While the shift to online and remote work hasn’t hindered the ability of teammates to work together, it has altered many relationships between coworkers.
Emotional connection with coworkers is foundational to building strong networks. When relationships shifted online during the pandemic, many of us maintained our ability to work together but lost an emotional connection that enabled stronger mentorship, sponsorship, and caring about each other.
Our screen-based colleagues became much like characters in a TV show: during moments of shared screen time, we’re invested and interested in them for how they move the plot along. But we’re equally able to switch channels, turn off our connection, and move on to other priorities once our colleagues are out of sight.
Additional reading
→ Forbes: Another pandemic loss: Mentorship
→ Harvard Business Review: We’re losing touch with our networks
→ The Atlantic: The pandemic is changing work friendships
→ The Atlantic: The hidden toll of remote work
→ The New York Times: Remote work is failing young employees
What are intergenerational triads?
Intergenerational triads are groupings of three people of different ages who come together around shared values. They are an approach to workplace interaction, teamwork, and collaboration that elevates the culture of organizations.
More than a decade ago, Dave Logan and John King recognized how specific types of relationships and networks function in healthy organizations. They identified the personal benefits that individuals reap in their careers and personal lives when they have meaningful, lasting relationships with others that are built on groupings of three.
Forming intergenerational triads of people who may or may not work on the same team or in the same department fosters stronger knowledge translation, deeper career supports, and richer cultures of innovation. Today, more than ever, they can also be used to re-establish relationships among staff who work closely together but actually know little about each other. They can help everyone who lost the opportunity for spontaneous sponsorship and mentorship during the pandemic.
Triads don’t have to consist of people of different ages. They are powerful for any three people, but they are especially powerful for groupings that have different backgrounds, worldviews, and experiences. Triads are also a building block of organizational culture, linking other groupings together, creating an unlimited capacity for scalability within organizations, and leading to better performance and business results. See Figure 1 for how triads build into strong, connected networks and cultures.
Figure 1. How one triad can scale to an entire network and cultural transformation.
What makes intergenerational triads strong?
The underlying premise of intergenerational triads is based on three basic concepts that highlight core differences or “flips” from how work interactions are normally structured.
1. Threes, not pairs
Mentoring relationships usually involve two people. One-to-one pairings are thought to be more intimate and facilitate deeper connections between people. Triads are something different and unique.
The flip: Human interactions more often involve groups of three. In typical formal mentoring arrangements, for example, there is actually a mentor, mentee, and program organizer or manager who establishes the relationship or monitors its progress. While this third party may not be in every discussion, their presence and expectations contribute to shaping what occurs. They are part of the relationship, and should be recognized as such.
2. Values, not time
Deep relationships are not based on how long you work together or how much work you do together. Often, collaborative groups are put together on the basis of common responsibilities, skills, career paths, or schedules. Proximity, time spent working together, and shared career stages can lead people to know each other well, but not necessarily to trust, care for, or value more than the work output produced.
The flip: Breakthrough relationships that elevate the culture and performance of an organization can’t be measured in the amount of time that people spend together. Instead, at the core of the types of relationships that create standout workplaces is an understanding that each relationship cluster is held together by shared, agreed upon values. These values may or may not be the same as organizational or team values. A true triad begins by establishing the values that its members will adopt to guide their relationship. This is an intentional and meaningful step. It marks the difference between being a trio of people who enjoy working together and a true triad.
3. Caring, not transaction
Figure 2. How a triad balances and strengthens itself.
Leaders are often taught the importance of active listening. In reality, it’s difficult to be fully engaged in a conversation and avoid planning or anticipating what your next response is going to be before your partner is finished speaking. Two-way conversations can quickly become unbalanced when one person has more information, power, or confidence. Parties can become overly engaged and try to dominate, or they can withdraw either emotionally or from the interaction entirely. Misunderstandings about intentions and motives can arise and lead to relationships being primarily transactional. A third person naturally balances these relationships.
The flip: Triads are strong and stabilizing. Each member is responsible for the “health” or quality of the relationship between the other two members. Each member notices when an agreed upon value is being upheld or violated by the other two. Triads develop into stable relationships that provide dynamic and vibrant interactions precisely because of the checks-and-balances nature of having three members instead of two. They care for the unit, rather than treating it as a transaction.
How do intergenerational triads shift culture and break down ageism?
Having relationships with people who are older and younger than ourselves has been shown to reduce isolation that each cohort experiences for different reasons. It can also be a powerful way to explore a diversity of ideas, experiences, and expectations. This helps break down ageist biases that are both self-directed (at oneself) and imposed by other people and institutional norms.
New employees bring curiosity and experiences (where from previous workplaces or education) that can challenge organizations to grow and change. At the same time, they often need help understanding cultural norms and the best way to get things done.
Mid-career employees understand how their organization works and are in a position to help others as a mentor, while also looking ahead at their own next steps. They are often in roles where they can get things done and advocate for change, but are short on time and resources as they balance mid-life challenges and expectations.
Later-career employees seek ways for what they know and have learned to be meaningful to others. They are often starting to imagine what comes next in their life and career, and may not be certain what they want or what’s possible. Many benefit from trusted relationships that challenge them to think differently about what might be possible or where opportunities might exist.
Employee recruitment, leadership development, and succession planning are often treated as standalone activities, with resources prioritized to one activity or another depending on immediate business needs. Intergenerational triads allow organizations to focus on the entire lifecycle of careers within their organization all at the same time, signaling to employees that everyone is important and vital to the future of the organization.
In 2016, Challenge Factory worked with a very forward-thinking organization that knew more than 50 percent of its experienced employees, who were distributed across Ontario, would become eligible to retire within 10 years. In this organization, due to long business cycles, it typically took 15 years for someone to become an “expert” in their job. They had run out of time to bring new people into the organization who would become experts in time for the coming retirement departures.
We helped this organization implement intergenerational triads at the core of its new career programs for all employees. New employees brought external, industry, and academic ideas to their triad. Mid-career staff both provided and received mentorship. Older employees were inspired and supported to rethink the next stage of their work life in ways that maintained ties to the organization. Most importantly, employees got to know each other in more meaningful ways. From these triadic relationships, new networks formed, engagement increased, productivity was enhanced, and the culture of the organization shifted.
Lastly, the emotional connection and understanding that form between members of intergenerational triads created space for ageist biases to break down. These biases are both internal (directed by individuals at themselves) and external (institutionally imposed on individuals by systems and structures). Prejudice builds in the gaps—the unknown and the silence—between strangers. Intergenerational triads go a long way to closing those gaps.
This is not an organization of “screen colleagues.” When the pandemic hit, staff and leadership were better prepared to get through the crisis. Their strong relationships, networks, and organizational culture will continue to allow them to survive and thrive through times of disruption and uncertainty.
How might intergenerational triads bolster your organization?
Taking an intergenerational triad approach can help you address the following organizational challenges. Read through the list below and consider how many of them are true for you and your organization.
- You notice that relationships in your organization have weakened in the past year, especially between staff who don’t regularly work together.
- Employees are asking for different types of supports or raising different types of concerns, and you aren’t sure what is temporary as we transition out of the pandemic and what is a permanent change to how workplaces function.
- Past mentorship and sponsorship initiatives at your organization did not survive or thrive in online or hybrid environments, and you question if there are better, updated approaches.
- You wonder if new employees are fully grasping how the organization works and what they need to do in order to succeed.
- You need better ways to identify and support mid-career talent as they move into leadership roles.
- You feel that older workers are disengaged or frustrated with their work.
- You prefer initiatives that break down artificial barriers, such as the fallacy that young people prefer to work with young people, and instead want to foster a culture across your entire workforce.
Want to learn more or explore how Challenge Factory can help you implement your own intergenerational triad initiative? Contact us at consulting@challengefactory.ca.