As a coach, I had the opportunity to witness conflicts among generations: Valery is a 45 year old manager and therefore an X gen. She has regular conflicts with two of her team members who belong to gen Y (to simplify, I will call them Pat). If I had to put in a very schematic way the pattern of their conflict, I would draw this table:
| Who | Their mindset and communication gaps | Levels of their emotional intensity |
| Pat’s request | Why do we need to organize this meeting in that way and why do I need to come to the meeting? | Low level |
| Valery’s interpretation | Why do they challenge my authority, since I decided to do it that way for a very good reason | Medium level |
| Pat’s intention | Understanding why, not challenging Valery’s authority | Low level |
| Valery’s response | The meeting is organized that way to support you in solving company policy related problems X | Medium level |
| Pat’s request | Why do I need to come to this meeting since I know the company’s policy and I don’t agree with it because it makes no sense | Low level |
| Valery’s reaction | Why the hell doesn’t Pat understand that it is important to follow the company’s policies and why does she need to challenge my authority again? | High level |
| Valery’s response | This is the way it is; we need to move on now in order to reach our objective | High level |
| Pat’s reaction | Why can’t Valerie explain why it must be so? Why do we need to continue working on useless policies? | Medium level |
…and the conversation between deaf people could continue aggravating their emotional level with negative consequences on their ability to listen and empathize. When these conversations are constantly repeated, relationships easily degrade with time.
Popular press and academic research articles commonly suggest that intergenerational differences in the workplace are a potential source of conflict[1]. But why? And can they be a potential source of richness, too?
Differences Between Generations
First of all, let’s keep in mind that the research reflects a point in time. The people on whom the studies are based obviously have different ages and are at different stages of their career path, therefore their needs, values and perspectives vary.
Almost unanimously, year more year less, five generational groups have been individuated living in our time:
- Traditionalists (1900 – 1945)
- Baby Boomers (1946 – 1964)
- Generation X (1965 – 1979)
- Generation Y /Millennials (1980-1996)
- Generation Z (1997 -)
However, according to recent studies[2] though, it doesn’t seem that the differences between generations in their approach to work are SO relevant. In fact, results of the studies show that workers from all generations want meaningful work, which motivates them from within, providing a sense of fulfillment.
Nevertheless, the definition of “meaningful work” as an intrinsic motivation may differ slightly from one generation to another. There is an accent on goal achievement for Baby-Boomers, work-life balance for Generation X, a sense of being of service for Millennials and dynamic and flexible work with high responsibilities for the young Generation Z.
A CliftonStrenghts assessment conducted on a group of 250,000 people, shows the most relevant talents for workers from every generation[3]:
| MILLENNIALS | GEN XERS | BABY BOOMERS | TRADITIONALISTS |
| 1. Achiever | 1. Achiever | 1. Responsibility | 1. Responsibility |
| 2. Empathy | 2. Responsibility | 2. Learner | 2. Learner |
| 3. Learner | 3. Learner | 3. Achiever | 3. Connectedness |
| 4. Adaptability | 4. Relator | 4. Relator | 4. Achiever |
| 5. Responsibility | 5. Strategic | 5. Strategic | 5. Input |
The study highlights how the Millennials’ strengths, uniquely among all, include Empathy and Adaptability, in other words attention to the needs of others and a more “go with the flow” attitude. It seems instead, that the Traditionalist’s Connectedness (read as connection to the community and building on that) has been declining in favor of a more individualistic approach of the following generations, leading to the revolutionary change in meaning that the word “community” has acquired through the lens of technology.
Millennial’s interconnectedness in fact, makes them very comfortable within broad networks and in a personal, one-to-one approach, but it becomes a challenge when the focus is on team alignment: they are less aware than the previous generations about their coworkers’ roles, work goals and expertise.
Despite these differences, all generational groups, feel more engaged in their job if they have:
- Intrinsic motivation: they feel the work they do is meaningful
- Set expectations: there’s clarity in what is expected from them and in how to achieve it
- A manager that helps to set performance goals and establish priorities
This last point is particularly true for Millennials, who, with respect to the other groups, have the greatest difficulties in setting priorities.
