There are now five—count them, five—different generations sharing the workplace. That’s got to be a first for humankind.
Whether you’re a traditionalist, boomer, Gen X, millennial, or Gen Z, things move pretty fast these days.
At Accenture, Karalee Close and her colleagues have been exploring how organizations can build trust at a time when AI and other tech is helping drive radical change. They’ve found a trust gap between workers and the C-suite, says Close, the firm’s global talent and organization lead.
Fewer than three out of 10 employees trust that their company’s leaders have their best interests at heart, an Accenture survey shows. At first glance, the rank and file are more bullish on generative AI, with 95% seeing value in working with it. But 60% fret that the technology could add to their stress and burnout, and roughly the same number feel insecure about their job. By contrast, only about a third of executives regard those things as problems.
To help create a company culture that narrows the trust gap, Close has a suggestion. Get all those generations working together.
Oh, and don’t make too much of the generation gap. “A lot of the research that we’ve seen shows that the generation thing is not as important as most think,” Close says. “Most of the issues and attitudes are not really about generational things, but about aging.”
In other words, it’s less about boomers versus Gen Z than about older, more experienced workers and younger, less experienced ones, Close explains: “To what extent are we actually helping people to work across the different cohorts?”
Whether systematically or by chance, Close sees companies putting people from different age groups together on teams, with good results. “Using that strength of bringing younger, fresh employees together with older, more experienced employees into a new way of working, into a team setting, is actually quite productive,” she says.
That’s especially important as businesses and their workers grapple with generative AI, Close reckons. Because it’s fairly new for everyone, there’s an opportunity to put the best minds on the case and test its strengths and limits.
“I think you’re going to have to throw out the old and create new if you’re going to take advantage of some of those newer technologies,” Close says. “You need a way of working that looks across multiple disciplines. And that’s where, I think, if you can find ways to co-create the future across generations, you have a real opportunity to build trust.”
Leaders should avoid the “negative narrative” around AI, Close maintains. Hint: Harping on about productivity and cost savings will only backfire.
“I would be thinking about how I use responsible AI and innovation around AI,” Close says, “to create a positive outcome and create more trust by building teams that are multigenerational and committed to breakthrough results that maybe take away some of the frustrations and issues in an organization.”
That includes the chance to replace routine tasks with more elevated ones, she adds: “If you talk about unlocking potential, if you talk about amplifying human performance, that’s a very different narrative, and people will come to the table in a different way.”
Maybe they’ll even have lunch together.
Nick Rockel
nick.rockel@consultant.fortune.com
