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357: How to Engage in Meaningful Conversations with Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z

Best Christian Workplaces : October, 02 2023

Healthy Communication

357: How to Engage in Meaningful Conversations with Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z

How would you like to guarantee that you're communicating effectively to all generations in your organization? Well, discover how from Dr. Darrell Hall, author of Speaking Across Generations: Messages that Satisfy Boomers, Xers, Millennials, Gen Z, and Beyond. Darrell is the pastor of The Way Community Church in the Atlanta area.

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In this episode:

How Darrell's genuine love for his local church influenced his doctoral research (06:05)
From a young age Darrell was called to serve, preach to, and teach people of all different ages (06:23)
Darrell's findings about how the different generations felt about those and the other generations when he did focus groups within his church (07:43)
There was a tendency to generalize and an honest ignorance, but overall the people had love for people of different generations. (08:44)
How does thinking about generations as people groups frame how we interact with each other in our churches, in our ministries, and even in workplaces? (10:48)
Being missionaries of different ages (12:59)
"I believe that love and also the unity of the Spirit and a bond of peace. I believe it's a phenomenon that the Holy Spirit makes possible for broken people." (13:56)
"Boomers and Millennials are much maligned and usually pitted against each other, and for good reason, too. I think the simple reason is that ours are the largest two generations in American history." (14:41)
Go into the conversation, not with the need to win the argument, but with the desire to win the person (16:45)
Some practical communication tips for each generation (17:53)
The Elders, born before 1945, desire communicators who are direct, clear, and unwavering in their point of view (18:23)
Boomers look for communicators who are a bit more skeptical. (19:14)
Xers are very intellectual, and the language for them is a language approving, defending, explaining research (20:25)
For Millennials, the speaker has to sound like a listener. You have to speak in a way that you acknowledge not just the intellectual capacity of the Millennial, but the free will and otherness of the Millennial. (21:27)
The language of Zers is this language where you are more human than you are authoritative (23:09)
How leaders can effectively lead an intergenerational organization. (26:12)