Intergenerational Issues
The Learning Need: Dealing with different generational perspectives
The last thirty or more years have seen tremendous change in all professions. Education has changed markedly too. It is not surprising that people entering and leaving these professions have differing expectations. At best, these expectations can cause clashes of opinion and at worst, reduced productivity.
In Generations Apart, boomers meet the twenty-somethings. Andy has been on the job for almost 30 years and she knows what nursing is about. Tracy has been nursing for less than two years and she has some leading edge knowledge that could help. Andy finds Tracy's work ethic to be deplorable and Tracy considers Andy's dependence on “the-way-we've-always-done-things” evidence of her “Luddism”. And Stuart is caught in the middle.
Participants work with Andy and Tracy through processes designed to test their ability to see the situation through another person's eyes and to look for ways of integrating differing opinions, rather than seeing them as either/or. They learn that there are different ways of doing things right and that trying to understand another's point of view does more to resolve differences than holding fast to their own.
Generational differences are especially pronounced in healthcare. Participants come
face-to-face with their values in this workshop; they tell us this helps them on the job.
This sticks.
~ Catherine Clarke
Sr Organization Development & Training Advisor
University Health Network, Toronto