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MAPS

Welcome to this episode of the Medical Affairs Professional Society podcast “Elevate”. The views expressed in this recording are those of the individuals, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of MAPS or the companies with which they are affiliated. This presentation is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal or regulatory advice. And now for today’s “Elevate” episode.

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Rinat Ariely

Welcome to our MAPS podcast. I’m your host, Rinat Ariely, a Senior Director in the Global Medical Affairs Department at Teva Pharmaceuticals. And I’m delighted to have with me today my co-host Matthew John Rice, global Learning Architect Director at Merck. Today we’re going to talk about a book called “Gentelligence”.

00;00;52;01

Matthew John Rice

Wait, wait. What did you say?

00;00;55;02

Rinat Ariely

Yes, Matthew, you heard that right. I said “Gentelligence”, which is a term that means seeing the potential of generations as a necessary and powerful form of diversity of thought and how we can approach that in a smarter way, one that allows us to see them as an opportunity rather than a threat. So this is going to be a practical episode on leading an intergenerational workforce. Today, we’ll cover why “Gentelligence” matters and give you concrete tools and micro actions that you can use as soon as this week. Our talk is based on the book “Gentelligence: The Revolutionary Approach to Meeting an Intergenerational Workforce”, by Megan Gerhardt and her colleagues. Where relevant, our thoughts are our own individual ones and do not represent those of the companies that employ us. The “Gentelligence” book is a great one for leaders and workers alike of all ages, to become aware of the key issues around ageism and working with people from different generations. For leaders, it gives good tips and practices for establishing effective teams. For individual contributors, the book will prompt you to question your biases and assumptions, and think about how to work better with a diverse workforce.

00;02;07;25

Matthew John Rice

Wonderful. Again, I am Matthew John Rice. We want to engage you, our listeners. So, imagine with me. Imagine you just sent an important email asking for feedback. How long would you expect a reply to take? Jot down your answer. We’ll come back to that a little bit. I’m gonna repeat it one more time. Imagine you just sent an important email asking for feedback. How long would you expect a reply to take?

Now let’s talk about this podcast. This podcast is meant for you, Medical Affairs leaders. We want to provide you with tools: to understand who the different generations are; how they think; how they behave; and how they can coexist in your workforce. By the end of this 30-minute session, you as a Medical Affairs leader should be able to think about what you can do to prepare for the future. If you are just starting your career in Medical Affairs, this podcast is also for you. We’ll provide you with some tips for maximizing your interactions with colleagues in different generations than yours. Also, you can maximize your contributions and be ready to take on future leadership positions successfully. If you lead or you work with people across different generations, stay with us. We’ll give you practices and immediate actions to try. Now this is critical. Why? There are business risks if you ignore generational dynamics. What do I mean? There could be disengagement. There could be high turnover. Let’s be honest. There could be litigation risk and loss of innovation. Ignoring team dynamics is costly. We know for a fact there are many business cases out there on age discrimination lawsuits. We know people have generational stereotypes. We know about the negative impact of ignoring them. We have even seen data from the World Economic Forum, and they have clearly shared that companies with strong diversity, including generational diversity, have better market share, innovation, collaboration and lower turnover. We hope that we have your attention. Rinat?

00;04;39;07

Rinat Ariely

Thank you, Matthew. And yet, even after hearing all of this, it’s shocking to me to know that only 8% of DEI programs have included generational diversity! Let’s go back to that email response time exercise that Matthew talked about. Here’s what the research says. Baby boomers expect a response within about a week, Generation Xers within 3 to 4 days, and Millennials expect a response within 24 hours. Now, listeners, what were your estimates? Do they match with what the research shows? So – there’s obviously a need to understand how the different generations behave, their values, their expectations. There may be differences in level of formality, such as whether to call a work colleague by their first name or their last name (e.g. Mrs. Smith), or whether it’s appropriate to give unsolicited advice. But there are also many commonalities among generations. For example, from the clip “Office Etiquette across Generations”, we learned that both Millennials and Boomers are okay with turning off your camera during a virtual meeting. The response from Boomers was: “Sure, as long as you’re paying attention” and Millennials say “Yes, please. Sometimes I’m listening. I’m just eating lunch off camera”. So an action for you is to add generational preferences to your team charter. Document communication norms. For example,  what are expected response times? What are the formality levels expected? What is the video camera etiquette within your team? These are all helpful questions that will help you understand and optimize generational differences.

