I attended a relay good facilitated session this week given by Ali Hall an Associate Fellow at Oxford Said Business School about Navigating the generational divide which illustrated the different behaviour we can expect to find in the workplace as different generations arrive and make their mark.
I don’t think I had as clearly appreciated the different characteristics of professional people born in different era’s, although now I do, some behaviour I have experienced makes more sense. The current working generations have been generally categorised as follows.
GenZ or iGen (18 to 22) – these are the young people who grew up with ubiquitous mobile communication – see this article. They are well described in Jean M. Twenge’s book iGen.
Millenials or Gen Y (23-37) – they grew up in an increasingly online and socially-networked world – see this article.
Gen X(38-53) – this was the “latch-key” generation letting themselves into their houses because their parents were too busy working or splitting up! This is the generation that is quickly occupying the majority of business leadership roles– see this CNBC article.
Baby boomers (54-71) – they rejected or redefined traditional values and experienced great U.S. political and social upheaval – they are now reaching retirement age if there is such a thing anymore.
The silent generation or traditionalists (72+) – young who in America under the McArthy era felt it was dangerous to speak out.
Each of these generations has brought something different to the workforce and are often to be found working together – and sometimes not understanding why they have such different approaches. For the first time these 5 generations are having to find ways and means of working together in say a professional practice. Here is a short article with some tips on how best to do this - and another one discussing how to understand and avoid a generational divide among your employees.
This all really matters. As Abraham Lincoln said The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
I personally think it is inspiring to have the opportunity to work with and learn from different generations, each of which has something to offer so we can all make a positive mark on business life - in the words of William Blake The generations of men run on in the tide of time, but leave their destined lineaments permanent for ever and ever.
I don’t think I had as clearly appreciated the different characteristics of professional people born in different era’s, although now I do, some behaviour I have experienced makes more sense. The current working generations have been generally categorised as follows.
GenZ or iGen (18 to 22) – these are the young people who grew up with ubiquitous mobile communication – see this article. They are well described in Jean M. Twenge’s book iGen.
Millenials or Gen Y (23-37) – they grew up in an increasingly online and socially-networked world – see this article.
Gen X(38-53) – this was the “latch-key” generation letting themselves into their houses because their parents were too busy working or splitting up! This is the generation that is quickly occupying the majority of business leadership roles– see this CNBC article.
Baby boomers (54-71) – they rejected or redefined traditional values and experienced great U.S. political and social upheaval – they are now reaching retirement age if there is such a thing anymore.
The silent generation or traditionalists (72+) – young who in America under the McArthy era felt it was dangerous to speak out.
Each of these generations has brought something different to the workforce and are often to be found working together – and sometimes not understanding why they have such different approaches. For the first time these 5 generations are having to find ways and means of working together in say a professional practice. Here is a short article with some tips on how best to do this - and another one discussing how to understand and avoid a generational divide among your employees.
This all really matters. As Abraham Lincoln said The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
I personally think it is inspiring to have the opportunity to work with and learn from different generations, each of which has something to offer so we can all make a positive mark on business life - in the words of William Blake The generations of men run on in the tide of time, but leave their destined lineaments permanent for ever and ever.
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