Strategies To Foster Multi-Generational Collaboration

Organizations have been generationally diverse forever, all the way back to the simplest groups — families, for example. These different viewpoints and priorities naturally present challenges for leaders.

Businesses often dealt with this challenge by separating generations. With today's rapid pace of technological advancement, you often don't have that option anymore.

If individuals from different generations have to work together in the same room, they at least have to get along. That's your first obstacle.

After you bring everybody to the table, you need more to secure the future success of your organization. You need a collaborative environment where skills and visions are shared between everybody involved.

Helping People Understand and Respect Each Other

Collaboration is made possible by bringing people together, but proximity is not enough. A truly collaborative environment is built on mutual respect.

For many action-focused leaders, respect can seem like a hazy, conceptual thing. It's actually a concrete part of your team. You can start getting your team members to respect each other by helping them understand two things:

·         Everyone's role in the organization

·         Each individual's strengths and weaknesses

Knowing roles lets people know what to expect of others. Knowing strengths and weaknesses helps people avoid negative emotions and develop mutual support systems.

Teaching Respect as a Leader

I believe respect is an action that you take. As a leader, you've learned to develop skills that help you perform this action. You've learned to listen, have empathy, resolve conflicts, and motivate people to work as a team.

Your team members might not have honed these skills as finely as you. If you have a challenge with a particular individual, think critically about that individual's soft skills. Is there room for improvement?

Setting Up Mentorships

As a leader, you will probably be teaching respect mostly by example. If people need more intensive training, consider setting up intergenerational mentorship relationships.

Mentorship forms close bonds between participants. It gets generations face-to-face with each other, forming connections that go far beyond simply sharing skills.

With multi-generational units, it also provides the opportunity for learning to go both ways — younger individuals could acquire industry knowledge while experienced team members acquire technical skills, for example.

Strategy for the Future

Generationally diverse collaboration used to be a challenge is that only leaders in cutting-edge industries had to tackle. These days, people work longer in a wider variety of roles.

It has almost always happened in medicine and tech. Now, it's happening in law, transportation, insurance, and almost any other industry you can think of. Rapid technological progression launches people into leadership roles earlier in their careers.

The future is uncertain, but this trend shows no sign of reversing anytime soon. Building these strategies into your organization takes work, but it's a smart investment.

How are you addressing the needs of your employees to create a collaborative environment where skills and visions are shared between everybody involved?