The way we think about generations is stupid. We're going to change some narratives today. We're going to change the way we think about some stuff. Each one of these films represents an actual generation, not a generation the way we think about generations, but a generation in the way a generation actually works. Because generations are not biological, generations are cultural.

How are we going to operationalize this? But here's what we're going to do. First of all, here's things to understand when we think about a generation. We think of a span that's approximately 20 to 25 years. That works great for a biological generation, but it's very not useful for actually talking to other human beings.

The research that I am engaged in is what is called microgenerational research. And when we think about generations as microgenerations, now we're only talking about a span of about 8 to 10 years. And those things are very, very useful because they're much more nuanced.

For example, I am supposedly a Gen Xer, except I know people who are true Gen Xers who were born in 1964, who I have zero things in common with, none, because we grew up in literally completely different worlds.

War babies are born from 1945 to 1955. The war babies are sort of the oldest generation still in our workforce. War babies work first and they work hard. That's the thing they learned from their parents.

Woodstockers are born between 1955 and 1964 they tend to be the late children of traditionalists either the second or third child or maybe they waited a while to have kids or they're the younger side of traditionalists so they're the late side the the defining factor about Woodstockers is this is the first generation that really benefited from their parents' GI Bill and so this generation tends to be super educated this generation tends to be the first generation that on mass went to college okay and so the thing about Woodstockers that they learned from watching their work first parents older generation learn to work younger generation learn to look busy and that is the dark side of this generation is that for them being busy is a badge of honor they always have to be doing stuff

The empty vegans were born in the late 60s early '7s from 64 to about 72 they are the first babies of those as I said of those war babies and the thing about the empty vegans is their parents worked all the time and because their parents were so work people MTV vegans were on their own a lot and that made them as a generation super introspective they spent a lot of time alone they entertained themselves

Children of the 80s are either the late children of war babies or the first children of Woodstockers they are the the low end of the Gen X spectrum okay and the way that I think about C80s is that C80s are what we call iconographic and the reason C80s are iconographic is C80s lived through the time where all the regulations that you could no longer advertise to children got removed and everything was advertised directly at C80's face

Gen Y's are interesting because they mostly are the kids of Woodstockers right or very old um very old MTV vegans they're born in the 80s these are the 80s kids 82 to 90 okay gen Y's are very much because their parents were so educated gen Y's are very peer oriented because they were programmed they had playdates they had soccer teams they had groups

The igens are the millennials you think of as millennials when millennial is in your head and here's the thing about I cannot stress this enough and I have to say this right up front i ens take a lot of heat from everyone else and I are 100% your fault 100% i are the way I are cuz you made them that way here's the thing about were born in the '9s 91 to 2001 they are the kid they are the kids of empty vegans

Gen Z's are the kids you think of as Gen Z these are the kids you think of are coming into the workplace right now and you go Ugh what's wrong with these kids? How you were raised is how you raised the kids because C80s and Gen Y but C80s really tended to be a little more strategic the way that they raised their kids was dialogically

and then after this we have one more generation right but we're not going to talk about them because they're they're babies right now um they are literally babies they were the ones born in the 10ens um and we are beginning to loosely call them the quarantines t E N because these kids had to grow up under CO 19 and it's going to shape their entire generation

a person cannot change their life circumstances to accommodate you and if you are the supervisor it is incumbent upon you to understand that a person cannot change their life circumstances to accommodate you and you think but I'm paying them money and I'm their supervisor and I'm the one who gets to decide what they do and I say cool you know what a person cannot change their life circumstances to accommodate you you're the boss if you want more out of the people who work for you you are going to have to be the one who adjusts

how do we use this knowledge this new knowledge I've given you to our advantage how do we use this to our advantage here's what I want you to do we're going to play another game you can do this just here at your table i want you to just talk to the other people at your table for a second

imagine you're frustrated with one of your organization's policies i don't know all of your policies but you do pick a policy you're frustrated with it how would someone communicate effectively with you

let me raise a different scenario for you scenario number two you're dealing with a student or a customer or a client that person is clearly frustrated about one of your organization's policies how do you communicate effectively with this person

what do they value what's motivating for them what's incentivizing

if you want better intergenerational communication you have to actually put the work in you have to actually do the thing