Working With Gen Y - AIChE STS

Editor's Notes

• #14: The Four Biggest Reasons for Intergenerational Conflict within Work Teams via HarvardBusiness.org by Tammy Erickson on 2/16/09 Today most of us work closely with colleagues that span at least three, if not four generations. The possibility that we'll misunderstand another team member's behavior is high. It's easy to form a hasty and incorrect impression of someone from another generation. While inter-generational misunderstandings can occur in a variety of situations, for teams, I find generational conflict unusually centers around four essential team activities: Choosing where and when to work Communicating among team members Getting together Finding information or learning new things Choosing where and when to work. Listen to the language: many older colleagues speak of "going to work." Members of older generations often view work as a place - a location you go to at a specified time, say from 8:30 am to 5 pm. This synchronicity stems from a time when the nature of most work required that workers to be present together, for example, to run a manufacturing assembly line. Over time, of course, the nature of work in most sectors of the economy has changed; today most tasks do not require synchronous activities, yet many in older generations - including many senior executives - continue to expect synchronous behavior. Younger workers, in contrast, tend to view work as something you do - anywhere, any time. They have grown up in an asynchronous world - filled, for example, with digital TV recorders that allowed them to watch any show at any time. Many Gen Y's consider the rigidity of set work hours an anachronism from another era. It's easy for team members to misinterpret each other's behaviors around time and place. Is someone who arrives at 9:30 necessarily working less hard than other team members who are there at 8:30? Is it okay for some members to work from alternate locations? Is adherence to time and place norms important for the team to accomplish its task? Is it viewed by some as an important sign of team commitment? Communicating among team members. No surprise that many Gen Y's and X'ers are comfortable using electronic communication. They text (or Yammer or Twitter) or post to various social networking sites much more frequently than most older colleagues do. The crux of most technology-based team misunderstandings is not the technology per se - it is how team members interpret each others' intentions based on communication approaches. Younger members are accustomed to rapid responses from peers; they are likely to feel frustrated and, at times, rejected if they don't hear from older colleagues for a day or so. Team members from older generations may not only be uncomfortable with digital communication, they may even feel offended by a lack of face-to-face or at least voice-to-voice interaction, or left out of the loop. Getting together. Boomers and X'ers are planners and schedulers; Gen Y's are coordinators. When faced with a need to meet, Gen Y's are likely to ascertain each other's immediate coordinates, and then home in on each other. Older colleagues would almost certainly prefer to rely on pre-planned schedules - and may be very annoyed by younger team members' seemingly seat-of-the-pants approach. To Y's, the extent of scheduling that goes on in most workplaces today seems stultifying and inefficient. Finding information or learning new things. Boomers and Traditionalists are linear learners - most are inclined to attend training classes, read manuals, and absorb the requisite information before beginning the task at hand. Gen Y's are largely "on demand" learners - they figure things out as they go, reaching out to personal contacts with relevant expertise for information or referrals, as needed. Y's are likely to be bored and turned off by a project that begins with a lengthy training phase. X'ers and Boomers may be annoyed by Y's' frequent questions and requests for input. As you work with colleagues from other generations, your first priority should be to avoid forming quick negative conclusions. Bring the team members' diverse perspectives out in the open -- help everyone on the team understand the multiple points of view - and legitimize each person's view in the eyes of the team. Decide together which norms will work best for your team - for example, how flexible you are about time and place, how you'll communicate different types of information, how scheduled you need to be, and so on - based on collective preferences and the work you need to accomplish. And, so we all can learn more, I hope you'll share your multigenerational team experiences. What issues do you face in working together well? How have you addressed them?
• #15: AUDIENCE INTERACTION 1 Sarah and Josh are in the hallway. Josh stops Sarah in the hallway to ask her a question Josh: Hi Jeff, I have some creative ideas for the upcoming advertising and marketing campaign for the new movie. How about we use YouTube to distribute sample clips? We can put a tie-in to our website where fans can download additional movie posters? Sarah: Hmm! Interesting but I am not sure if our website can handle the traffic and if we have money for a video, let me get back to you. AUDIENCE INTERACTION 2 Josh and the CEO are in the hallway Josh: Hi Julie, I made some quick demo videos of how we can use social networking and YouTube to market the new movie. I sent them to you. Did you see them? CEO: Yes, great work, I love them. I want to see a more formal plan soon!