managers and leaders across the globe. Legacy Business Cultures and its partners have been the experts in helping shape organization culture Worldwide for over 14 years. Connect with Chris on twitter @chriscapozzi.