EDITOR'S ANGLE | SUMMER 2011 EFFECTGenerations and Generations of Generational Conflict
by Paul D. PfeifferWhich group was the “me generation”? Were those kids raised by helicopter parents, or were they just spoiled? Which generation was self-focused and accustomed to getting their way all the time? Were those Boomers or Millennials? Which group was most influenced by political tensions and catastrophe? Was it the children who witnessed the Cuban Missile Crisis or those that came of age after 9/11? Which group was idealistic and politically active: hippies, Gen Y, or Gen X? And which group’s sexual mores were so extreme: the Friends With Benefits Generation or those around when free love was in vogue?
Commentary on generational conflict has been around for, well, generations. And much is made of the differences between young people entering the workforce and those who have been around for a while. And though it is true you can find characteristics of any demographic that distinguish it from another group, focusing on differences is a divisive approach to welcoming the group of people who will ultimately succeed you in the workplace.
In recent years, we read all about the individualistic and technologically adept Generation X—put on this earth to exasperate and confound the older generation. Then, as Gen X adapted to the work world and the workplace embraced their quirks and foibles, the focus became the evil Millennials with their own sets of skills and anti-skills. We’ve read about how their over-involved parents have created a generation of multitasking, tech-savvy, marginally employed, entrepreneurs, many of whom are still living at home late into their 20s.
No doubt, the newest generation to enter the workforce has attitudes that are quite different than my own, but I’m not sure they are primarily the result of social forces. Instead, maybe the reason discussions on generational differences keep recurring is that there is a relatively constant factor whether the generation is joining the work world in 1950 or 2011. That factor is age.
For years now, researchers have been exploring when adolescents mentally grow up. The prefrontal cortex is the last area of the brain to reach maturity, and not surprisingly, it’s where bigger thinking goes on. It’s where social judgments are made and where we plan for the future as well as control our behavior and impulses.
It is no wonder our newest graduates sometimes seem to lack good business sense—they still have their baby brains!
Temple University Professor of Psychology Laurence Steinberg recently published an
article on adolescent risk-taking. He writes, “Imaging studies show the brain is still maturing well into the mid-20s, especially in regions responsible for regulating emotions, controlling impulses, and balancing risk and reward.”
It is no wonder our newest graduates sometimes seem to lack good business sense and that we have to remind them about posting questionable pictures online—they still have their baby brains!
Though work styles and attitudes are partially the result of life experience (or lack of life experience), many of the characteristics attributed to generational influences (brashness, idealism, self-centeredness) could simply be the evidence of a young brain still developing. Doesn’t eager, arrogant, impatient, impulsive, and socially connected describe many people in their early 20s from time immemorial? Recognizing these characteristics as traits of young people (rather than of a generation) would make it easier to transform the way we look at new hires. If we don’t shape our expectations of these people with a label, we can more easily see the situation as opportunity to develop productive learning and nurturing relationships between people of different ages. But we must be able to view our new co-workers as still developing, rather than people already shaped by forces we can’t control, who have traits that sometimes seem at odds with the workplace we know.
And young brains aren’t bad at all. They often challenge traditional thinking because they lack experience. In the right situation, this is a huge benefit to all of us with old brains that stopped growing 20 or 30 years ago.
Loading down a whole generation with a label and a list of marginally useful descriptive characteristics encourages groups to see each other in terms of differences rather than similarities. Differences between generations do exist, but it isn’t productive to focus on differences when we are sharing the same space and, ideally, similar goals. There is a universal truth here I’d rather embrace: no matter what generation we belong to, as human beings our commonalities are far greater than our differences, and when approached positively, even our differences can be productively transformed.