Generational intelligence: Age is no barrier

Generational intelligence (GI) is becoming a key booster of success alongside AI, says Waldemar Olbryk, President of the Management Board of Archicom, initiator of the Gen4Gen project. 

Are today’s organizations ready for Generational Intelligence? This is the question asked by Gen4Gen project experts. Their aim is to create a broad, public discussion on multigenerational cooperation as a spring of development and to create a broad platform for communication across all generations of professionals.

“At Gen4Gen, we are creating a space where experience meets new ideas and age diversity becomes a driver of innovation,” says Olbryk. “The Gen4Gen project is about creating a broad platform that shares practical knowledge on how to use Generational Intelligence,” he adds.

“There are four generations of employees on the labor market today. The intergenerational differences between them constitute a challenge for both managers and employees. In order to fully utilize the potential of age-diversified staff, an organization’s GI becomes crucial,” he goes on. 

“A holistic transformation is needed, and this requires multigenerational dialogue. Only the simultaneous use of AI and GI allows for faster and real changes in the organization and the achievement of assumed goals,” Olbryk says.

“Our mission is to change the way we look at how to connect representatives of different generations, meet their professional needs, develop their career path and effectively carry out transformation in an organization using IG,” he adds. “At Gen4Gen, we create a space for exchanging experiences and ideas on how to develop generational intelligence and make age diversity a driving force in the organization. We tell you how to build a business reality that takes advantage of the potential of every generation. We want to create a publicly available source of inspiration, practical information and ready-made patterns for action. 

Olbryk spoke with US entrepreneur, Chip Connelly, the author of several books at the intersection of psychology and business. 

“The most neglected fact in business is that we’re all human and understanding psychology is important. I mean, it doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. It often doesn’t show up in a business plan. But the psychology of understanding organizations and understanding people, and understanding yourself, is pretty essential,” Connelly says.

“Daniel Goldman 25 years ago showed that emotional intelligence is the number one variable associated with successful leaders. So let’s recognize that it’s not going out of style. And it’s hard to teach, but part of what I try to do in my time at the Academy, but also my books is help people understand how to be more emotionally intelligent,” he adds.

“After I’d run my own company for 24 years at age 50, I had two years off. And I really enjoyed those two years. I went around the world to the world’s best festivals. And then out of the blue, at age 52, I got a call from Brian Chesky, who’s the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, saying, hey, how would you like to help us democratize hospitality? And I thought that was really interesting. But at age 52, I was twice the age of the average employee there. and so, yeah, it was older. And, but what they said is a modern elder is someone who’s as curious as they are wise. I called myself a mentorn, a mentor and an intern at the same time because I was learning a lot from them about digital intelligence, because I never worked in a tech company before. I had to be open to be the oldest person in the room, and sometimes the dumbest. And that’s how the Elder Academy came about. We have two campuses, one in Mexico and one in the US, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

“I think after age 50, you know, we have to realize that, something’s shifting inside of ourselves, and the primary operating system is no longer the ego, and now it’s the soul. It’s something that wants to give back, wants to make a difference, wants to have a legacy. And that’s what I’ve been feeling for, you know, over a dozen years now.”