Why Multi-Generational Workplaces Offer the Best Opportunities for Growth and Education

Multi-generational workplaces offer growth opportunities for individuals and organizations. There's a huge advantage in having different age groups, but learning and improvement don't just happen. You must make it happen.

Without leadership, any group can present challenges — generationally diverse or not. With the right leadership, a generationally diverse team is the best educational tool you have. It's also the best way to secure the future of your organization.

Multi-Generational Workplaces Celebrate Individual Value

As a leader, part of the job is valuing the people you're working with. One of the ways to do this is to go beyond age, gathering information about specific groups within your organization.

Learning from others starts with understanding others. Luckily, some of the people in your organization are probably excellent candidates for sparking this type of understanding.

Diverse Teams Help Nurture Leaders

Strong culture usually overrides generational differences. However, if you do have lingering generational cliques, you can start encouraging intergenerational engagement by looking for the people who don't quite fit the stereotype.

You probably already have someone in mind — maybe a work-focused millennial or a collaborative, tech-focused baby boomer.

These are strong allies as you seek to increase intergenerational engagement across your organization. They've already learned to lead themselves, and now all you must do is let them lead others.

Try engaging these team members to bridge the generational divide. An ambassadorial position nurtures these leadership skills. It also helps create a larger generational dialogue in your team.

Complex Groups Enable Diverse Skill Sharing

Complex collaboration often includes members of different generations. You form these diverse teams to do the unexpected — to overcome otherwise impossible challenges. They can also be a learning tool.

You have an opportunity for growth and learning every time you bring diverse viewpoints together. The key is to establish a culture that not only empowers people to overcome complex challenges but also to share and retain the skills necessary to do so.

Generational Exchange Secures Cultural Continuity

Multi-generational teams are great for growth on the organizational level as well as the individual level. The reason is simple: You just have to experience certain things for yourself.

You might be the greatest communicator in the world. You might have a meticulously designed message about your culture. It won't change the fact that most people are going to learn more about your organization's culture from living it. 

That's because culture is something you do, and it's an environment in which you operate. You don't find it in a handbook or a speech. You find it through working together with your team towards a unified vision.

Older, more experienced workers can pass your culture along to younger teammates. This is one of the greatest learning opportunities of a multi-generational workforce because it benefits the entire organization.

Multi-Generational Teams Build Better Futures

My practice of leadership coaching has cemented my belief that multi-generational exchange is the key to success in business. As you start to establish these mentorship and collaborative relationships, you might be surprised at how quickly and naturally growth happens.

 Are you prepared to go beyond age and gather information about specific groups within your organization?