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101 case studies to engage those you train 15200 e girard avenue suite 2500 aurora co 80014 1-800-227-5510 www.gentrends.com

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all rights reserved no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews without permission in writing from its publisher the center for generational studies inc published by the center for generational studies inc 15200 e girard avenue suite 2500 aurora co 80014 1-800-227-5510 www.gentrends.com this publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered it is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal accounting or other professional service if legal advice or other expert assistance is required the services of a competent professional person should be sought from a declaration of principles jointly adopted by a committee of the american bar association and a committee of publishers and associations 2

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table of contents introduction 04 using case studies effectively 05 case studies communication differences 06 day-to-day supervision 10 adapting to and handling technology 18 employee motivation 20 problem solving and critical thinking 28 apparel and appearance 33 ethical question and situations 35 3

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introduction over time we have discovered that case studies are one of the best ways to develop a practical understanding of management and leadership concepts while there are no right or wrong answers to these situations the discussion that ensues usually provides each person with perspectives they had not considered each of the short studies in this book requires your interpretation they are intentionally brief so that you can focus on the issue and not the details after you have read each one consider the questions for discussion we encourage you to visit www.gentrends.com for additional studies which are added on a regular basis the studies themselves are divided into six categories we encourage you however to review all the studies rather than confining your interest to the categories you feel concern you as you might imagine some situations can overlap into two or more categories the eight categories are · · · · · · day-to-day supervision adapting to and handling technology motivation problem solving and critical thinking apparel and appearance ethical questions or situations as you consider each study ask yourself the following questions · · · · · if i were in this person s shoes what emotions would i feel what are the obvious and underlying issues in this situation what actions might i take if any to address this situation if i put myself in the other person s shoes where might there be conflict or disagreement how can the organization best address this type of situation 4

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using case studies effectively adult learning research indicates that the use of case studies significantly enhances participants ability to integrate their understanding of the material into everyday practice you as a trainer or facilitator have two options 1 to present the program s contents and process the situational studies toward the end of the class as a means to apply what participants have learned 2 to integrate the studies into the content throughout the session be careful to use situations that illustrate the principles already discussed case studies can be presented in three formats 1 by projecting them on the screen and simply asking for class input this is the most time-efficient means for doing so although it tends to discourage debate and conversation 2 by projecting them on the screen and asking participants to huddle with those around them and come up with a solution/strategy you can then ask each group to report their ideas 3 by dividing the class into groups and distributing preprinted copies of the studies one to each group you can then provide them with time to discuss the situation and report back to the class as a whole in this format it helps to have each study ready to project on the screen so all in the class can read it as solutions are offered plan on budgeting an average of seven minutes for each study used in other words four studies will consume approximately one half-hour of class time 5

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communication differences i manage a multi-generational team of 10 salespeople who deal with a multi-generational client base across the u.s while i would love to match up people of the same age salesperson to customer it is simply not geographically possible at the same time i know that some of my people are just not connecting well with customers older or younger than themselves what would you advise i am 25 and new to a department a couple of months ago i was assigned a space management project this entails re-organizing storage and moving people to different stations but i ve been told confidentially that a number of people within the department have made comments like who does she think she is she s only been here 6 months and she thinks she can tell us what to do i am 32 and one of 12 regional managers within a retail clothing chain my peers range in age from 42-55 and have all worked their way up within the firm over many years to them this job is their life to me it is a stepping stone to other opportunities when i have revealed this you d think i d betrayed their trust now they just seem to be biding their time until i m gone but i have no intention of leaving right now how can i re-establish a trusting relationship i am 33 and recently appointed as manager of a large event facility in a small mid-western town i report to a board composed of local businessmen and leaders whose average age is 63 while they say they trust my judgment they tend to second guess any significant decisions i make how can i keep them happy and still maintain my effectiveness i manage a sales organization for a heavy equipment manufacturer while most of my reps are 45-plus the engineers who provide installation and service are in their mid-twenties i receive regular complaints from the reps about the cavalier way in which the engineers treat their customer contacts as one said to me the other day i spend all my time building relationships and our engineers treat them like idiots what do i do 6

