Seven Ways to Creatively Bridge the Generation Gap

Written by Takeshi Takazawa The generation gap can be huge and sometimes disorienting in the workplace. With this challenge, my strategies are always derived from our understanding of leadership in the multi-generational situation. In other words, what would good leaders do to bridge this gap?

1.  Fearlessly venture into different turf.

One of the first important tasks for good leaders to do is to go into the turf of someone from a different generation. This is leading from a position of weakness. For example, it’s changing these days, but the older generation’s turf has typically not been in the social media realm—in the land of Twitter, Facebook, Line, WhatsApp, and so on.... Those are all fairly new arenas where they are “non-natives.” But it's important for the older generation be able to venture into some new technology. They can feel a little bit awkward or strange as they foray into social media, and that’s why a safe environment is crucial.

2.  Through empathy, set aside your judgment of the other generation.

When going into different turf, this first introduction brings a high level of stress. But older leaders must remember that young people often encounter these types of feelings when they are forced to work under the older generation’s rules. And typically, they're not appreciated amidst all the social media and multitasking. They might hear their older supervisor say:

"Oh that social media stuff is not good—you don’t have focus. Get back to work!”

You know, in reality, it's just a different setting. When we step into someone else’s area of strength, we can feel insecure; but this should help us empathize.

3. Create a safe, trusting environment where you can have new experiences.

In a safe, trusting relationship, older leaders should try to be exposed to some of the dynamics of this experience. I remind young folks leading their older counter parts into this new turf:

“Don’t try to explain your world; we have enough explanation.”

But instead, older leaders need to try to simply experience each of these new things that push them out of their comfort zone. Social media is one of the best avenues I know to provide new experiences.

4. Intentionally design some shared group experiences in online interaction.

Along those lines, one of the particular things I’m doing now with multi-generational work teams is to set up shared experiences. For example, I will lead the entire group through a Skype or WebEx conference together, so that older generations can experience what technology is available and what it can do. It can be a powerful experience. We also try to invite people to a group chat or online discussion around an existing team project. We try texting each other with Line or WhatsApp, so that the older members on a work team are able to receive text messages and send texts. Then they understand those things and grow more comfortable in the younger generation’s world.

5. Appreciate others’ strengths that compliment your weaknesses.

Younger people dominate in this social milieu of online interaction. In this context, the older non-native generation has had to rely on younger “natives” to learn. This is "reverse mentoring" and should be embraced. Wading into this environment really helps the older generation better appreciate their younger team members, even saying affirming things like:

“Wow, you really know what to do with all this. I enjoy this new stuff; it’s really great. Thanks for teaching me how to use it.”

6. Bring in a common enemy from the outside.

Another method I employ to bridge the generation gap is to bring a third-party resource into the work team setting of young and old together. So, in essence, what we’re trying to do is break down walls; we want to avoid a competing spirit within a multi-generational group. Now maybe this is a bit cunning, but we know that nothing unites a group better than introducing a common enemy. One of the things that I have discovered is that, if you bring foreigners into a Japanese group, then all the sudden, group members who tend to disagree about everything, start agreeing with one another. They’ll say things like:

• “Wow, I can't believe this foreigner said this!” ... “Yeah, me, too!”
• “So you would do it like this instead? Hey, so would I!”
• “I totally agree with your thinking!”
• “Hey, we both disagree with what this outsider just taught us. Let’s do it our way.”

Schedule an outsider to come and present some teaching, philosophy or methodology to the group. Thank the presenter and then dismiss him/her. Once the presenter steps out of the room, you can lead a group discussion. If your experience is like mine, I think you’ll be surprised how unified the group can become in such a short time. Furthermore, everyone participates and engages; it’s not like just the vocal ones speak out. And there often is a consensus inside the group to move forward together.

7. Respect that each person has a place.

Ultimately, that’s the kind of environment that we want to create in order to do it together. At the same time, younger people need to agree to not to be nervous about the older generation doing their thing and doing things their way. Each person has a place. When we agree to let the older generation take on certain roles, maybe like senior advisors, young people sometimes have a strong fear that the older people are just running everything on this project now from behind the scenes. But we need to remove that kind of fear. In fact, I think that's a significant leadership role to remove fears as much as possible. What ways have you discovered to creatively bridge the generation gap? Takeshi Takazawa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt6rVghIdjU   More Information Takeshi’s bio: http://asianaccess.org/takazawa Apps mentioned above:

• Status updates & social networking:
  • Line: http://line.me/en/ - From Japan, this became Japan’s #1 social media in 2013 with 100 million users; now has 700 million users worldwide.
  • Twitter: http://www.twitter.com
  • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com
• Instant Messaging
  • WhatsApp: http://www.whatsapp.com
• Video-cconferenceing
  • Skype: http://www.skype.com/en/
  • WebEx: http://www.webex.com