Why Does Your Multigenerational Team Feel Like Everyone Is Speaking a Different Language? | AI Integration for Executives

1 00:00:11,839 --> 00:00:15,039 SPEAKER_00: Four people walked into a meeting. 2 00:00:15,279 --> 00:00:21,199 Same room, same agenda, same AI rollout announcement. 3 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:27,199 The boomer VP crossed his arm and said, This is just another 4 00:00:27,199 --> 00:00:28,640 technology trend. 5 00:00:29,039 --> 00:00:31,920 We will see how it plays out. 6 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:36,399 The Gen X director nodded and said nothing. 7 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:40,159 She has seen ten of these rollouts. 8 00:00:41,039 --> 00:00:46,719 She was already mentally calculating which parts she 9 00:00:46,719 --> 00:00:48,479 could quietly ignore. 10 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:53,840 The Millennium Manager started asking rapid-fire questions 11 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:59,920 about job security, workflow impact, and the implementation 12 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:01,200 timeline. 13 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,879 The Gen Z analyst went completely silent. 14 00:01:07,599 --> 00:01:11,920 She had grown up watching technology reshape everything 15 00:01:12,159 --> 00:01:13,920 she thought was king. 16 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,120 She was not dismissing the announcement. 17 00:01:17,359 --> 00:01:23,200 She was trying to figure out if she still had a future in this 18 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:24,159 organization. 19 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,840 The leader at the front of the room looked at all four of them 20 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:36,319 and thought, I said the exact same thing to all of you. 21 00:01:37,599 --> 00:01:42,959 How are we already this far apart? 22 00:01:44,799 --> 00:01:46,319 I'm Sahara Andradi. 23 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:51,280 This is AI Cafe Conversations Podcast, the Friday article, 24 00:01:51,519 --> 00:01:53,840 Forbes article-like edition. 25 00:01:54,159 --> 00:01:58,159 And today I want to talk about what is actually happening in 26 00:01:58,159 --> 00:01:59,120 that room. 27 00:02:00,719 --> 00:02:05,040 Because it's not a communication problem, it's a nervous system 28 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:10,080 problem, and AI just made it significantly harder. 29 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:11,439 Let's go. 30 00:02:21,599 --> 00:02:26,479 Every nervous system is shaped by the dominant threats of its 31 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:28,560 formative years. 32 00:02:29,199 --> 00:02:32,159 This is not a personality theory. 33 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:37,520 This is how the brain develops threat detection patterns. 34 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:43,360 Boomers came of an age in a world where institutional 35 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:45,439 loyalty was survival. 36 00:02:45,759 --> 00:02:49,759 You stayed with your company, you earned your place. 37 00:02:50,479 --> 00:02:52,719 You worked very hard. 38 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:57,360 That's how we, for the first time, we worked, we heard the 39 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:58,879 word workaholic. 40 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:04,479 You proved your worth through consistency and endurance. 41 00:03:05,039 --> 00:03:09,680 The nervous system learned stability comes from systems. 42 00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:14,479 Disruption is a threat to everything you built. 43 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:21,840 Gen X grew up watching those institutions fail, downsizing, 44 00:03:22,159 --> 00:03:27,039 corporate scandals, the promise of job security revealed as a 45 00:03:27,039 --> 00:03:27,520 stall. 46 00:03:28,319 --> 00:03:33,439 The nervous system learned, systems will fail you. 47 00:03:34,159 --> 00:03:37,599 Self-reliance is the only real safety. 48 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,960 Skepticism is wisdom, not cynicism. 49 00:03:44,319 --> 00:03:50,960 Millennials absorbed 9-11 in their formative years and 50 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,919 graduated into a collapsed economy. 51 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:59,840 The nervous system learned even your best preparation cannot 52 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,879 protect you from systemic collapse. 53 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:09,199 Optimize for meaning because material security is not 54 00:04:09,439 --> 00:04:10,479 guaranteed. 55 00:04:12,639 --> 00:04:13,599 Gen Z. 56 00:04:15,039 --> 00:04:19,360 Gen Z grew up online through a pandemic. 57 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:24,959 The threat environment was constant, ambient, and digital. 58 00:04:25,759 --> 00:04:30,319 The nervous system learned uncertainty is the baseline. 59 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,040 Change is always coming. 60 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:38,160 And institutions have never been reliable in anyway. 61 00:04:39,439 --> 00:04:45,519 These are not communications preferences, these are survival 62 00:04:45,519 --> 00:04:50,079 architectures that are built over decades. 