You don’t keep that in mind, it’s easy to make assumptions from your personal perspective that don’t apply to the person you’re talking to. And, when that happens, communication starts to break down. Whether it’s age, race, gender, politics, sports or something else, when people forget that you are not your audience, they miscommunicate and what could have been a productive conversation becomes mired in frustration, confusion or mixed messages. That’s why, in this article, we’re going to talk about ways to handle communicating with audiences of all types. For the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on generational differences in the workplace, but the principles we are going to discuss are fairly universal. Let’s get started.
Taking a Step Back We hear about Whatsapp Database discrimination and harassment in the workplace due to gender, race and sexual orientation all of the time, but those aren’t the only issues that can lead to miscommunication and outright problematic behavior. Age differences are another challenge that can cause real problems in the workplace. So far, age isn’t quite as hot of a topic as race or gender, which is why it’s a good framework for discussing these kinds of issues.
Most people have a strong stance on sexism and racism, but ageism? Not so much. See what I did there? When people have strong emotions about a topic, they pick a side and a stance that fuels those emotions and have a hard time being open to other viewpoints. So, instead of picking a topic for discussing bias and preconceptions in the workplace that evokes an immediate response in people (like sexism in the workplace), we’re going to focus on something most people don’t have a strong opinion about: ageism. And that’s the fundamental concept behind remembering that “you are not your audience”.