00;06;25;11

Matthew John Rice

We’re hoping we’re piquing your interest and there’s more action for you right now. Some of you might be book readers and cannot wait to order “Gentelligence”, the book by Meghan Gerhart. Some of you may not like to read books, and that’s okay. We’re going to bring to your attention to a TED Talk. It’s titled “Why I Love Millennials” and in the description of this podcast, you will see a link to this TED Talk. Rinat?

00;06;55;04

Rinat Ariely

Okay, Matthew, thank you for that. Now let’s try to understand exactly who are we talking about. Who are these generations? How does today’s workforce look very different than in the past? Why is it important to know about these? For the first time, companies are employing the key types of generations simultaneously. That is, if you don’t already know, Baby Boomers, Generation X’ers, Millennials, Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Each generation has its own characteristics and ways of working, as we have been discussing, which can bring clashes but importantly opportunities, if the differences and similarities are nurtured correctly. So let’s highlight the main characteristics of each working generation so our listeners can understand what we are working with. Let’s start with Baby Boomers.

00;07;47;13

Matthew John Rice

I have the Baby Boomers!. They represent 19% of our workforce. They were born between 1946 and 1964, in a time of unparalleled social and cultural changes. They lived through the Vietnam War, the moon landings, the pill, Beatlemania!! What are they known for? Baby Boomers are known for a strong work ethic, a commitment to traditional values. Baby Boomers contribute to the wealth of experience and stability of our current workplace. Engaging in conversations that acknowledge their unique journey can foster mutual understanding and respect. According to E&Y, organizations need to ensure older workers are upskilled and able to use new tech tools while channeling knowledge transfer to the younger generations.

00;08;48;12

Rinat Ariely

Now let’s talk about that Generation X. These folks make up 35% of the workforce and are born between 1965 and 1980. These folks are shaped by technological advancements and economic fluctuations, and are known for their independence and adaptability. Recognizing their resourcefulness and entrepreneurial spirit is key. They share experiences of navigating the challenges of the 80s and 90s. This can form a powerful bond among Generation Xers.

00;09;18;24

Matthew John Rice

I love it and I’m a Generation X person here. Well, let me talk about the Millennials. The Millennials represent the largest percent of our workforce. They represent 39.4%. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996. They grew up during rapid technology and globalization. They’re very adaptable. They value innovation, diversity and work life balance, as well as creativity. Millennials value collaboration. They definitely value opportunities for professional development. And a workplace culture that aligns with their ideals.

00;10;04;24

Rinat Ariely

Now, what about Generation Z? These folks are born between 1997 and 2012. And not surprisingly, they’re characterized by their tech savvy nature and global perspective. They have fresh ideas on work and technology. They’re raised in the era of social media and instant communication and their values are authenticity and inclusivity. Engaging with his generation involves providing opportunities for skill development and changing technology, and fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment.

And finally, Generation Alpha, born in 2013 and beyond. This is the most recent addition to the generational spectrum. While they are still in their early stages, this generation is likely to be shaped by ongoing technology advancements, global interconnectedness, and evolving societal norms. So understanding this generation is understanding the needs and preferences as they begin to enter the workforce in the coming years. For a greater description of all of these generations, please refer to the “Gentelligence” Book from pages 41 to 42. Now, listeners, we encourage you to run a five minute generational preferences exercise. Check in with your team. This would be a healthy way to understand the differences and similarities, and hopefully you can publish some norms so that the team can work more “Gentelligently” together. Now let’s move over to some of the common roadblocks among the generations that we just described. The book lists four roadblocks. These are: generational shaming, age bias, value perception, and knowledge gaps. So in a nutshell, generational shaming is exactly what it sounds like. Having prejudice against some generations, such as “millennials are entitled”, or “older workers are resistant”. Age bias refers to things such as someone’s too young to have a valid opinion, or too old to be innovative. And the biases go both ways. Old to young and young to old. Value perception refers to the different values different generations hold. But the book discusses that in the end, we all want the same thing, which in a nutshell are respect, competence, connection and autonomy. And finally, knowledge gaps refer to different generations having different knowledge strengths. And we’ll come back to this in a minute. For more on this please refer to Chapter 3 in the book, pages 45 to 62.

