Hello,

I have been asked to create a seminar that would improve understanding, respect and general working relationships between the four generations we currently have in our workforce. This presentation would have mass appeal meaning that both leaders and front line staff will be invited to attend. Any recommendations concerning some interactive activities I could use to reinforce intergeneration communication/understanding would be highly appreciated.

Regards,

Jill
jeck@edenprairie.org
952-938-3735

Hi Jill... could you provide more context? Is this a required seminar? Is this a pervasive problem? What observable business impact is it having? What expectations are set when people first enter the company? What specific situations are occurring that seem to point to ageism as the issue? What is the perceived "WIIFM" for someone to attend this seminar? (etc...)

The more I know about what you're trying to accomplish, the easier it is to make *appropriate* recommendations.

Thank you for reviewing my post and for your reply.

To answer your questions, no this is not a required workshop. The workshop objective is to provide a better understanding of the differences among individuals in our workplace concerning the four generations. Areas of particular focus will include variations among career values, working styles and employment expectations. It is my hope to debunk many of the myths out there about the various generations and to promote better communication through improved understanding.

There is no pervasive problem that we are aware of, we simply want to extend additional training on teamwork development and this topic was identified as one of interest among our employees.

Any suggestions for related interactive activities would be very appreciated.

Thanks again.

Jill

quote:

The workshop objective is to provide a better understanding of the differences among individuals in our workplace concerning the four generations.

"Understand" is a very hinky objective for several reasons. The main one is that it will be very difficult to market a clear WIIFM to your learners. Just hear them saying, "why do I need to 'understand' HR/training's perception of what the differences are between different generations in the workplace?" or "Why should I spend time going to this seminar?" or "How will this help me do my job better?"

Before one can determine good learning activities, one should have a very clear desired outcome. What should the learner walk away with? Strategies, perhaps? Try to think in terms of what is in it for them. People throw these types of "training seminar" ideas around all the time... but it ultimately is fluff unless you can identify really clear, tangible, useable goals for the participants.

With tangible, realistic learner-centric goals, it's quite simple to come up with learner-centric activities.

Hi JILLE,
I recently created a short presentation on this topic as a 'train the trainer' program. The learner objectives in this case were to be able to recognize generational differences in members of a training audience, and to be able to adapt your training style to better meet the needs and preferences of different learners.
You could tweak these to suit your specific audience.

My content included a review of common characteristics of each generation, and a discussion of differences - in lifestyle characteristics, communication styles, work values, and needs and preferences for learning, including attention and attitude differences, and differing expectations for feedback.

As an introductory activity, I asked the following questions:
Can you name each of the four generations in the workplace?
Which group do you think is the largest?
Can you guess the expected growth rate for the following two age groups? 25-54; 55-64
plus a few true or false questions about characteristics of each generation.

Since each person could easily identify themselves as a member of particular generation, opportunities to compare characteristics, etc. led to a useful learning experience.

Lee