The BIGG Successs Show
Age Matters: Bridging The Generation Gap At Work
What young people can learn from their elders and vice versa. Today's show was inspired by an episode of Monk!Read the show summary at biggsuccess.com
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll discuss age matters to bridge the Generation Gap. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. One of our favorite shows is Monk, the defective detective. Say that five times fast. I didn't come up with that, I have to admit. Well, Monk has an amazing gift to see the details that are out of the ordinary, that don't quite fit. Now, that's kind of driven by his idiosyncrasies, he's a somewhat neurotic person. There was an episode called Mr. Monk and the really, really dead guy. I guess he wasn't just a dead guy, he was really, really dead. And Monk and his team are at the scene of One Murder, which happened to be a young woman, when they get called to another, and it was the gruesome murder of a young man. And it was believed that the two murders were not related, but there's a serial killer on the loose who will kill again in 36 hours, according to the note that he left on the young man's body. So the mayor immediately calls in the FBI, and they send in a, I'll call him a high, high tech unit. Check out my gadgets, dude. Exactly. Is that what it is? Yeah. No, they're just very high tech. It's a very high tech vehicle staffed with young techno savvy agents. And then a tug of war ensues throughout the show. The young agents dive into the case. They dismiss Monk's methods because they think they're outdated. Monk keeps thinking they are missing something, ultimately Monk puts the pieces together when he realizes that the two murders are related. So let's talk today about the five lessons we can learn from Monk and the young agents. Number one, just because we've always done it this way, doesn't make it right. For example, there's a lead on the case. The young agents using their technology find the fastest way to get to the location. Monk and his team dismiss that route because of all of the red lights. But the young agents using their technology again turn all of the red lights green. Man, I wish I had that technology. I know. Oh, I want that too. Well, the lesson here is don't be resistant to change. If there's a better way, don't be stubborn. Just adopt it. Number two, the opposite is also true. Just because it's new doesn't make it better. The young agents had the ability to profile suspects with their technology. One is that led them to the wrong person, to someone who was completely innocent. In the meantime, Monk is figuring out that the two murders actually are related. He's solving the case using old-fashioned methods by getting inside of the mind of the killer rather than using the sophisticated profiling techniques. The lesson is getting the right result is what matters. The most efficient way to get there is the way to go, whether that's new or old. Who really cares, right? Well, now you kind of have the full story, so we'll pick up the pace a little bit. Lesson number three is speed is good, but only if you have direction. You have to see the big picture before you dive into the details. Number four, don't view each other as competition. The two sides felt that they had something to prove to each other, that their way was better. Had they worked together, they could have solved the case a lot faster. You have to appreciate the differences. All of us have respective strengths and weaknesses, and if you can learn how you compliment each other, that will be helpful. The key thing is there's lessons to be learned on both sides. Coming up, one more lesson to bridge the generation gap. Today we're talking about age matters and the gap that often occurs between the young and the old. And we've learned four lessons so far, here's the fifth. Age doesn't matter when it comes to learning new ways, even if they're old ways. Some wisdom is timeless. Now there may be leading edge ways to use that wisdom. The thing is, both are valuable. You can find a written summary of today's show on our blog at bigsuccess.com and speaking of technology. George, could you imagine trying to explain to Monk how to subscribe to our RSS feed? I don't think we have that much time, Marylin. Well, let me try to explain quickly what an RSS feed is. It's an easy way to quickly browse our daily show topics. All you have to do is click on the link at the bottom of today's blog to subscribe. There you go. Technology made simple. Sounds pretty simple. Let's get our big quote for the day. Our quote today comes from JB Priestley, who said, "There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I am old, there is no respect for age. I missed it coming and going." That's a good one. "Well, you may be a young gun, or you may be an old fart. Just don't let the age difference keep you apart." Oh, you're such a poet, Marylin. And I got dibs on being the young gun in this working relationship, all right? I see. Tell you what, I'm going to bridge the generation gap. I'm going to be young at fart. You would be. Yeah. And next time, we'll talk about a seven-step system to solve any problem. And until then, here's to your big success. Done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]