00;12;41;27

Matthew John Rice

Now, Rinat, let’s go back to this. We know there are differences, but there are also these four shared values across all generations. I’m going to restate them again. Everyone wants respect, competence, connection and autonomy. How can you today start building this culture within your team and across your organization? It could be as simple as asking some questions to get to know various members on your team. For example, on a summer day. Is it okay to wear flip flops at the office? I bet you a Boomer might say “Absolutely not. This is not the beach.” But I bet you also someone who’s a Millennial might agree as well. They might say “Feet belong under the desk. Not on display.” Or ask another question. Is it okay to use emojis or GIFs in a work message? Maybe people might say as a Boomer “I think a tasteful smiley never hurt anybody.” And maybe even a Millennial might say “Exactly. Professionalism with personality!” Asking questions to be curious can start the conversation.

00;14;04;20

Rinat Ariely

Wonderful examples. Now let’s move on with the book, which goes on to speak about four key practices of “Gentelligent” teams have, and this refers to Section 4. So the four practices discussed are: resisting assumptions, adjusting the lens, strengthening trust, and expanding the pie. And I’ll walk through each one of those. Resisting assumption is really asking ourselves what assumptions might we hold. And checking whether they’re substantiated or not. A good exercise as a leader to run for your team would be a five minute assumption audit. What assumptions might the team be making? Could some of them be straighten out? Adjusting the lens refers to using the DIE method: Describe, Interpret and Explain. DIE. And that really asks you to step back before responding to a behavior or a communication that you see. And asking yourself what was the intention of the person when they acted or wrote that piece of communication? For example, as we mentioned before, when someone goes off camera, are they doing it to be rude? Or maybe they need to eat lunch or they’re sick that day, so they need to be off camera. Strengthening trust really talks about psychological safety and creating an environment where everyone is feeling safe to come with their opinions and their truth. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that in a second. But it really talks about instituting a structured turn taking within team meetings and also perhaps publishing safety norms. One good recent example from my team is the use of the “raise your hand” feature in Microsoft Teams, which gives everybody a chance to voice their opinion during meetings. And finally, expanding the pie really talks about creating mutual gain opportunities through mentoring opportunities, rotations, preceptorships, shared projects, and the list goes on and on.

00;16;08;07

Matthew John Rice

Now I’m going to share a word with you from the book called Chronocentrism. I’ll say it again. Chronocentrism. That’s believing that your own era is superior. It happens, it’s natural. You’re familiar with your own generation. I’m a Gen Xer, but we know today in our world, we will have the opportunity to work across generations. Rinat just shared with you some micro steps. She told you resist assumptions. She shared with you that you need to adjust your lens. Our intent is to strengthen trust and expand the pie. This is not about one generation outdoing the other generation. This podcast means nothing unless you listeners choose one practice and put in place. Now I’m going to tell you a story. Google wanted to research on what makes the most highly effective teams. It’s Google – they have the data. The project was called Project Aristotle. And what they found out is that the number one thing that drove high performing teams was psychological safety. What does that mean? Psychological safety. A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up. Think about that right now in your organization. Do you believe you have the ability to speak on up to share your ideas, questions, or concerns or mistakes? Do you believe it’s safe in your team to do so? That’s the one thing you could do is start building an environment where it’s safe to speak up. Now, if you are a leader in the organization right now, y u need to create space for others to talk. Rinat just gave you an idea. She’s using the raise your hand function for the virtual meetings. I’ll give you another one right now. Don’t speak first. Instead, maybe start off by asking your team. “How would you do it?” There are an enormous number of resources available to you today that are absolutely free. The references to this podcast will give you all of them, but I’m going to point out one. It’s coming from Google. It’s called re:Work . You can go and download free resources to start thinking through creating an environment for your organization to strengthen trust. Now, I also want to go back to the book and talk about other ideas in the book “Gentelligence”. Chapters 5-9. There are amazing meeting techniques, talent development ideas, guided exercises. It’s up to you to act on it. I mentioned about psychological safety. We know that is important. I strongly suggest you do your own research. Make a decision if you’re going to act on it. Rinat, handing back over to you.

00;19;31;26

Rinat Ariely

Thanks, Matthew. Now I want to go back and talk about a few other issues and topics that the book discusses. One of them is the appearance impact for leaders according to the book. Appearances impact how one’s leadership is perceived, not surprisingly. Did you know that research shows that more than 40% of employees report to someone younger than themselves? This is pretty substantial, and so it’s important to listen. Oftentimes, looking young can undermine someone’s authority. Research again shows that organizations going through change prefer younger faces for leadership, whereas older faces are preferred in an organizations that seeks stability. So it seems that leadership age may change according to organizational changes and needs. Whatever age you are, we recommend pairing confidence with vulnerability. Like Matthew said before, ask yourself I don’t know and ask your team “how would you do it”? Those are very powerful techniques to establish psychological safety and “Gentelligence”.

