Historically, the workplace consisted of two groups: the old-timers and the know-it-all, young hotshots. The old-timers were the traditionalists, about-to-retire, stuck-in-the-past old-schoolers; the youngsters were the big-idea interlopers destined to climb the management ladder.Today, the workplace mix is a lot more complicated. For the first time in history, there are five generations working side by side: the traditional generation (born pre-1945), Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), Generation X (born 1965-1980), Generation Y (1981-1995), and the Facebook generation (born after 1995)

The Generation Gap: Mindset
As we are in this unique situation (albeit a good one), we now face a new challenge with trying to get these different generations to work effectively together. If we summarise the extremes of each end of this generation gap, the following is generally found:

Traditionalist:

• Dislike Micro-management;
• Prefer traditional team working, co-operation and buy;
• May find Generation Y & Z offensive in their working practices
• Have all the knowledge, but do not know / are not willing to share.  
• “I come to work in the office”

Generation Z:

• Crave Specific Detailed Instruction
• Prefer to Work Solo as an Isolationist
• Feel “dissed” when Elders fail to respect them
• Need the Knowledge, don’t know how to ask
• “I go to the Coffice to Work”

This leads to two segregated groups that fail to communicate, fail to understand each others working requirements and responsibilities and cause management a massive headache attempting to unify the workforce.

Lost in Translation
This becomes even more apparent when these are forced to work together and collaborate. Traditionalists see the value in travelling for a face-to-face, whereas Generation Z don’t, and they see the value of virtual meetings and video conferencing. Traditionalist will always pick up a phone or email to discuss matters, whereas Generation Z prefer to get on Social and crowd source the information. However, both of these methods are right ! when applied appropriately.  

We Don’t Speak
So lets apply the following challenge often faced within mature businesses with multiple generations working with them:

Traditionalist: “I need some important information, no problem, I will just email the expert to gain the information I require…”

Traditionalist: “Who the hell is the expert?”

Generation Z: “I don’t have that problem, I don’t need to know the expert, I will simply post a request online and let the experts come to me ! if only you traditionalist knew about how easy this was…”

Generation Z: “Ah, What if the expert was one of those traditionalists…. Damn it !”

In business, this is a very common problem and often neither want to speak to even ascertain whether or not they can assist each other, and therefore you end up with Knowledge silos and knowledge gaps. However, technology can close this gap, without the different generations realising (well, perhaps with a little encouragement).

Closing this Gap
Social Media in Business: Ever remember the IT administrators cursing the introduction of Instant Messaging solutions into the workplace, and management cursing that it will end all productivity? Well quite the opposite occurred, productivity increased as users were able to enhance their communication and collaboration. The same can be said for introducing social media solutions. For generation Z these are familiar methods of communicating, in fact a lot of business is now performed via social media, so now is the time for businesses to embrace this communication medium. The benefits of Social Media:

• Supporting Team-Based Collaboration
• Distribution of Short Term Messaging & Information
• Strengthening Social Connection (Internal & External)
• Enabling Collective Intelligence
• Fostering Situation Awareness
• Enhancing Measurable Business Value
• Facilitating Knowledge Management

These are all great, however how to do you get the traditionalists using this technology, well most social media solutions include email contribution (e.g. Microsoft Yammer), whereby anything posted in Yammer gets emailed to subscribers, whom can then reply with their email.  The email encourages use of the social media platform, however if the user is not comfortable, they can stay within the email platform. Thus closing the gap between traditionalists and Generation Z, hopefully traditionalist will then start trying out social and convert.

Collaboration Tools: We have all seen the potential value of a business file sharing platform, so that items are not emailed around, or stored locally. As new challenges arise with regulations and legislation e.g. GDPR; centralisation and categorisation of data becomes paramount.

• Access to Data From Any Device, Any Location
• Compliance and Retention Policies
• Centralised Repository for User Data, Huge Storage Capacity
• Version Control and Collaborative Working
• Increased Productivity
• Mobility and Smart Working on all devices

Another great tool closing the generation gap is Microsoft OneDrive for Business.  This enables a centralised location for file services, but how does this provide the ability for the generations to collaborate? OneDrive can be accessed from any location on any device, something familiar to Generation Z, however it is also accessible from a standard explorer window, something the traditionalists will be more familiar with. The added bonus, OneDrive supports real-time collaboration, enabling both traditionalists and generation Z users to easily collaborate where ever and whenever they like.

Conclusion
These are just some ways that IT is now starting the to address various user types its been far too long that Vendors all consumers of IT are generation Z, only recently have we seen the integration between the traditional and the modern systems.  I must admit, I now find myself floating between all methods and utilise the easiest one given the situation, and this is where modern IT systems are now getting it right, and hopefully are enabling all 5 generations effective collaboration.