Unsafe at any level
I used to think a new generation of employees would, inevitably, make companies more open and collaborative, maybe even kinder.
But what I see is that young new joiners don’t change the company. The company changes them.
Unless you stage a kind of positive intervention.
Dimming the best and the brightest
I experienced this with recent graduates participating in their new company’s training program. The program was designed to help them build their network and manage their own careers. And they were an impressive group: the schools they attended, the subjects they studied, how they spoke and handled themselves in conversations.
But things got awkward when I gave them an exercise to make their work visible. Although many of them were comfortable sharing aspects of their personal life on personal channels, sharing work on work channels was somehow different. They had the same mental resistance almost all employees have.
I don’t have anything valuable to contribute..
What if I say something wrong or stupid?
What if I get in trouble?
Who am I to share my work?
Their managers are no better
Instead of driving change, the new joiners were waiting to see what the people around them were doing first, to see what’s acceptable. But their managers also had the same resistance. And the higher the level, the higher the perceived risks of working differently.
That’s how a culture of “not sharing knowledge”, for example, something we’ve lamented for decades, is passed on from generation to generation. Fairly soon, the new joiners work just like everybody else.
Disrupting the cycle
How can we stop the cycle? One approach we use is a peer coaching extension of the traditional onboarding program. It’s a kind of “positive intervention” that allows new joiners to practice different ways of working and experience the benefits for themselves. Here are three of the things they do together:
Observe role models. This gives them social proof so they see an open, connected, generous way of working is normal and safe.
Share their work. A series of small steps, taken in the context of a psychologically safe space, helps them practice and learn what to contribute and how.
Connect: “Purposeful networking” helps them discover colleagues related to their roles and goals, far beyond their manager and team, and then build trusted relationships with them.
Without an intervention like this, new employees won’t just be oriented into their new company, they’ll be assimilated. And our ways of working won’t get better.
What’s your experience? Will a younger generation change the workplace, or is it the other way around?
Where is it safe to work differently?