Episode 36: Bridging the Generational Gap in the Workplace

Different generations. Different perspectives. One workplace.

In Episode 36 of the Designers of Change Podcast, we explore how organizations can bridge the generational gap and create stronger, more collaborative teams.

With Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z working side by side, understanding different communication styles, values, and expectations has never been more important. The organizations that thrive are the ones that learn how to harness the strengths of every generation.

Join us as we discuss leadership, workplace culture, employee engagement, communication, and practical strategies for building high-performing multigenerational teams.

🎙️ Episode 36: Bridging the Generational Gap in the Workplace

🎧 Watch now:
https://youtu.be/pe9w-CTymXA

#DesignersOfChange #GenerationalGap #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #FutureOfWork #EmployeeEngagement #HumanResources #TeamBuilding #OrganizationalDevelopment #WorkplaceCommunication #JamaicaPodcast 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Coming up on this episode of the Designers of Change podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Here's what I understand in life. If what you are doing is not working for you, it is working on you. So let me say that again. If your work is not working for you, your work is working on you. And the greatest mistake that we make in this painful season of our life is to quit on the things that we are doing. But there's no one to tell us that you are doing the right thing, it is just a season to keep going until this season has ended.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Welcome to the Designers of Change podcast. We are here with none other than Mr. Wright himself, Mr. Mindfood himself, and we're going to be embarking on the journey of exploring episode 35. Where this topic, when I saw it, I was so intrigued. We're going to be talking about in the furnace of a discouraging season. It says, the pain when nothing is working. Haven't we all been at a place like this? Now, before we jump into the episode, we want to say a huge thank you to our sponsors, Mindfood International, Jace Myra Media, Superletive Auto, Grace Creates, Amanda's Kitchen, Regional Consulting Services, all the way in K-Man, Proactive Lifestyle Limited, also to the self-care bar, Jesse's Home Decor, Max247 Wrecking Services, and also we want to say a huge, huge thank you to uh SKatering. Mr. Wright, yes, what a topic. Why did you even coin this one?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

You know, this this topic comes from many seasons that we are in, and I and I I believe or probably have a good feeling that there are people out there that want to hear something like this. Because everyone will go through a season, the furnace of discouragement, a season where you are discouraged, a season where you are doing something, but it seems as if nothing is working. You are you're applying the right principle, you are doing the right thing, you are on the right side of the law, but you are just in a season where it's it has m it is almost of the skies barren for you. There is nothing. And when you when you come to that season, you feel hopeless. You feel as if you want to throw in the towels of life. It is a frustrated place to be, to be in the furnace when nothing is happening. And so there are many people out here and they are going through this pain, they are losing confidence. And I can tell you one of the things about this season when you're in a season where nothing is working for you, you are losing confidence in yourself. And if you continue to lose confidence gradually, gradually without recognizing that it's just a season, you may give up on your dreams, you may give up on the things that value most to you that could have taken you further. And guess what? You can give up and momentum that is necessary to take you in the future. Because here's what I understand in life. If what you are doing is not working for you, it is working on you. So let me say that again. If your work is not working for you, your work is working on you, and the the greatest mistake that we make in this painful season of our life is to quit on the things that we are doing. Yes. But there's no one to tell us that you are doing the right thing, it is just a season to keep going until this season has ended. And so we kind of season for those of you out there today who are listening to this podcast, that it is just a season.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

It and and I know, I know it feels like forever, right? Sometimes you go through some periods and you're thinking to yourself, boy, I wish it were only a few months. When you look, you've been going through it for years, and you're thinking, when is this thing going to change? But we want to remind you that seasons do change. So you may be stuck in that cycle of frustration, a cycle of feeling um stressed. Yes, you know, even maybe depression, maybe knocking at your door. But I want you to understand again that season change. There's a time and a season for everything under the sun.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Not only that, but when you are in this season, apart from losing your confidence, what realize that is that in a season of discouragement, in the season where nothing is written, there's mounting frustration. Because we are usually frustrated when things are not working out for us.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

