Generational Differences - Is listening enough

A continuing drumbeat of concern in the business community is the ever widening generational gaps. This dilemma is often written about, researched, discussed and disected from the perspectives of owners and employees. 

Given the wide disparites in values, work ethic, social norms, allegiance, short and long term goals ( the list goes on and on): is there really a resolution to the communications gaps?  Are we tilting at windmills when we attempt to bridge the gaps between the generations?  From a purely technological standpoint, its almost Orwellian. 

I have observed numerous leadership training programs which stress the imporatnce of understanding the generational phenomena...  Not worthy of the time and money spent in my opinion.  The historical and sociological frames of reference are so different that the generations run on parallel, non intersecting tracks.

In my opinions, leverage the similarities in the similarities, rather than concentrate on the differences. Assertive listening pays more dividends than aggressive leadership.

Comments

[David Locke]

Dialouge always generates consensus around commonalities by working up towards the generic, rather than down towards the differences.

Still, your post does hint at generations having their own cultures. When building products for a specific generation, consentrating on the meaning, the differences will pay off. Working towards genericity in this situation will result in products with low user-interface fitness, and higher work around costs.

[Sergi Codonyer]

There are many types of differences, The most important one is that we want to create.

Sergi Codonyer