“I think that my generation has a very difficult time not telling a Gen Zer, ‘Hey, you’ve got to pay your dues, shut up and just get your work done,’ when they bring so many ideas to the table and we’re not ready to listen. The assignment I’ve given myself this year is: Speak as if you believe you’re right, but listen as if you believe you’re wrong. And that has been a game changer.”
“I think social media has hindered the collaboration and added to the conflict.”
“We’ve got to get out of our echo chambers and find someone that’s 22 if we’re 52 or someone that’s 52 if we’re 22 and say, ‘Let’s get a latte and let’s swap stories, find common ground and then learn from each other.’”
“We’ve got to begin with belief. I think because we don’t know someone well or a generation well…we not only stereotype, but we put a wall up instead of a bridge.”
“When I talk to a Gen Zer, I have to do the work of a cross-cultural relationship because they have a different language, different customs, and different values.”
“So what if churches did this? What if they had reverse mentoring groups and we even gave them some questions to start with?”
“My argument is if you care about the future, you get up off your butt and you do the work you’ve got to do to understand [younger people].”
“I have this theory I learned from Sam Chand: Conflict expands based on the distance between expectations and reality.”
“We’ve got to stop the stereotyping. We’ve got to catch ourselves in it…I think we need to be asking ourselves: What do they bring to the table that we don’t yet have?”
Mentioned in the Show
“A New Kind of Diversity: Making the Different Generations on Your Team a Competitive Advantage” by Dr. Tim Elmore
Growing Leaders
Check out Tim’s website
Follow Tim on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter
Reverse mentoring
Roe vs. Wade
Socrates
