Generational Intelligence: Working with multi-generations - TMED 801

TMED Blog

| 8 January 2025

By: Aikam Rai, TMED MSc '26 (Candidate) and TMED 801 Student

On November 28, 2024, the Medical Grand Rounds at Queen’s University welcomed Alexandre Messager to present and facilitate a discussion about generational intelligence in healthcare systems. Alexandre is a recognized expert in leadership development that promotes implementation of supportive and inclusive healthcare systems. He has over 12 years of experience at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine and is the founder of the Human Leadership Humain.

Alexandre started the session with a thought-provoking statement in which he said that the “Achilles heel” of healthcare is the lack of team development. His discussion demonstrated that this is particularly the case in workplaces with generational divides. This is because individuals from different generations have values that do not always align, resulting in negative team dynamics (1). In Canada, this challenge is very evident as census data shows that the workingage population is 17.6% Generations Z, 19.7% Baby Boomers, 29.5% Generation X, and 33.2% Millennials (2).

So, how do we bridge this generational gap? Alexandre answered this question by talking about how acknowledging generational differences with an open mind is vital in promoting team dynamics (3). With this idea this in mind, Alexandre brought up the topic of psychological safety, which means that every generation should have a seat at the table and feel safe speaking up and using their working style, without a fear of negative consequences (4). The importance of this concept is also emphasized in literature as a study that analyzed the impact of psychological safety in healthcare settings on patient care, found that higher psychological safety is associated with better team performance and patience centred care, whereas poor psychological safety is associated with decreased patient safety (5).

Now the question is, how do we increase psychological safety in workplaces? Some ways include promoting mindful communication, encouraging individuals to voice their opinions, and focusing on increasing generational intelligence (6). Understanding that each generation’s values must be accounted for when giving them a role in medicine and patient care is very important (3). For example, the Baby Boomer generation enjoys mentorship roles (7). In a translational medicine setting, this can mean that they are asked to supervise new students. Contrastingly, Generation X prefers roles where they have flexibility (7). In a patient care setting, this could mean that they are given alternating tasks daily. Furthermore, Alexandre discussed that reverse mentorship is a strong approach to resolving the generational divides by encouraging youngers generations to also teach older generations about topics they are more confident in (8). For example, Generation Z is well informed about mental health resources and technology, and can aid others in learning to use them (7).

In summary, the main objectives to take away from this session were: 1) recognizing that workplaces consist of individuals from different generations, 2) acknowledging that certain generations have different preferences when it comes to work, leadership, and communication styles, 3) learning how to foster supportive environments for all generations, and 4) understanding how to constructively address inter-generational differences.

References

Hennelly DS, Schurman B. Bridging Generational Divides in Your Workplace. Harvard Business Review. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://hbr.org/2023/01/bridging-generationaldivides-in-your-workplace
Statistics Canada. A generational portrait of Canada’s aging population from the 2021 Census. 2022:15. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/98-200-X/2021003/98-200-X2021003-eng.pdf
Abujaber A, Nashwan A, Santos M, et al. Bridging the generational gap between nurses and nurse managers: a qualitative study from Qatar. BMC Nurs. 2024;23(1)doi:10.1186/s12912-02402296-y
Ito A, Sato K, Yumoto Y, Sasaki M, Ogata Y. A concept analysis of psychological safety: Further understanding for application to health care. Nurs Open. 2022;9(1)doi:10.1002/nop2.1086
Grailey KE, Murray E, Reader T, et al. The presence and potential impact of psychological safety in the healthcare setting: an evidence synthesis. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021;21(1)doi:10.1186/s12913-021-06740-6
Luthra P. Is poor generational intelligence holding you back at work? World Economic Forum. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2019/02/generationalintelligence-in-the…
Tussing TE, Chipps E, Tornwall J. Generational Differences in the Nursing Workforce: Strategies for Nurse Leaders. Nurse Leader. 2024;22(5)doi:10.1016/j.mnl.2024.03.007
Madhavanprabhakaran G, Francis F, Labrague L. Reverse Mentoring and Intergenerational Learning in Nursing: Bridging generational diversity. Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. 2022;22(4)doi:10.18295/squmj.4.2022.027

Generational Intelligence: Working with multi-generations - TMED 801

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Generational Intelligence: Working with multi-generations - TMED 801

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