True.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Another thing that happened in this season is that there are many opposition. There are many opposition in this season. And so when you are in a season of discouragement, season where nothing is working, the opposition is going to come at you.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

And probably you are in the corporate here, um, corporate world, probably you are a business person, whatever field you might find yourself in, there will always be some kind of opposition. And it seems as if every single thing is going against you. But when you are in this season though, you become stressed. Because imagine a farmer is planting every day. We plant with the hope of getting a greater return. Nobody plants a seed to get back one seed.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

No, sir. No. You wouldn't plant that.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

No, you would not plant.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

You wouldn't plant it then.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

And so sowing involves multiplication. You plant one mango seed, you get a tree from that, and from that you get dozens of seeds. Right. But when you are in that season and you are working, you are tiling, you become stressed.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

And it it it begins to take a toll on the body. The business is not moving. You are doing the right thing, you are doing every single thing that the business coach tells you to do, the university tells you to do. But somehow it's not going. And guess what? It's it's just a season. It's just like if you are in Canada, in Canada right now, it's what which month we're in? We're in May. But it's still cold in Canada, it's still zero degrees someplace in Canada. It's still flurry. Flurry. But but but next month from this June, you are going going into the summer season.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

And so sometimes there are people who quit in the back end of the finishing part of the season. They have been working so hard. Yes. But now they are on the back end of this the winter season. You are now going into your summer season, your season of harvest. And that's a mistake that we have we made in the season, in the furnace of discouraged discouragement.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

Yeah, so you have people who will quit right when they're at the cusp of that breakthrough. Yeah. Because they felt as though they could not hold on any longer. And so, you know, we understand what that feels like. And so I I definitely could relate when I saw this topic. Now, we're gonna talk about how do you how do you change your perspective? Yeah, how do you ease the pain while you're going through you know such an unbearable situation or season? Because it's not, let's not behave as though this is something that is just so easy and simple and is a walk in the park. When people are, let's take for instant instance, when people are ill, yeah, you and you're not able to function, you're not able to work, you're not able to take care of your children. That's not something you can't say, oh, let me go do two affirmations in the mirror and you're over it. That's not the case. It's it's you literally have to get better first, yes, right? So we want to ensure that we give you guys some practical tips, but we're gonna go for a quick break. When we get back after this break, we're going to be going through how can you get out of, not necessarily get out of the season, but how can you bear out the season until the season change? How can you bear out the winter until spring, summer, whatever comes along so that you can at least reap a portion of your harvest. You can stay with us, guys. And we are so happy that you stuck with us. We're back, and we want to go back into our discussion as we were talking about being in the furnace of a discouraging season, and it's the pain of you know when nothing is working out. And so, right now, Mr. Rice is going to give us some practical principles that we can employ to adapt or at least to bear out those unbearable seasons of not seeing anything happening.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

So here's the thing about season though. We can't pray away season.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah. If you're in winter, yes, and you we live in the tropics. If if you're in region like Canada or you probably live in Toronto, New York, when it's winter, you can't pray away winter. You can't pray away it. What you can do though is to make adjustments in those seasons so that you can survive and outlast those seasons. So that is what we what we are talking about. When we find ourselves in a season that we don't like, you're not going to pray it away, but you are going to make adjustments. And so the first thing, first one in the season of discouragement when nothing is working. We have to recognize our source of discouragement.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

What is it that is making us discouraged? Is it that our business is making um us discouraged? Probably are working on the business. The business is making you discouraged. Probably it's a school, probably have been stuck in year one for the last you are you keep on failing this course, you keep on failing this course. Probably it's a relationship issues, probably it's something with your boss. So, whatever it is, you must identify what making you discouraged. But it is possible for you to do, is it possible for someone to feel discouraged without knowing what they are discouraged?