00;20;34;29

Matthew John Rice

Leading with vulnerability is a superpower. Brené Brown has a book called “Dare to Lead.”  She has done so much research on the power of vulnerability with leaders. When was the last time you, our listeners, actually sat in a meeting and said “I don’t know — how would you do it?” What if we did that? Would it create space for people across generations to share ideas? That’s what you need to do.

00;21;09;19

Rinat Ariely

Okay, Matthew, thank you for that. Now let’s pivot from talking about individual tools to tools  to enhance your teams and if you want them to become more “Gentelligent”. We’ve already mentioned a few tools such as psychological safety. In addition, the book talks about teams needing structure, support and meaning. Psychological safety is essential, as we know, and you need to avoid age segregated interactions. So how do you do that exactly? There are three techniques that the book discusses. One is the Nominal Group technique, which is silent idea generation in a round robin fashion. Another one is the Stepladder technique, where members present individually then join as a group to prevent conformity. And then the book discusses a third option of leader behaviors, which could include rotating leadership within a meeting and creating space to listen. All of these three things are powerful and are yours to consider to implement within your teams.

00;22;13;23

Matthew John Rice

All right. To our listeners out there, lean in. Now, this is not just about listening. You have to choose one of these nominal group techniques. The concept of listening and silent idea generation is powerful. It’s called brainwriting. If you allow each individual on your team the time to think on their own to come up with their own ideas, you’re going to reduce the likelihood of having anchoring. So the Nominal Group technique, the Silent Idea generation, is a wonderful idea to actually get more innovation across your generations. There are other things that you could be doing. For example, the Step Ladder technique, allows the team to keep on having the opportunity to present and to prevent a group from coming together too quickly. Fantastic. Which one of these techniques are you going to use? It’s up to you.

00;23;23;17

Rinat Ariely

Awesome. Now let’s discuss the final few chapters of the book. Let’s start with Chapters 7 and 8 which talk about talent development and culture. And when the book talks about talent retention, it’s really talking about what we as leaders are going to do to retain our top talent and make sure they feel engaged and relevant and heard. And we know this may look different for different generations. You have options here. You can use rotations between departments to keep things interesting and keep people developing. Preceptorships. And you can also think of mutual mentoring as engines of learning and retention.

00;24;02;22

Matthew John Rice

I love it. The concepts of rotations, preceptorships, and mutual mentoring—not reverse mentoring—are amazing examples. There are so many companies out there that are getting it right. Google’s 20% Time Policy. They allow their employees 20% of the time to work on things that they are passionate about. Apple’s Blue Sky Program. Innovative new things happen. E&Y has a very simple mental health program. It’s as simple as “R U OK?” What are you doing? What are you doing in your organization that helps create shared values of respect, competence, connection, and autonomy? Think through what you can bring to your team, your division, your company.

00;24;58;20

Rinat Ariely

All right, Matthew, we’ve reached the last Chapter in the book which is called “Gentelligence Takeaways and Toolkit. This chapter is really summarizing the final charge. What we want you, the listeners, to take home. The message to take home is stop generational shaming and practice “Gentelligence” every day. And the book includes wonderful toolkits in the appendices that you can use as leaders, as team members, to increase your “Gentelligence”.

00;25;27;27

Matthew John Rice

Wonderful. So let me just quickly restate the four practices. Everyone must resist assumptions. Everyone must adjust their lens. We all must strengthen trust and know that we can expand the pie. It’s not about one generation taking over another generation. You, our listeners, need to choose one technique. You need to make a commitment out loud. I will go forward in my meetings, and I will ask my team members: “How would you do it”? That alone, that simple technique creates space for innovation to come from across the generations. Now it’s up to you. Also, we want to hear from you. Each one of you are in a unique situation with your company, in your teams. We want to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Respond to our LinkedIn post. Let us know about any topic or content you would like us to review related to “Gentelligence” or anything that we might have missed related to leading across generations. We would love to hear from you.

00;26;40;28

Rinat Ariely

Thank you, Matthew, for joining me on this insightful discussion today. I really learned so much, and I hope you listeners also have. If you’re interested in further reading about this exciting topic of “Gentelligence”, please refer to the podcast description where you can find all the links to the resources we mentioned. Thank you so much for listening and stay tuned for further learning in the future!