A Company Divided: Bridging the Generation Gap at Work Through the Power of Communication

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Bea Fields, and I coach, consult and train executive level and senior manager level leaders for a living. There is one truth that I have discovered (not THE truth but one truth that I see every day in the work that I do as a leader.)

At the end of the day, your company will either sink or swim based on how well you communicate.

I am sure you have heard this 1,000 times…”Great communication is necessary for great leadership” or “We must communicate better if we want to be successful” , womp, womp, womp. The topic of communication has been beaten to death, so we have become numb to its importance. We go about our day not returning phone calls to customers, sending out curt, hurtful e-mails, turning a deaf ear to our employees and just basically shutting people out or cutting them off at the knees.

In this day and age, I have a prediction…and I am not a futurist. I believe that those companies who will succeed in the future will be those companies who learn to not only communicate better with their customers but who take the time to actually learn how to communicate across generational and cultural barriers. I believe those companies and businesses who choose to ignore this important aspect of communication will perish. In order to be successful with this process, you do have to take the time to learn about each generation in our workforce… their values, key motivating factors and how they best like to communicate so that you can begin to knock down the walls which are so strongly holding up the divide.

So, here is a run down of the six generations who are alive and well in our world and interacting with our businesses as consumers, investors and advocates. I do want to state upfront that there is a great debate about the birth years of each generation and about stereotyping based on birth years. Just to set the record straight…these traits have very little to do with the age of each generation and much more to do with the world events which unfolded during their early years (ages 5-19) which helped shape the world views, mindset and values of each generation. This one piece of the puzzle is critical to understand…that our environment and marked events do shape our thinking…and our thinking shapes the way we communicate.

So, here we go…The 6 Generations:

1920's Businessman

THE GI GENERATION

Birth Years: 1901-1924

Significant World Events:

• The Roaring 20′s
• The Birth of Scouting Clubs
• Invention of Vitamins
• Movement into the Great Depression
• Telephone calls made via operator until the rotary dial telephone became commonplace (circa 1919)
• Telephone transmission across major cities becomes the norm
• First transcontinental telephone communication

Characteristics:

• Achievers
• Believers
• Inventors

Values:

• Simplicity
• Uniformity
• Cooperation
• Leadership
• Saving the world

Communication Preferences:

• Face to face communication
• Rotary dial telephone
• Hand written letters

Communication Obstacles:

• E-mail
• Fax
• Cell phones
• Text
• Social networking sites

The Teletypewriter Comes Alive in 1931...Leading the Way to Fax Machines

TRADITIONALISTS

Birth Years: 1925-1945

Significant World Events:

• The Great Depression
• The end of the affluence of the Roaring 20′s
• World Wars I and II
• The Korean War
• The G.I. Bill
• Teletypewriter service is initiated

Characteristics:

• Waste not, want not
• Loyal
• Patriotic
• Faith in institutions
• Hierarchical thinking

Values:

• Logic
• Loyalty
• Discipline
• Tradition
• Family
• Leaving a legacy

Communication Preferences:

• Face to face communication
• Formal typed or hand-written letters

Communication Obstacles:

• E-mail
• Fax
• Cell phones (most use cell phones for emergency only)
• Text
• Social networking sites

The Touch Tone Telephone Revolutionizes Communiciation in the 1960's

BABY BOOMERS

Birth Years: 1946-1964

Significant World Events:

• Vietnam war
• The move to suburbia
• Color television
• Street drugs
• Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King
• Civil rights protests and movement
• Woodstock
• Invention of the touch tone telephone
• First video phone

Characteristics:

• Hard-working
• Keeping up with the Joneses
• Idealistic
• Questioning authority
• Climbing the corporate ladder
• Highly competitive
• The first “me” generation

Values:

• Hard work (70 hour work weeks)
• Getting ahead
• Being noticed, becoming famous
• Money
• Freedom
• Being “me”

Communication Preferences:

• Telephone
• Face to face
• Fax
• E-mail (and a lot of it!)
• Group/team meetings (and a lot of them!)
• Cell phones for talking (not necessarily for texting)
• Neighborhood street parties

Communication Obstacles:

• Social networking sites
• Blogging
• Texting
• Technophobia

Bill Gates & Steve Jobs Then and Now...They Changed the Way Future Generations Will Communicate Forever!