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several months ago i was put in charge of moving one of the units within our organization to another building i am 28 and have been with the company for three years while moving disrupts everyone s lives most of my headaches came from those who have been around the longest rather than contributing their support they turned out to be my biggest obstacles i got the job done but there were some harsh words and difficult times now i am simply working alongside of them again and i can tell they don t trust my motives how can i overcome that i run a small mechanical services firm in the air conditioning business my staff is composed of mostly long-time employees in their 50s but as these people retire the young people i hire to replace them are a different breed they come fresh out of school and think they know everything they don t want the overtime if it means working into the evening and i can t keep them more than a year or so what would you suggest patricia is a 34-year-old part-time professional who joined our office full of baby boomers about six months ago while she is perfectly competent her communication style is both bossy and demanding this includes both condescending emails and demeaning comments about certain practices in the office most of us are aghast at her behavior but when i ve approached her about it as a colleague she s gotten defensive and doesn t appear to understand that she s doing anything wrong your thoughts i manage a large dentistry practice which provides internships and residencies for young professionals the five dentists who own the practice range in age from 42 to 64 good morning larry said todd a third year student to the dr lawrence chasten finance department chair how was your weekend fine retorted dr chasten somewhat taken aback by todd s informality i was taking a look at that vintage beemer you drive to work said todd my grandfather s got one just like it are you involved in that bmw club they have they ve got some cool wheels yes responded the doctor icily excuse me i have a meeting he continued as he broke off the conversation 7

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what are the possible issues here what should dr chasten do the next time he encounters such informality how ya doin honey said barbara cheerfully as she entered the room fine responded mrs bachelor with a glare you don t look like you re having a fine day said barbara as she prepped the equipment is there anything i can do no said mrs bachelor are you sure yes okay sweetie said barbara the doctor will be in in a few minutes what are the concerns here how should they be resolved i am the chair of the business management department of a community college and have been placed in the middle of a holy war my younger faculty members are pushing for a modernized curriculum which includes powerpoint presentations computerbase training and an emphasis on internet research for completion of papers and projects the long-time veterans have been resistant from the start book learning has to be mastered they maintain before students can take on all these distractions the dean has asked for curriculum recommendations and this group is miles apart i have had it with the 27-year-old twit i now work for charlie said to his wife i walked into her office today to discuss the system analysis she wanted me to do but she had that tribal music going and i couldn t understand half of what she was saying when i asked her to turn it off she did but she looked at me like i was senile i was working for this company when she was in diapers then there s that tongue stud in her mouth how can you talk when that thing s banging around on your teeth she may be a bright kid but she doesn t have a clue how to work with us what can charlie do to foster this relationship what parameters would you set around his supervisor s management style 8

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i manage a retirement community with 300 residents whose average age is 82 lately a number have been expressing concerns about employees who do not treat them with the respect they feel they deserve a few are un-comfortable having teenage workers call them by their first name a couple of others have complained about workers who do not arrive to clean apartments when promised one resident expressed frustration with a young aide who chats on a cell phone while cleaning the common areas what s the best way to handle this you ve got to keep your ladies under control said dr robinson during the meeting the young ones seem to forget their roles at times even yesterday i had one of them giving me advice on how to treat a patient if they re all that fired up to practice medicine maybe they should go back to school sometimes our younger nurses more exuberant and i applaud that responded the supervisor yes but i can t have nurses questioning my judgment in front of patients said dr robinson yesterday i had that short one with the curls challenge my decision to increase medication on two different patients she may have just been asking for clarification retorted the supervisor kathy is very detail oriented and sees a lot of these patients but i m the physician end of sentence snapped the doctor how can the supervisor best respond to the physician s concerns and still maintain kathy s motivation and devotion to duty 9

