The failure of generations to capture the skills and knowledge of our elders.

In a couple of previous articles, I have developed a theme of getting old and how, in business (and probably in life in general), we are awful at talking with our elders and learning from their experiences of life and work that they have done. Of course, within work teams, we are always eager to please our bosses and we value their feedback on specific issues relating to particular client instructions, but that’s not the same as having constant access to their expertise and insights.  

Indeed, assuming (and praying) that I have a long life, I have just entered the final quartile of my time on this planet and I’m aware that my view of the world and the way that I go about doing business, as one of the baby boomer generation, is very different to the younger generations that are following in my wake. My world was, and is, predicated on face-to-face networks and personal interactions. That is not the motivation of millennials and gen Z in the workplace today.  

Social media and the mirage of connection

One of the biggest changes in the past 10 to 20 years has been the boom in social media via a range of platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, to name a few. Success on these platforms is judged by the number of followers and connections you have. 

Yet there is an ironic disconnect in social media and that is, for the majority of users, you have no connections at all. People don’t really connect via these platforms. Research has shown that most social connections on the internet don’t translate into meetings in person and most followers never comment or interact with the poster of some erudite comment or observation. So connectivity in the virtual world is an illusion. 

In my world of yesteryear, we all met in person. Events were run to encourage networking. Talking face to face with real people was the norm. And while I won’t deny that there was a lot of initial small talk, it was at those meetings where I met nearly everyone who has become important in my business (and social) life. Indeed, I found such networking so important in my life and the lives of my peers that I was instrumental in setting up various professional and academic societies at home and abroad to promote and enable such events. It was my career’s life blood. 

I learnt so much from those networking events. Not just in terms of connection and opportunities to work together, but for sharing insights and views on what was happening in the real estate world. And, with that in mind, I learnt so much from my elders’ experiences and comprehension of similar events that have happened before. There’s nothing new in this world and history can teach us so so much. Personal anecdotes are so much more pertinent than any academic text. So, in the absence of these regular face-to-face opportunities, I do worry that the next generation will struggle to take on board the knowledge and wisdom of the current holders of the baton.

“Listen to your elders”

Now, of course, the other thing about being post-60 is that I am allowed to be a grumpy ol’ man and comment incessantly about how things were so much better in my day. But that inherent permission doesn’t mean to say that I will actually do so. 

In fact, it is the reverse. No matter how frustrating I might find the change in the way that young people work, I believe totally that they are a worthy generation to inherit the baton. They are bright, highly motivated and mainly hard working within the parameters of a much healthier work/life balance than that of myself and many of my peers. 

So, this is not an article about complaining, it is an article that proffers that there are some things worth keeping and developing for us all regardless of the step of the ladder we are currently sitting on. As an academic, my experiences of learning from others is slightly different, as we have a tradition of writing everything down in textbooks or articles. That’s not the case of my peers in industry. Everything they know is in their heads and is only passed on when someone asks or when a task in hand demands that their insights are shared with their juniors. My argument is that this used to happen more regularly than it does today. And, more, the current generation are very unlikely to ask their bosses about any issues that they might have. Instead they will turn to Google to fill any lacunae in their knowledge and I don’t trust information on the internet unless it comes from a reputable website. 

The sophistry of the internet

Try this. Google a question or topic where you have a good knowledge and understanding of the subject and where you already know the correct answer. Then look at the search responses on the first page of the results. I promise you that nearly all the answers you see will be wrong. Once upon a time our depository of knowledge was policed by the editors and publisher of books; today anyone can write anything on a webpage and it’s never checked or corrected. Of course, there are pages on the web that are correct and insightful and well written, but they’re lost in the swamp of dubious or outright false sites and, if you don’t have the inquisitive nature to seek out those that are factual and robust, your knowledge base is being built on virtual straw. It isn’t just Donald Trump who is blighted by false news.

The loss of insights

But I digress. My point is that we seem to have lost the mechanism for retaining and transferring the skills and knowledge of our elders. We used to have apprentices who sat at the knee of their masters and absorbed the learnings of the years. We used to have face-to-face conversations between the student and the teacher, and there was a thirst for information. In simple terms, we used to talk and discuss more.

Sadly in the last year, two of my close work colleagues have died and aside from the emotional wrench of their passing, there is now a gap in my work life, and my regular discussions and debates with them have just stopped. I miss that, but in keeping with the theme of this article, because I was regularly talking with them almost until the day that they died, I still know what they would be thinking and saying. Those regular conversations have instilled their wisdom in me and others, and it our responsibility to do the same. My worry is that, in a business world that is oiled by the simple inanities of LinkedIn and Facebook posts, and the whimsical inconsequential TikTok videos, we are losing the connection of people and the power of knowledge that comes to talking to our elders and (in my case, mainly) betters. 

So, if you are reading this and you are of the next generation, please, please, please put your phone down and just go and talk to one of your bosses. You will learn so much.