Are generations really a thing? Thoughts and links for your weekend.
This week I am sharing some thoughts I have had about the generations lately. If you have anything to add or disagree with I would love to hear that! Also, some great quotes from a book I’ve been reading…in all honesty after thousands and thousands of years, people are still the same. 😊 I am also including a few songs and videos just in case you’d like to check those out. I do hope that this weekend is one of enjoyment and rest.
A few thoughts:
For many years I have enjoyed the study of the various generations within America, I’ve even written about generations in the workplace on this forum. I appreciate frameworks, I find them useful to understanding broad concepts. Yet, I also understand that frameworks, especially regarding human behavior, can be far too limiting in its scope of understanding. I do still think that studying generational differences as a broad scope is useful in our understanding of trends and people’s approach to life. Yet, and yet, I wonder at what expense all of our generation talk has come to. I love the differences discussed within generations because I love those actual differences, in my mind those should be appreciated and enjoyed, not corrected. Those differences seemed to have become solely character defining as well as contentious, which is so unfortunate.
In my studies over the last few years, I have noticed several people that have been against the generational frameworks. This week I came across Leah Georges TED Talk about how those stereotypes of the generations actually hold you back at work, and I add on – in life. Leah, in her talk, poses the question, “So what if I told you that these generations may not exist?” Understandably the way that we traditionally break up a generation is a 20 year time frame, which is a lot of time, containing lots of changes and growth and regression in that timespan. Essentially, the implication is that a one year old and a twenty year old share the same life/culture/political experiences that meld them into a specific generation. Which, when you think of it that way definitely seems extreme. Leah says that “generations haven’t become part of the conversation at work – generations have become the conversation at work.” The thing is, that time and time again, across all ages people want the same things in regards to work. They want to do work that matter, flexibility, support, and appreciation…you know crazy things. What she says in the talk is that different ages have different values and they are doing different things outside of work. This right here, what Leah says is so helpful, “What if we radically, simply, not easily, meet people where they are? Individualize our approach. I've never met a generation. I've had a lot of conversations with people who happened to identify with a specific generational cohort. I know that 80-year-olds text message and 23-year-olds crochet blankets.
None of these things are stereotypical of that generation, right?” Right?! Doesn’t that make so much more sense than broadly approaching people? Her suggestion, which I am implementing when I hear things or see things in certain people that I come in contact with, is to pick one person and explore their onlyness (you’ll have to read/watch the talk to know what I mean). And you continue to explore that onlyness in people over and over and then one day we aren’t working with generations – we’re working with people.
So, if I’m being honest I still enjoy the generational study as a very broad subject matter….but when dealing with individuals at work, out driving on the highway, passing you in Walmart I would rather study them as an individual – not moored to the year they were born. Wouldn’t you?
Some quotes from this book:
Essays in Idleness : The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko
You should never play to win, but so as not to lose. Decide which moves will lead to a quick defeat, and avoid them, choosing instead moves which seem likely to result in a slower defeat, if only by one throw of the dice.
Mistakes are always made when people get to the easy places.
We may not be aware of the passing instants, but as we go on ceaselessly spending them, suddenly the term of life is on us.
Modern fashion seems to grow more and more debased. (written in the 1330s.)
A few songs:
Lord Huron’s Secret of Life
Highlight’s Not the End
Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flower
A few good links:
A snoring hummingbird
Finding Your Why, Simon Sinek
Milanote, a great tool to organize your ideas & projects into visual boards
Happy 99th Birthday to Mr. Jim Keel!