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Of course. I think there could be a number of things making you discouraged. And and sometimes, if we're to be completely honest with ourselves, it could be so many things that are going wrong that you are just in discouraged in general, you don't even know what to tackle first. Because you can go through seasons where nothing, absolutely nothing, is going right. And um, in moments like that, there you can hardly offer any words of encouragement to somebody who will say to you, I'm sick, I'm going through this problem, I'm going through that problem. I don't see any window of hope here. Yes, right? However, they should be able to still say, These are the reasons I'm not feeling so great.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yes, and so when you are in this discouraged season, you need to identify what's making us discouraged. And a lot of times, many people, many of us, we are discouraged because we are not where we want to be in life. And that can be a source of big discouragement. Yes, and sometimes we mourn the loss of that. I am not where I am I am at I am at this age, I should have done this, I should have done that, I should have been further. And it can be such cause of such pain, cause of such frustration. So when you are going through this season when there isn't nothing seems as if it's working, you're in the furnace of discouragement. You first need to identify what makes us or what makes you discouraged. The first one, the second one is though, you have to rely on past victory. Replay past victory because that is very important for us. Absolutely. Especially, especially when things are not going our way and we are praying. We you you want to ensure that you want to remember that there are some victory that God has pulled us out of. And so when we rely on those past victories, it it reinforces it, it it encourages us. When David was going up against Goliath, he replayed past victory that he had with the lion and the bears. And so when you are going through these discouraging seasons, you want to remember, you want to replay those past victories that you have in the past. And so if if you get those victories in the past, it is still possible, but now you are going through a season. And so sometimes you you you lose your confidence. But if you if you did it last year, you still have those skills. You just need to refine it. It's like a great footballer who have he was a great player last season, but this season he has lost his form. Yeah, he has no he has no confidence in his ability again. But that footballer or that player, he must re-watch his own videos to realize to so that those past victories can encourage him. So when you are going through these seasons, you want to rely on past victories.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

That's that's a really good one. Um, and that's something that I employ too. So, for example, um, when I'm going through my low moments, I like to reflect and I will even make a list even of my biggest accomplishments, and I'll say, well, I did this, I did that, and I'll timestamp them, I'll put dates. And I do that because it's important for me to remember what I have been able to accomplish before or what God has done for me before, so that guess what? I know it's possible again in the future. If I had the capabilities, the potential, the the you know, the skill set, the knowledge to do those things, then I can overcome this thing. No matter how big or great it may look right now, yes, I can overcome these ones that I'm faced with right now. So, yes, I love that one. Reflecting on past victories, that's super important.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yes, so that is very important when you are going through your low moment. You need to recall your past victory so that those past victories can reinforce, help to reinforce that to build up your confidence again.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

The third point is that you need to talk about your feelings. Nothing we we are human beings, we all feel discouraged.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

Powerful.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Life has its ups and downs. You are not going to go through life without ever feeling discouraged, right? Unless you are not working on anything, unless you are not becoming anything, unless you don't have goals and dreams. But the moment that you set out to do anything, there will always be some obstacle in your way.

SPEAKER_04 16:57

Yes, that's true. Or challenge. And you have to fail. I mean, failure is one sure way to be successful. If you've never, I said this to Jamar a few days ago. I said there are some people in your industry right now that will not give you the respect that you seek until you have conquered something great.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

Why? Because those men and women have had to fail, they have had to go through a few things to get to where they are. Likewise, they expect the same of you. So don't expect them to turn around and to big you up and all these different things. If you've never gone through anything, you will never receive that level of respect from them. So you have to conquer your own lion, tigers, and bears. So understand that you have to fail.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

