Bridging the "Bookends" and Creating Dialogue

I'm a 38 yr old professional who is having a great deal of fun learning about how to incorporate social media & and rapidly changing technologies into my personal and professional life. The biggest challenges for me have been learning the nuances of the tools (Twitter, Hootsuite, Seesmic, etc.), considering the whole personal/professional brand approach, and integrating what I've learned over the course of my professional career.


Fortunately for me, and largely because I've been working longer than some of my coworkers have been alive, I feel I understand my company's culture and brand to the point where I can work through these challenges. But it got me thinking about the other side of this equation and the recent online chatter over "bookend" generations.

Do younger professionals who possess the technological skills struggle with grasping the culture and/or brand of their respective organizations? Do they have enough "worldly" experience to understand the long term implications of their actions, posts, comments, or approaches? Or is their interpretation of the organization a true (or truer) reflection of the organization's personality or brand?

Perhaps by posing these questions we can introduce a new solution to closing the generational gap and filling the space between the "bookend" generations. By finding value in, and utilizing the stregnths of both (all) generations, we can begin to introduce new pathways for meaningful dialogue about the value in combining technology with experience and insight.

For the time being I'll continue to sit down with my younger colleagues to explore their interpretation of our organization and, when possible, steal a tip or two about how to manage multiple Twitter accounts. I will also work hard to help them understand the culture of our company, the importance of seeing the world through an old, wise man's eyes (not that old) and the value of engaging in a dialogue with those who may not know about Flickr, but know about the importance of teamwork, developing meaningful relationships, and the nuances of interpersonal communications.