Benefits of a cross-generational teams
summary
Like other forms of diversity, ultimate team strength and versatility comes from having a variety of ages on the team, even though it seems to be more likely that teams are primarily made up of a single generation. Blending strengths and perspectives of multi-generational team members results in products that are likely to appeal to a wider age range as well as creates a team atmosphere where technical and emotional wisdom is freely shared between older and younger members and vice versa.
Issue
Recently, I’ve noticed that software teams tend to be more homogeneous when it comes to age. Whether generally younger or older, it would seem that we’re more comfortable building teams like ourselves than taking the extra effort to come up with that nice blend of age, backgrounds, and experiences. What a shame! Like other forms of diversity, ultimate team strength and versatility comes from having a variety of ages on your team.
“Opening a pipeline of organizational wisdom is the trade agreement of our times. That’s the new sharing economy—sharing wisdom across generations,”
I was on a Southwest flight the other day and came across an article in their inflight magazine entitled “Wise Eyes, Fresh Eyes”. It’s an interview with Chip Conley, now a Strategic Advisor for Airbnb. You can read the article here. He talks about his experiences when he first came to Airbnb and was by far the oldest person in the office (I can relate!). He found there was much to learn from his younger colleagues - such as their DQ (digital intelligence) and the deep, intuitive understanding of how technology can be used across the workplace. He also found he had much to offer in terms of EQ (emotional intelligence) gleaned and gained over the years of reading emotions, managing people, and creating healthy, supportive work environments. He considered himself both an intern and a mentor, or what he now calls a “mentern.” Conley has written a book on this subject, called Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder. A “Modern” elder is a rethink on the traditional elder who basically is an older sage who bestows wisdom on younger people. A modern elder provides that type of wisdom, but is also a wisdom-seeker from everyone else around them, regardless of age. They seek a “mutual mentorship” - basically building on a Zen Buddhist concept called “Beginner’s Mind” that encourages openness and acceptance of new ideas, free of any preconceptions. The push here is to get rid of the traditional physics of wisdom—from the top down, from old to young—and rather allowing wisdom to flow in both directions. This is amazingly powerful when it comes to team dynamics and output!
“The workplace should be like an intergenerational potluck. We need to a create a compact where everybody brings what they have to the table—what they’re best at, generationally.”
What can we do?
All of us should embrace personal and professional growth in order to stay relevant, while at the same time creating a workplace that values the viewpoints of different age groups and promotes generations learning from one another. Specifically, all of us can and should be willing to:
Evolve - be willing to change, dropping our ego’s
Learn - be the most curious person in the room
Collaborate - accept that work is a team sport - consider the output of a smart, diverse, collaborating team vs individuals
Counsel - share what we know with humility and respect - intern publicly and mentor privately
so What are the benefits?
Generations each bring their respective strengths to the table and we should take advantage of these strengths as we form and operate teams. The graphic below summarizes generational strengths:
Bottom line, gross generalizations aside, a diverse team can play to their respective strengths and use timeless wisdom and creativity to solve modern day problems! Maybe it’s time we actually value wisdom as much as we do disruption!
“When you create an environment where you have a mixture of ages, just like a mixture of genders and a mixture of races, you create a better workplace and more effective teams.”
does diversity increase company success?
If your product serves the entire age spectrum, then certainly one benefit of age diversity is that all points-of-view will be represented and built into the product. On top of that, there is ample evidence from multiple studies that gender and ethnically diverse companies are more innovative—so, does the same apply to age diversity? It appears the answer is yes—at least that’s what the data behind the TED talk listed in the References section suggests. The data came from 171 European companies and focused on 6 diversity factors—gender, nationality, career, industry, age, and education. The other parameter was innovation revenue or revenue made from new products and services over the last three years. While no exact numbers were given, their conclusion was clear—the data in their sample showed that more diverse companies are simply more innovative.
references
Southwest Magazine Conley interview