The “Case” of Millennials
Among all generations, Millennials have been the most studied and least understood generation of workers. They seem to live the job market as consumers, job-hopping in search of the best opportunity that gives them what they want, with an increasing level of disengagement compared to the other groups. But is that because they’re “lazy”, or “shallow” or don’t have work ethic, as it has been said? Quite the opposite. The marketplace apparently strives to give them what they need and to retain them as employees.
The most striking shift that seems to be happening is that, compared to the other groups, Millennials have a very high level of self-awareness, as well as awareness of others, with a strenuous focus on their self-development as a whole person and willingness to discover and build on their strengths. In fact, when asked about the most important feature a potential job should have, Gen Y poses the strongest accent on possibilities for growth and learning, compared to any other generation[4].
Widening our lens, we can consider a few elements, as Millennials are the generation that has seen the birth and evolution of the internet/web. Technology has been advancing at an incredible speed, and that has affected this group by:
- Opening up infinite possibilities and multiplying choices – with the consequent excitement and freedom but also lack of sense of direction
- Giving access to endless data and cross-contamination – favoring multitasking but also a sense of being overwhelmed
- Tearing down borders and changing the relationship with space and distance – making the whole world their “playground”, enhancing openness but starting to challenge the sense of identity and roots.
- Opening conversations and creating a deeper awareness about the self, the others, and its place in the environment, and therefore an increase in empathy and the sense of being of service.
Workforce VS Workspace
In this perspective, the workforce seems to have evolved far more rapidly than the workplace. As human beings are extremely flexible and adaptable, they can assimilate information and learn at a very fast pace, but the structures they created (up until now at least) are obviously much more rigid and resistant to change. Because of the advent of technology, , and the unprecedented speed of our existence and our relation to the world, Millennials seems to be the first generation to pay the cost of such misalignment. They don’t feel “at home” in the company’s mindsets created by previous generations, who, in spite of all their efforts, seldom succeed in retaining this generation of workers. Furthermore:
- Millennials are the best educated as compared to previous generations. They are wired in a modus operandi of learning and thirst for personal development as a “whole”and, both as employees and as persons, they look for this correspondence in the workplace.
- The global interconnection has changed the dynamics of human relationships. How we relate with ourselves and the groups we identify with. Unlike previous generations, Millennials put off the creation of families, while also challenging the concept itself, and consider the job as an integral part of their life and their self-growth.
- The concepts of family and community have been re-defined, and their function as the terrain for self-growth, self-care and support the way it existed for Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, and quite a big portion of Generation X, is considerably blurred, and has started to spread into the workplace, insofar as Millennials consider the workplace the space for self-actualization. The goals which the job aims at now, are much higher and imbued with the idealism that characterizes the Generation Y.
- Kids of Baby Boomers, in fact Millennials have been brought up with a huge baggage of optimism and unspoken promises of a rosy future. This has evoked sometimes the term “entitled”, which has been used to stigmatize this generation, but in reality, it may be just the wrong word to describe a generation of optimistic, hopeful believers.
- Traditionalists’ “loyalty to the company” seems to have shifted increasingly (with Gen Z as the latest incarnation) to “loyalty to oneself”.
The Change in Leadership [5]
| PAST | FUTURE |
| My Paycheck | My Purpose |
| My Satisfaction | My Development |
| My Boss | My Coach |
| My Annual Review | My Ongoing Conversations |
| My Weaknesses | My Strengths |
| My Job | My Life |
Beyond the Differences
At this point we ask ourselves, are these elements enough to understand the generational conflict at work?
The most recent research actually individuates the reason for “conflict among generations” in the existence of negative stereotypes born from a default cognitive mechanism that fulfills two basic human needs—inclusion and differentiation: individuals seek a sense of belonging to one group in part through comparing themselves to other groups. This comparison gives way to both positive in-group bias and negative out-group bias, affecting intergroup interactions so that conflict can occur [6]. Research shows that in most cases this conflict is triggered by the feeling that members of other generations are not working hard, not caring about meaning and are just being there for the paycheck[7].
