Age, Gender, and Culture: The Human Brew

I recently attended a certification workshop in Gender Intelligence as part of an upcoming collaboration with Barbara Annis & Associates, the world's leading experts in gender diversity and inclusion. While I was wary about stereotyping at first, the workshop was much more enlightening than I expected, and didn't involve unsupported or sweeping generalizations.

We participated in exercises, viewed brain scans, and learned proven statistics, all illustrating the very real and physical differences between the way men's and women's brains operate. Here are just a few of the many insights explored in the workshop:

- I finally learned why my wife looks at me like I'm crazy when she says, "What are you thinking?" and I reply, "Nothing." "How can you think of nothing?" she asks. Well, I learned that men can actually think of nothing. Women cannot. A woman's brain is more active while she's resting than a man's brain is while he's actively solving a problem.

- In one exercise we conducted (about the barriers we face when dealing with the opposite sex), the men consistently took a "they" approach (i..e "It drives us crazy when THEY....."). The women took more of a "we" approach (i.e. "We often feel xyz and it frustrates us."). In essence, the men were more logical while the women were more emotional.

- In general, women have more "connectors" in their brain, which allows them to multitask and think in many parallel directions at once, whereas men tend to be more "goal" driven.

- Women tend to think more systemically (looking at cumulative patterns over time), whereas men think more systematically. Since we need both approaches for "systems thinking," it goes without saying that there are opportunities for leveraging men and women on problem solving and idea generation teams.

All of these may sound like generalizations, and to be sure, there are exceptions, but it would be shortsighted to ignore the general tendencies. There's too much documentation supporting it, and the brain scans don't lie.

One member of our workshop described gender intelligence as being part of a progression:

1) Gender Bias (there is a clear bias present in the organization or department)

2) Gender Equality (this is all about numbers: we have men and women in equal numbers, our CEO is a woman, etc.)

3) Gender Intelligence (this goes way beyond equality. Leaders understand the subtle differences in the way men and women think---and their distinct needs, and leverage this in their team structure and initiatives)

As if this isn't enough, consider that Gender Intelligence is but one layer on top of all the other layers that make up an individual, including culture, age, upbringing, and a hundred other factors. But to ignore gender differences is to miss a big piece of the puzzle.

Here's an article from CIO Magazine on another piece of the puzzle that's often overlooked: the generation gap (and yes it's alive and well in the 21st century). As the article says:

Gen Y (defined as people born after 1982) thinks Gen X (spawned between 1961 and 1981) is a bunch of whiners. Gen X sees Gen Y as arrogant and entitled. And everyone thinks the Baby Boomers (1943 to 1960) are self-absorbed workaholics.

In addition, many Boomers and Gen X-ers don't understand Generation Y's preference for emerging technology, such as blogs, IM's, and texting. They fear that phone or face time is becoming a lost art. One CIO in the article fears that this will undermine all the time spent building relationships between IT and the businesses. With so many Gen Y-ers joining the workforce, this (and the emerging technology paradigms that go with it) are becoming a major challenge for executives.

People, process, and technology are the three main ingredients of any success model. Yet, so often, the people aspect (the most important of the three) goes overlooked.

Here's a statement from the article that says it all:

"CIOs, however, often focus more attention on technology and process than on staff. Yet people are inarguably a CIO’s most vital assets... To address the workforce challenges of the future, CIOs must transition their departments now. This means preparing staff and addressing issues that may be preventing, discouraging or undermining their ability to work in a collaborative manner."

I'd expand this to say that any leader is in the people business. And being in the people business means understanding gender, culture, and the needs and preferences of each generation. Not only that, but understanding each in combination---the human brew that makes each of us unique.


Here's the CIO article...

Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers: Workplace Generation Wars - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership