It’s official! My lived experience has caught up to my area of expertise.

By Lisa Taylor

In the Flippin’ Ageism issue of Workforce Architecture, Challenge Factory created an explainer video that asks, “How old is old?”

The purpose of the video is to show that opinions about age, like many things in life, are relative. Who you are and how you are different from other people often shapes your opinions on issues, including how you’d answer a question like how old is old.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about this video a lot. In it, a 50-year-old is represented as both old and young, depending on whether they are being seen by someone younger or older than them.

I turn 50 years old in June 2024. For many people, turning 50 is a major life milestone. For me, the significance of this birthday is different.

I’ve been studying the intersection of age and work since my early 30s—in particular, the shift that happens in careers starting at age 50.

I used to get questions and comments (oh, the comments!) from audiences doubting my authority to speak about a life and career stage that I had not yet reached. It was impossible for me to overcome the bias towards personal lived experience as the primary source of authority and credibility. The questions and comments only slowed down as my age inched closer to the age I was talking about.

As I officially flip over into being a “legitimate” authority on the 50+ workforce, I can’t help but reflect on the difference between expertise and lived experience. Everyone, at any age, knows that the experience they are living through is their own. In my situation, turning 50 doesn’t actually give me any new insight or make my work more valuable. But it is a strange experience to “catch up” to my own area of expertise.

This year, I’m excited to celebrate my birthday. I can’t help but notice that it’s coming just as my own thinking and the work that Challenge Factory does undergoes a significant shift. Instead of focusing more narrowly on older workers as a hidden talent pool, we’re examining, elevating, and activating intergenerational workforces as an antidote to current labour market, corporate culture, and productivity challenges.

Workplace ageism and the unfair and artificial limits it puts on how individuals and organizations succeed has always been about more than age. To me, it’s a bellwether of leadership’s ability to recognize trends and make proactive strategic change.

Longevity is the most predictable revolutionary change of all—since everyone ages exactly on time. For decades, the demographic bulge of the boomer generation and increasing life spans have foretold impending population dynamics that are easy to see in advance and represent great intergenerational opportunity.

With years and years to prepare, if we can’t see how this absolutely guaranteed shift in our workforces can be used to our advantage, how confident can we be that other less predictable and faster moving revolutionary changes will be handled well?

If you know me at all, you know I’m drawn equally to working on system-wide challenges and personal explorations of change. I love to take big ideas and make them even bigger, before breaking them down into practical pieces that can be acted on. I also know that it’s a special honour to be trusted by leaders, employees, and career transitioners who want to find something different for their future but aren’t sure how. So, it should come as no surprise that I’m gifting myself the time to pursue both of these types of relationships.

First, I’m looking forward to engaging with the big thinkers—academics, policymakers, and industry leaders—who will gather for the Canadian Forum for Social Innovation on June 11-12, 2024, at the Université de Montréal. This talented group of leaders will create a roadmap to respond to a pressing question about Canada’s future:

What strategy does Canada need to bolster talent and knowledge mobilization in a fully connected innovation ecosystem [that is] prepared to tackle local, national, and global challenges and to promote sustainable social, cultural, environmental, and economic prosperity?

Second, in early 2025, I’m excited to be returning to the incredible Modern Elder Academy in Baja, Mexico, with my colleague Emree Siaroff. We’ll be supporting a small group of about 25 people who are on personal journeys to refresh and accelerate how they navigate life’s transitions. The 5-day workshop will draw on the curriculum, tools, and methods that put Challenge Factory on the map as the first company focused on older worker career development in Canada.

We’ll be sharing more about this workshop opportunity in the coming months, and I would love to have friends and fans of Challenge Factory join us in March 2025. As you consider your winter 2025 plans, keep it in mind. A beautiful week spent on the beach in Baja, exploring how to find purposeful and impactful next steps in your career, might be a gift you give yourself.

Take a look at the photos of the beautiful Modern Elder Academy campus and connect with us if you’d like more information.

As I stand between my 40s and 50s, I look back and see how far we’ve come in challenging outdated career thinking and shaping a better Future of Work for all. I can also see how much hangs in balance as leaders make decisions today with difficult-to-see intergenerational implications for the future. I’m honoured to be a trusted resource for those who are facing challenging choices.