GENERATION X: THE LOST GENERATION

Birth Years: 1965-1978

Significant World Events:

• Expanded technology (computer mania)
• Dot.com boom and dot.com bust
• Sesame Street
• The start of the melting pot syndrome
• The AIDS Epidemic
• Climbing divorce rates
• Latch key syndrome kids
• MTV and VH1
• First cellular phone (yet not sophisticated) was introduced
• Apple and Microsoft become tech giants

Characteristics

• “Reality Bites”
• Skeptical of higher institutions
• Cynical about marriage and life
• Fiercely independent
• Questioning everything
• Tech savvy
• Globally concerned

Values:

• Independence
• Freedom
• Friends
• Mobility
• Security

Communication Preferences

• Let “me” choose my communication and how often I do it
• E-mail
• Cell phone
• Text
• Blogging
• Instant message
• Online forums

Communication Barriers:

• Face to face communication
• Formal letter writing
• Team discussions (better one on one or alone)
• Difficulty with communicating up or down a generation
• Some barriers with social networks

Social Media Sites Burst Onto the Front Lines of Communication in the 1990's

GENERATION Y:

Birth Years: 1979-1997

Significant World Events:

• September 11
• High speed access
• Overnight delivery
• The information age
• You Tube
• “Everything and Anything Goes” pop culture
• Helicopter parents and the birth of the self esteem movement
• Shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech
• Cell phone mania
• Invention of online social networks (Facebook and My Space)

Characteristics:

• Open and accepting of diverse backgrounds
• Very concerned about social and global issues
• Worldly
• Knowledge workers
• Team players
• Multi-taskers
• “Me”
• Impatient
• Need for speed and thrill

Values:

• Live first, work second
• Speed
• Information/knowledge
• Friends
• Fun
• Saving the world
• Creativity
• Simplicity
• Balance

Communication Preferences:

• Text
• Online social networks
• E-mail (but only for work or school)
• Instant message

Communication Obstacles:

• Face to face conversations
• Telephone conversations
• Professional or even casual letter writing (what’s that?)

THE RISING GENERATION (BORN AFTER 1997)

This generation has yet to be profiled. Some people are calling this generation “Generation Z,” and many demographers believe that they are going to look very much like our Traditionalist Generation. (Generations do repeat themselves every 80 years or after 4 generations have evolved…they begin to repeat. As an example, Generation Y is actually looking very, very much like our G.I. Generation.) Our current recession is more than likely going to create a generation that is frugal, socially conscious, and craving the need for integrity. This generation is yet to be defined, but I believe this generation along with Gen Y are going to be radically changing our world! Having said this, we are, however, already seeing that texting is indeed one of their favorite forms of communication, and cell phones are being placed in their palms at an earlier and earlier age, as early as age 9.

So, now that I have profiled the six generations, what does this mean for you? Here is a quick punch list of things to consider:

1. Each generation has a unique mindset…this world view was formed through the course of significant events which took place in their lifetime and left an imprint in their minds.

2. As technology evolves, each generation will develop unique communication preferences and obstacles which come about as we grow and evolve.

3. In order to truly be able to make it in this world, I believe that each person needs to know how to do it all, including knowing how to:

• Write a well-written, thoughtful letter…both a personal and professional letter
• Hold a professional and personal conversation by telephone which is relaxed and engaging
• Use the most up to date technology, including e-mail, blogging, cell phones, text messaging, instant messaging, Skype and yes…social networks such as Twitter and Facebook
• Speak to others in a face to face interaction without feeling anxious or awkward
• Speak in public to others (I do believe that each person should know how to deliver a public speech…even if it is only a 3-minute speech)
• Blog…blogging is the present and future of web presentation (who knows…it will probably go out of style in the next decade, but for now…blogging is where the juice is, because a blog stimulates the dialogue that we are all craving in life!)

If you know how to communicate using each and every tool, then 75% of your work in communication will be so much easier. Each generation will know and understand that you respect them enough to learn how to use the communication tools they most prefer. And…if you are of a more senior generation…trust me on this…it is your obligation to our future generations to set the tone and to step up and be the first to take on learning how to use a new communication tool (YES! That means…if you are a technophobe and you are out there making fun of Twitter, it’s time for you to start Tweeting and posting notes on Facebook!) Once you model this willingness and commitment to learning new approaches to communication, you will be able to connect with your younger generations long enough to teach them a few skills (such as face to face interactions, letter writing and speaking in public) which will strengthen their ability to be successful for a lifetime.

This post was contributed by guest blogger, Bea Fields.  Bea is the President of Bea Fields Companies, Inc. and the co-author of Millennial Leaders:  Success Stories From Today’s Most Brilliant Generation Y Leaders.