And I like and I like that because here's the thing when you go through your rough period, especially publicly, when we know that someone is going through a rough period and you can observe that person life going through those difficult periods, and they emerge on the other side as Victor. Do you know what that does for you and the other person? One, that gives you the ability to speak and think because you must be qualified that gives you more credibility. That gives you more credibility. And guess what? You become an inspiration to another person. So, yes, you're going to talk about how you feel, but but through those um rough periods, you're going to use those rough periods to to to get better, to refine yourself. And yes, speaking about it is very good because you're not going to um crash out as as a as a period. But talk about your your feelings. It's the fourth one. I think it's the fourth one or the third, the fourth one. The fourth point is uh you should change your perspective. Whenever you whenever you are going through a rough period, a very difficult period, a dry period, you have to change your perspective. When they said, if you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at change. You have many organizations they were going through periods where they were losing market share. But guess what? They change your perspective, and we like to use the word a pivot. And so if you can see the advantage in the disadvantaged situation, because there's always advantage in a disadvantaged situation. What can I extrapolate from this difficult period? How can I use it for my advantage to go forward? Because the force that is pushing against you is also the force that is propelling you. Because we are but because we say it already. The wind that is that is preventing the eagle at flying at top speed, it is also the same wind that keeps the eagle in the sky. If you have to remove the wind, the eagle will be flying in a vacuum and the and the eagle will fall to the ground. Absolutely. When a plane is soaring, the plane is balancing between aerodynamics and gravity. Gravity is always pulling on the plane when the plane is flying. But guess what? The plane adapts to something higher. And so, in life, if you change your perspective and you keep on moving, the opposition will still pull at you. But guess what? If you change your perspective, you can you can turn that disadvantage into your advantage and move forward.

SPEAKER_04 20:47

I mean, this is my podcast, and I forgot a while ago. I was just lost completely lost in thoughts and just pondering on what you just said. And um, we're wrapping up right now, but there's a final one that I want to add to it, and it's what can I learn? Like even while you're in the midst of your winter season and you're changing your perspective and you're talking about how you're feeling, and you are reflecting on your past victories and all those different things. What can you learn while you are in this wilderness experience? Yeah, what can you learn from here so that what I learned here I'll never come back to? I'll use the principles in the future, I'll help somebody with it. It's so important for you to make a note of all these things because that's where that's a making of demand.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Yeah, you you know something Bill Gates put it, Bill Gates say it this way He said, Success is such a lousy teacher. You know the the most valuable lesson will come from your most difficult. Difficult season if you learn from it. In those difficult seasons, that is where it builds character, that is where it builds resilience. How to get up again. How do I adapt to change? And so when you are going through this low moment, what is in it that I can learn? That I can impart to the next generation. Because John C. Maxwell put it this way sometimes you win, but sometimes you learn. And so what are the things that I can get away? Probably a business is failing right now. Probably a business has failed. What can I learn from it? Probably you're not feeling well now, but how can I improve upon my health? Right. Probably have lost my confidence in this season, but what has this season taught you? Taught me. Am I more resilient now? Do I have to rely more on God in this season? And here's the thing it is in your weakness that God gets all of his glory. It's not when you are at your best. It's not your best.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

When you think you can do everything yourself, I promise you. It's never that.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

It's never that. And so if you are in a season today in the furnace where nothing seems to be going your way, you are discouraged. You have lost hope. You have lost confidence in yourself. Just remember this. And you are working, you are working, you're pushing, you are pushing. Just remember this. If your work is not working for you right now, your work is working on you. So don't throw in the towel. Because if you throw in the towel, you're going to lose that momentum that you need. Because there's always momentum that is built up. And guess what? When you ride out that season, because you can't pray away seasoning, we can make adjustments in those seasons. And some of you, you're probably on the back end of your season. If you're in Canada right now, you're in the back end of winter. Winter is almost finished. And so hang on to these principles.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

And that's it for our episode. Thank you so much for staying with us throughout this furnace discussion. You know, there's a scripture that says you'll come out pure goal, you know. I mean, if you can take the heat, that is. If you can take the heat, you will come out pure goal. But while you feel discouraged, understand that seasons don't last. We want to say a huge thank you to our sponsors for their support, their partnership, Jess Marie Media, Mind Food International, Super Lative Auto, Amanda's Kitchen, Grace Creates, Regional Consulting Services, Caribbean Gospel TV, the self-care bar, Jesse's Home Decor. Also, we want to say a huge, huge shout out to Max24 Wrecking Services, Proactive Health Lifestyle. And also, we want to say a huge thank you to you who are listening, watching us on all the platforms. Go over to YouTube, subscribe if you're not over there, and go check us out on Apple Podcasts where we're charting and also on Spotify and everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

And Caribbean Gospel TV.

SPEAKER_04 25:43

Yes, Caribbean Gospel TV, guys. Thank you so much for your support.