Category Archives: FAQ

Aren’t there a lot of people who don’t fit the profile for their generation?

There are. When we talk about generational profiles, we’re talking about the millions of people in the middle of the bell curve. The information about those millions is tremendously valuable in all aspects of business: running meetings, communicating with colleagues, resolving conflicts, making sales calls. There are lots of people out on the tails of the curve, though, making it essential we get to know people as individuals.

Don’t the generations actually overlap?

Yes, generations overlap by as much as 7 or 8 years. Just as eras don’t have start and end dates, a generation doesn’t end one day and another begin the next. That’s why a lot of people identify with at least two generations.

You talk about adapting your management style to the needs of each generation. But don’t you think good management, getting to know people as individuals, and treating everybody respectfully cuts across the generations?

Learning about the generations doesn’t mean managers don’t need to get to know people as individuals. That’s still required. But what it means to “treat people respectfully” varies from generation to generation. Many Gen-Xers would say that respectful treatment means being direct and straightforward, while someone with WWII Generation values–no matter their age–might define “respectful” as using good grammar, “Sir” or “Ma’am,” and “please” and “thank you.”

How do race and ethnicity factor in?

All members of a generation grew up in the same era. As a result, most of them saw the same news events on television, read the same headlines in the papers, and went to schools using similar educational practices. However, racial and ethnic differences, along with socio-economic differences, are every bit as important, probably more important, than generational differences in shaping our perspectives.

Isn’t this stereotyping?

Our generational data comes from a variety of sources, including demographic surveys of tens of thousands of people. It’s a matter of how the information is used. If we use it to stereotype and pigeonhole others, it can be extremely detrimental. If, on the other hand, we use the information to look at ourselves and find ways to be more effective by developing empathy and understanding, being better listeners, and communicating with others in mind, then we’ve spent our time well.

Isn’t this an age thing?

Aren’t you just talking about life stages? No, it has to do with far more. In fact, each generation approaches each stage of life with its own unique style. For example, the Baby Boomers are very different seniors than their World War II generation parents. They sign up for far more adult education courses, serve in parks and recreation departments, and join in entrepreneurial start-ups. Today’s Millennial Generation twentysomethings are more optimistic and have more heroes than the Gen X twentysomethings before them.

Where did the title “Generation X” come from?

It comes from a Canadian writer by the name of Douglas Coupland who wrote a novel called Generation X. He’d heard his generation called “Twentysomethings,” “Thirteeners” (because they’re the thirteenth generation since the Declaration of Independence), “Post-Boomers,” and “Baby-Busters.” He didn’t like any of those titles. They were all inventions of Baby Boomers, and he, like many others, felt the Boomers had been especially judgmental of his generation. He was looking for a generic title, sort of a non-label, and that’s how he came up with “Generation X.”

Wasn’t the baby boom from 1946 to 1964?

Yes, you have your dates right. The post-war boom in births began precisely nine months after the end of WWII and continued through 1964. But most people who study the generations find that the Baby Boom perspective is found in people who were born in the early 1940s. That group of people went to school with the Boomers, listened to the same music, and shared the same heroes. On surveys, the majority of them say they identify more with Baby Boomers than with the older generation. On the other end of the birth curve, we’ve found that people born in the early 1960’s, though officially considered Boomers, identify far more with Generation X. They weren’t old enough to be aware of JFK’s assassination and they didn’t feel a part of the sixties, a decade Boomers typically associate strongly with. That’s why we usually say the Baby Boom profile begins around birth year 1940 and runs through about 1960.