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day-to-day supervision i am 31 and have been supervising a department of fiftysomethings for about a month the organization itself is dominated by older workers and my presence has been the talk of the company those who report to me are cordial but we both struggle to communicate i don t want to start off on the wrong foot i m 32 and have of veteran engineers another planet most do i manage them and just been placed in charge of a department who look at me like i m something from of them are old enough to be my father how gain their respect i manage a large pharmacy with a staff of 60 a couple of months ago i hired a newly-minted pharmacist who had just graduated from a local university on the first day of work she showed up with her father in tow she asked if it was okay for him to hang around for a while to see what she would be doing i was so shocked i said okay he stayed for the morning took her to lunch and then left she s a good employee and we haven t seen him since i just don t know what to think is this acceptable will this become the norm i manage a call center with employees ranging in age from 17 to 70 about once a week one of the more senior workers finds a couple of youngsters necking in the hallway or in an empty room while i ve explained to the perpetrators the inappropriateness of their actions more than once they simply look for more discreet places to do the same thing this has not been limited to just one isolated couple the teens argue that it s just nature running its course and don t seem to accept that there could be anything wrong one even said to me if they can do it in the backroom of mcdonald s why can t we do it here the organization does not have a fraternization policy and no one has mentioned anything about it being sexual harassment i don t want to fire productive people over something like this but it is becoming the topic of discussion among the older set what s the answer 10

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crystal a new young hire in customer service parties with her friends every friday night til early the next morning she has been late however three of the five saturdays she has been asked to work this morning she showed up at 9:30am for an 8:00am shift when you approached her about the issue she said what s the big deal if someone else were late i d cover for them we get the work done and you ve told me you like what i do it s not like i m coming in drunk or something what is the most effective way for handling this situation the cell phone phenomenon is beginning to drive me nuts i manage a distribution center that also handles walk-in retail business my staff of 30 is a mixture boomers xers and millennials it seems that the younger they are the more they use their cell phones on the job i haven t measured it but i just know all these calls are hurting productivity and customer service when i ve tried to ban them on the job the younger workers accuse me of taking away one of their inalienable rights what do i do i am 27 and manage 20-30 college students in a campus health club there is a huge difference between my expectations and what they think is ok for example we talked about different ways that i can communicate with them about work information and came up with the solution of putting events and schedules in a binder that everyone should review when they come in for a shift well they still don t look in the book and i get the feeling like they still think there is either too much information or that they should each be spoon-fed knowing this information is critical to their job performance i m in a quandary as to how to get them to read a page or two am i crazy or was it not like this just 5 years ago name withheld by request i own three fast-food restaurants and hire eight to ten young employees per month while most of them put in a good days work about a third spend most of their time having fun and disrupting the stores normal routines if i tighten the reins they improve their behavior for the rest of that shift but never show up for work again i need the bodies but they don t seem to need me or my job what do i do 11

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i direct the conference services department for a midwestern college while i am in my late 40s my staff of five consists of individuals in their late twenties these individuals are profess-ional and hardworking but they are forever challenging the decisions i make if they disagree with my approach on a particular issue they will bring it up ad nauseaum attempting to change my mind this has quite an effect on my confidence as a manager and certainly absorbs a good deal of productive time how would you resolve this situation i supervise 15 millennials in a warehouse while my older workers are generally punctual these young people must be staying up nights thinking of creative reasons why they didn t make it to work on time i even had one tell me the family pet had died and she had to attend the memorial service when i dock their hours or give them a day off without pay the parents call and tell me i m being unfair what do i do i have a teenage retail clerk who informed me that she can only work two hours a night on weekdays because of other obligations when i informed her that the minimum shift is four hours she asked me to make an exception when i refused she scowled and said why are you making my life so difficult how should i respond our company services copiers i have a core group of repairmen who have been with me forever we meet at the office every morning to dole out the day s assignments over the past year we ve hired a couple of young technicians who are now making noise about having to show up at the office every morning they want to know why they can t just work from their houses i don t like the idea because there is no way to keep track of them at the same time good technicians are hard to find what would you suggest i have a couple of teenage employees who see little reason to show up on time for work last week i tried to send both of them home when they showed up 30 minutes late they told me i couldn t do that that they had rights so i relented only to have them show up late again the next day what are my options 12

