Time With Sands – Staying Current

Is it that we as people over 50 aren’t staying current, or is that a false thing, a bad narrative?

– Ray R.

I think it’s both. I think the narrative that’s coming out of the media about the clash between the generations is stoking discord based on our differences versus highlighting what we share. This divisive storytelling is not real but rather concocted by a hunger for a story – any story – no matter the damage it wreaks. The time is now to address these destructive falsehoods within the mix of other “isms” being re-examined and transformed.

We need to bring those different generations together in our workplace on work teams where they’re really talking about these issues, because it’s just as difficult to be told you’re too young at 20 as it is to say you’re too old at 70. Right?

Well, we have this divide of Boomers versus Millennials, Gen Xers vs. both Millennials and Boomers. Having worked with people who are younger, some of them I think are fabulous and some aren’t; some Boomers are fabulous, and some aren’t. Clearly, there are prevailing nuances of difference within each demographic group and between each grouping. We figure it out like we figured out every other change in the generational grouping that emerges next, and we find ways for them to connect and work with us and for the leading or previous generation to reach out to them to support our shared business effectiveness and to serve our clients.

Yes, most of the success in business does come as we grow older because we have so much earned experience under our belt. Unfortunately, as we move into our 50s and 60s, way too many people typically will just not want to make waves before they reach the “get out of jail” point of departure.

However, it is precisely the time to make waves. This is the time to not only be current, but to stand up and be in control. This is the time to tap into our own greatness and bring it to the fore because, yes, people 50-plus have the experience, the knowledge, and the know-how.

I’ve been observing young people that they are often more open in terms of new ideas, movements, and a diversity of people. So if we bring these generational groups together, we have the ingenuity of youthfulness, new learnings along with established experience. Wow! We can do anything we want if we come together rather than remaining separate and divided, which is happening so much of late. That’s going to change. I do believe it’s really changing. It has to. From the historic turnout of voters in our recent 2020 presidential elections, generations are coming together to be heard.