Intergenerational Collaboration

I had a recent conversation with someone one-third my age who was angry at Boomers like me for screwing up the world. While being cordial to me, she used all kinds of stereotypes to describe my generation, much like how many people my age typecast Gen Z.

It’s rare that I use my daily blog to let you know about a great opportunity but this feels like a good fit for so many of you. Encore.org has opened up applications for their second cohort of the Gen2Gen Innovation Fellowship.

I’m proud to be a Board member of Encore.org that has sprouted so many innovations for those of us over 50— from The Purpose Prize to Experience Corps to the Encore Fellows program. Three senior leaders from the org recently penned this essay on why non-profits are such ripe territory for the wisdom of experienced leaders looking for a second or third act.

On a recent trip to Santa Fe, I met Nuns and Nones co-founder Adam Horowitz at our Ranch to talk about their social justice movement and MEA’s movement to Santa Fe, including potentially purchasing a Catholic retreat center next door to a cloister of contemplative nuns.

I was in ‘the valley’ of purpose paralysis. I had been soul searching for 721 days after leaving my big corporate career. I felt flatlined from soul searching and identity shedding, wondering what my next move should be. I thought the C-Suite was my promised land until my corporate ego finally bowed down, and I sent a cold-call email pitch to Chip to be an MEA ‘intern.’

When you hear the word “Ageism,” what does it conjure up? For me, I think of employment discrimination against people with a few more wrinkles. Or I think about women in Hollywood who aren’t cast as romantic leads after age forty (“Sexism” rears its ugly head there as well).

The title says it all. "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is a song by Simple Minds and played during the opening and closing credits of the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club. For many of us, that movie was the Pièce De Résistance of films defining our generation - Generation X.

Many of you may have seen this recent New York Times magazine feature on the social life of forests. “Resources tend to flow from the oldest and biggest trees to the youngest and smallest. Chemical alarm signals generated by one tree prepare nearby trees for danger. Seedlings severed from the forest’s underground lifelines are much more likely to die than their networked counterparts.

An MEA alum recently asked me why I’ve never reviewed my last book, “Wisdom@Work,” for Wisdom Well. Honestly, I’d never thought of it...until this past week with the Airbnb IPO. So, here’s my attempt at giving W@W a new view based upon my past eight years as CEO Brian Chesky’s in-house mentor.

Recently, I was asked on a podcast about what someone my age could learn from someone half my age. Here was my spontaneous list, all of which is terribly generalized. Take what’s valuable to you and leave the rest: