I’m 59. A seasoned executive coach. Which means I usually spend my days with other seasoned and experienced people - executive boards, C-level leaders responsible for large organizations and dealing with serious complexity.
And then suddenly you find yourself in a room where half the participants could easily be your children.
A few days ago I had the privilege to run a workshop that is actually quite rare in my work.
A Vice President, several Team Heads, and the entire department. And what struck me almost immediately was how many young professionals were in the room. At one point I looked around and had the slightly unsettling thought that I might be the only person there who remembers the world before the internet.
When you mostly work with senior leadership teams, that doesn’t happen very often.
And I have to admit: I found it very refreshing.
There was an openness in the room. A willingness to ask questions that experienced professionals sometimes stop asking - not because they are less capable, but because over time we absorb the invisible rules of how things are “normally done”.
Young professionals are often not yet fully socialized into those rules.
So they ask the obvious questions.
Why exactly are we doing it like this?
Couldn’t this also work differently?
And that creates space again. It brings curiosity and a certain lightness back into conversations that organizations sometimes slowly lose as experience accumulates.
There is also an enthusiasm around possibility that hasn’t yet been dampened by too many cycles of organizational reality.
And I noticed how much I enjoyed being around that.
At the same time I wondered what someone like me actually contributes in such a room.
Apart from a bald head and a suspiciously long professional history.
Maybe simply the benefit of having watched organizations and leaders for three decades. After a while you start recognizing patterns - how decisions unfold, how psychology shapes outcomes, and how crises that feel dramatic today often become more contextual with time.
With the years something else seems to grow as well: a bit more perspective, a bit more patience with complexity - and perhaps the quiet satisfaction of passing some of that on when younger colleagues are curious enough to explore it.
Maybe this is how generations complement each other in organizations.
Younger professionals bring curiosity, courage and fresh eyes.
People with more mileage bring context, experience and the long view.
In psychology this interplay is sometimes described as fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.
Both matter.
And together they are often where real learning happens.
In any case, I left that workshop genuinely energized. It was a pleasure to spend time with people who still approach their work with that level of curiosity.
Organizations often talk about generational differences.
Maybe we should talk more about generational learning.