At Retail Confectioners International’s (RCI) Annual Convention
& Industry Expo, Keynote Speaker, Matt Havens, kicked off the convention
week with the hilarious opening session, Us
vs. Them. Being a relevant topic
for leaders of any business and industry, retail confectioners filled the
education session eager to discover new solutions to effectively manage four
distinct generations operating side-by-side.
During Haven’s presentation, he poked fun at the different generations
represented in today’s working environment, pointing out that there are really
only two generations in the workplace, “people younger (or less-experienced)
than you are and people older (or more experienced) than you are.”
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| ©2016 Keynote Speaker Matt
Havens. All Rights Reserved.
Not only were attendees rolling with laughter during his
presentation, they walked away with a simplified understanding of the
generation gap, as well as applicable strategies to create a more effective
working environment for team members of all ages.
See
below for just a few major takeaways, as well as strategies from Matt Haven’s Us vs. Them.
MAJOR TAKEAWAYS
·
Advancement
is a process that never stops. As a parent, you
will continue to learn new things 20 and 30 and 40 years after the birth of
your children. And as a professional, you should expect to keep learning new
skills, new technologies, and new approaches in the last five years of your
career just like you did in the first five years of your career.
·
Your
company’s current practices and processes exist for extremely good reasons.
To date, those practices and processes are the best that anyone who has ever
worked at your company has ever come up with. That doesn’t mean they can’t be
improved, but it definitely means that they shouldn’t be completely discounted
either.
·
No
matter what generation you consider yourself to be a part of, you do not know
everything there is to know. Every generation
needs the other, because no one group of people has a monopoly on knowledge.
You need your older colleagues to learn how they’ve done what they’ve done and
to help guide you so that you don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel; and
you need your younger colleagues to help you
GENERATIONAL
STRATEGIES
·
Invite
your newest employees to deliver a presentation to the rest of your team on a
topic they already know something about. It will convince
your newest team members that you value their knowledge, and it should also
convince your older team members that your new hires have something valuable to
offer.
·
When
discussing a potential change, invite everyone to debate the pros and cons of
adoption. You probably won’t get 100% buy-in once the
final decision is made, any more than you’ll get 100% buy-in from anything. But
you will be certain that you’re making your decision with all the available
information, and everyone will know the potential risks to watch out for as
well as the potential rewards for moving forward.
·
Create
teams of varying age ranges. Studies have shown
that diverse groups that communicate well with each other are consistently more
productive than homogenous teams.
Learn more about Matt Haven's and his
insightful journey to understanding the generational gap at www.matthavens.com.
RCI Members: Stay tuned to view Matt's full presentation and other education
sessions from RCI's 2016 Annual Convention & Industry Expo, which will be
available on our member site at retailconfectioners.org.
Stay connected
with RCI through Facebook for more
tips and inspiration dedicated to the retail candy maker. Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help
you build your sweet business.
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