storycoaching article

Reprinted with permission from the BC Human Resources Management Association's PeopleTalk magazine, V7/N3 Fall 2004

Health and Wellness

How can HR marry today's workforce generations?

Cross-mentoring, respectful questions and conversations, plus a sense of connection can bring generations together in a healthy workplace.

BY CAROL SACHOWSKI, CHRP

When it comes to the differences between baby boomers, generation Xers, and “nexers,” I like to go to the heart of the matter: How truly different are we? What are our core needs? What will it take to bring us together? As we interact with one another, how can HR help bring the generations together into a fruitful union?

Chaos produces fight-or-flight response

When the loss of any basic need — food, safety, shelter, or health — threatens us, we all respond the same, regardless of age: fight or flight in the face of chaos. Chaos in the workplace can occur in many forms: through unexpected dismissal, life-threatening illness, harassment and discrimination, or downsizing. No single generation owns the resulting sense of despair or the longing for compassion, connection, and empathy.

All generations suffer ageism

All generations can suffer their own unique form of ageism. Whether it's through the “encouragement” of older workers to retire before, or at, age 65, squeezed-out middle managers, typically in the mid-boomer age range, or maligned younger workers struggling to fit into the workforce — all might experience, in their time, the pain of deliberate isolation, sabotage, or ignorance. Unfortunately, that fight-or-flight response kicks in without any opportunity for healing conversation. When one looks to larger society for examples of complaints between generations, one finds a lack of the following: civility, basic courtesies, respect, story-sharing, role modelling, and random acts of kindness.

Sense of connection breeds success

Many workplaces offer healthy, inclusive, creative, and productive work relationships. We can often attribute their success factor to a way of being within the workplace that leaders and those throughout the organization encourage. They base this healthy atmosphere on the notion of connection, through one's sense of self and purpose, respect for others, and the need to belong to a larger family.

Author Margaret Wheatley, also a world-renowned speaker and consultant, offers a rekindled way for all of us to build relationships and hence, a means for HR to marry the generations within its organizations. Her work includes the books Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World and Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future .

In the latter book, Wheatley poses 10 questions that encourage meaningful conversation with diverse people who seek answers to the same question. As I read aloud the question: “What is my faith in the future?” I wonder how a team of co-workers, struggling to get along, might provide different or similar answers. Wheatley offers

these principles when posing the questions:

Cross-mentoring can bridge generation gap

With its vast number of programs and initiatives already in place, HR can champion a refreshed look at bridging the generation gaps through cross-mentoring. This 360-degree approach engages a whole organization and focuses on people, not on their jobs. It involves learning about our own value through the stories of others in our workplaces.  It's a way to build community and share values through talking to one another. It puts core competencies to “real” work in a highly visible way.

So, why not put a new spin on the ageless art of conversation and communication? By asking questions important to an organization's success, HR professionals can, once again, steer workplaces toward enhanced relationship-building, improved synergy, increased productivity, and decreased absenteeism and workplace conflict.

Whether through formal succession-planning mechanisms, skill-specific training plans or social gatherings, cross-mentored conversations provide an opportunity to work together, beyond building teams, to create a dynamic and truly inclusive organizational community.

HR stands in a powerful position to influence the success of a marriage between generations. Let's start by encouraging people to get to know one another before we expect them to tie the knot.

Carol Sachowski , CHRP is president of storycoaching™ inc. in Victoria and Toronto . Contact: csachowski@storycoaching.com