So, if generational stereotypes abound, they’re probably not true and there’s no reason to dwell on differences, nor creating affinity groups based on age. In truth, the goal for the leader should be:
- To move beyond the labels[8], helping collaborators recognize that each one of them has distinct sets of skills and different things to bring to the table, so
- Consider them as individuals,
- Taking into account where they are in their lives, because, naturally, a different age often means different priorities
- In order to do so, the leader should get to know his/her workforce, maybe by conducting annual surveys that include visions and values, preferred ways of communicating and professional paths.
Bringing Generations Together
Just as it happens in day-to-day life, a company could greatly benefit from bringing together all generations, creating a climate of openness and safety, to allow for constructive exchange and a “cross-pollination” of wisdom. As we mentioned earlier, the challenges across generations and the values that promote intrinsic motivation are not so different, so why not create the conditions for building a bridge on the generation gap, overcoming our biases?
As Chip Conley suggests in his article[9], companies could favor this behavior by:
- Offering wisdom talks. A platform for anyone to share their experience at specific moments during the workday.
- Recognizing the “wisdom workers.” Acknowledging and rewarding the silent army of wise collaborators “who offer quiet, invisible productivity to your organization.” Allowing them to allocate part of their time to mentoring or coaching colleagues who are now resorting to them informally.
- Developing a mutual mentoring program. Integrating it into the company’s values and culture and establishing a system of “mentoring matchmaking” between experienced workers and newly hired ones.
- Creating an Employee Resource Group (ERG) focused on wisdom. Bringing “Modern Elders” together can help you and them leverage their institutional wisdom and insight.
And in general, promoting ongoing conversations and opportunities for learning about each other.
In Conclusion
In the previous newsletters, we talked about the importance of diversity and inclusion, how to leverage differences and everybody’s uniqueness to build an engaging, ever growing, open work environment.
Well, this extends not only to gender, ethnicity, socio-economical upbringing, but also to age and the historical moment we come from. As we face this incredibly complex world and this layered and ever-changing landscape, we may agree that nobody has the answers, so why don’t we try, with humility and openness to listen and learn, to build this future together?
To conclude on a more personal note, I also want to tell you that this topic deeply moves me since recently I started working with Selika, with whom I am writing this article. She is a Y gen, while I am a X gen. Even if sometimes she surprises me since at her age, I was not in the same quest for meaning, I decided from the beginning that this new collaboration would be for me (and maybe for her as well) a fantastic opportunity to understand another world from within. And this is precisely what happened, albeit with some surprises and some self-questioning. I assess the power behind good intentions; I ask questions in order to understand; we put together our different perspectives to reach something meaningful for both of us. It’s true that it is sometimes demanding because we are facing our own limits and biased mindsets, but it’s really a journey worth taking, I promise!
Written by Anna Gallotti & Selika Cerofolini
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[1] Work, Aging and Retirement, Volume 3, Issue 2, 1 April 2017. Oxford Academics
[2] Every Generation Wants Meaningful Work — but Thinks Other Age Groups Are in It for the Money, Kelly Pledger Weeks, HBR, July 31, 2017.
[3] How Millennials Want to Work and Live, ©2016 Gallup, Inc.
[4] How Millennials Want to Work and Live, ©2016 Gallup, Inc.
[5] How Millennials Want to Work and Live, ©2016 Gallup, Inc.
[6] Work, Aging and Retirement, Volume 3, Issue 2, 1 April 2017. Oxford Academics
[7] Every Generation Wants Meaningful Work — but Thinks Other Age Groups Are in It for the Money, Kelly Pledger Weeks, HBR, July 31, 2017.
[8] Managing People from Five Generations, Rebecca Knight, HBR, September 25, 2014.
[9] 4 Ways to Help Different Generations Share Wisdom at Work, Chip Conley, HBR, May 18, 2018