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i am trying to incorporate the new generation of workers into my medical practice i hired a young woman who had been highly recommended by a local radio station where she worked for a while we hired her at a pretty good salary for someone so young even though she had no degree she talked a really good game she was to be my administrative assistant and her duties were outlined for her very clearly but she had absolutely no respect for her elders or authority she was constantly challenging me in every request i made of her she was continually saying she needed something to do but then i d find that she hadn t done the things i had already assigned she finally gave her notice saying she found something else for a great deal more money which i found out later was not true on top of all this she did not work out her notice i know she could have been an anomaly but it has scared me to death to give anyone else her age a chance i work the front desk in the development office of college a work-study student is supposed to relieve me lunch every day unfortunately she fails to show up at once a week i finally explained to her that i can t go without her being there she said sorry i had no idea so i continued if you can t make it for some please call and let me know now she still fails to show at least once a week calls to let me know what should i do a for least to lunch reason but she over the past three years you have discovered that the quality of written communication leaving your department has deteriorated considerably last week you caught another letter with poor grammar and incomplete thoughts on its way out the door two months ago you received a letter one of your people had sent returned in the mail the recipient had edited it for spelling and grammar in a red pen when you ve mentioned this situation at a couple of staff meetings it has been apparent that the staff doesn t think there s anything wrong in one case someone retorted we re engineers not english majors how should you resolve this situation 13

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after a reorganization you find yourself surrounded by those 25-30 years younger than you while they work hard when on the job what goes on in their leisure time dominates most conversations in the office your supervisor someone 10 years your junior does little to keep meetings on task and most degenerate into discussions of snowboarding golf cars etc being a 35-year veteran of the organization you feel a much stronger sense of duty and this lack of focus frustrates you no end what are your options the new receptionist has yet to arrive on time for work her attire generally consists of cargo pants a t-shirt and doc martins she is constantly checking her pager for personal calls and gives you a i m doing my job so get out of my face look whenever you glance her way no one wants to deal with her and her attitude has become both a source of amusement and disgust within the organization the first person to confront her was quoted chapter and verse regarding the right of a person to wear anything they want to work now it s your turn as team leader how can you most effectively handle this one of your reports is 25 years your junior she is bright well trained and entered your department six months ago fresh out of a community college while she can be warm and friendly she also possesses a take-no-prisoners attitude when addressing some issues with some customers this has produced considerable friction with other managers and headaches for you in dealing with the managers within those customers she says she understands the delicate balance that must be maintained but when you ve approached her about being more diplomatic her response has been those people are deliberately sandbagging us why is there a need for diplomacy how do you help her develop the necessary diplomacy without shutting down her desire to do a good job your director is a by-the-book supervisor 20 years your senior who began his career in the green berets he s got a wonderful can-do attitude and displays a charisma that you once admired but his insistence on punching the clock and following strict doctrine appears to be consistently more important than getting the right job done while he 14

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occasionally eases his grip on every action taken he is sure to catch himself within the next week and clamp down on any decisions being made without first consulting the book while you can understand his adherence to regulations everyone in the department appears increasingly irritated by his micro-managing every project those in their twenties seem both amused and frustrated especially during meetings being his number two they have come to you for insights and advice you certainly don t want to lose their talents but you are loath to figure out how to get him to change his ways what do you do welcome back jerry said his call center manager sarcastically i see your weeks don t start on monday mornings anymore hey dude responded jerry it was gorgeous up in mccall and we stayed in the mountains too long i didn t want to drive down that windy road at night back to boise just for work i figured you knew i d be back we ve got a business to run here jerry said the manager i need people in on time whoa man responded jerry pulling his pants back up on his hips you older dudes really take this punctuality thing seriously i ll try to start coming in on time from now on by the way i ve got plans to head out to sun valley next weekend for three days if i can cover myself do you have any problems with that what is the most effective for this manager to handle jerry what are her options to you punctuality has always been a demonstration of respect within the workplace but there doesn t seem to be a person under thirty who shows up consistently on time if you were to calculate all the missed time it would number in the thousands of hours everybody keeps tells you to lighten up but with you its an integrity issue at 59 you ve got three years to go but it is still a real sticking point for you as a fellow professional what are your options 15

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