63 00:04:50,879 --> 00:04:56,560 And they do not stay home when people come back to work. 64 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:04,000 So how AI hit hits each generation differently. 65 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,439 Now let's bring AI into that room. 66 00:05:08,079 --> 00:05:12,319 AI is not a neutral announcement, it lands 67 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:17,360 differently in each nervous system because each nervous 68 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:21,920 system is filtering it through a different threat. 69 00:05:24,079 --> 00:05:29,839 For the boomer VP, AI is a disruption to the systems that 70 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:30,639 have held. 71 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:37,120 His nervous system reads it as the thing I trusted is being 72 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:38,000 replaced. 73 00:05:38,399 --> 00:05:41,920 His response is to minimize or dismiss. 74 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:47,759 Not because he's wrong about AI, because his nervous system needs 75 00:05:47,759 --> 00:05:53,600 to protect the structure that has represented safety for 14 76 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:54,240 years. 77 00:06:03,199 --> 00:06:03,680 Why? 78 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:11,600 Because when we talk about generations, the characteristic 79 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:16,319 for every group, like either baby boomer or Xers or Y or Z, 80 00:06:16,639 --> 00:06:19,040 they are not engraved in stone. 81 00:06:19,519 --> 00:06:23,839 It doesn't mean that every single person in that group or 82 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:28,079 that generation is exactly the same, is a twin. 83 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:32,240 It doesn't mean that, because there are individual differences 84 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:33,680 in every single one of them. 85 00:06:33,759 --> 00:06:36,319 And as human beings, we don't want to be put in a box. 86 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,160 So I want to make sure that there are to mention that there 87 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:44,639 are different degrees of action, interaction, threats, and not 88 00:06:44,959 --> 00:06:48,240 threats levels in every single generation. 89 00:06:48,319 --> 00:06:52,000 They're not, it's not like a stamp machine where everybody is 90 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:52,800 just the same. 91 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,639 We have differences even within them, especially when it comes 92 00:06:56,639 --> 00:07:00,480 to baby boomers that are born very close to Gen X or Gen X 93 00:07:00,639 --> 00:07:04,639 that are very uh born in very close proximity of the 94 00:07:04,639 --> 00:07:07,920 millennials and the millennials to Z and so on. 95 00:07:08,079 --> 00:07:12,800 Okay, that's where the term Zillenials, for example, come 96 00:07:12,959 --> 00:07:14,959 from, or Zenials come from. 97 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,959 Okay, so I just wanted to make that disclaimer before we move 98 00:07:18,959 --> 00:07:19,279 forward. 99 00:07:19,439 --> 00:07:21,040 So this was the boomer. 100 00:07:21,199 --> 00:07:26,879 Now, for the ex-director, Gen X, AI is just the latest version of 101 00:07:26,879 --> 00:07:30,160 a system promising to change everything. 102 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,639 Her nervous system reads it as here we go again. 103 00:07:34,959 --> 00:07:38,560 Her response is skeptical compliance. 104 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:43,120 She will implement what she's told and quietly adapt what does 105 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:43,759 not work. 106 00:07:44,079 --> 00:07:48,879 Not because she is an obstructionist, but because her 107 00:07:48,879 --> 00:07:52,720 nervous system learned that systems always overpromise. 108 00:07:52,959 --> 00:07:54,399 Here we are, I'm a Gen X. 109 00:07:55,120 --> 00:08:00,000 And AI is a big part of my life every single day, every single 110 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:01,439 hour, every single minute. 111 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:05,360 So that's how I wanted to show the differences within every 112 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:06,000 generation. 113 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:10,959 For the millennial manager, AI is a direct threat to the 114 00:08:10,959 --> 00:08:13,759 meaning-based work she has built. 115 00:08:14,079 --> 00:08:18,639 Her nervous system reads it as will I still matter here? 116 00:08:19,279 --> 00:08:23,120 Her response is anxious engagement, lots of questions, 117 00:08:23,279 --> 00:08:25,040 lots of seeking clarity. 118 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,759 Not because she's difficult, but because her nervous system is 119 00:08:29,759 --> 00:08:32,399 trying to find the solid ground. 120 00:08:32,639 --> 00:08:37,600 For Gen Z analyst, AI is familiar technology in an 121 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:39,919 unfamiliar power dynamic. 122 00:08:41,279 --> 00:08:46,879 She grew up with AI as a tool, but AI deciding her 123 00:08:46,879 --> 00:08:49,200 organizational future is different. 124 00:08:49,519 --> 00:08:53,279 Her nervous system goes into a freeze response. 125 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:54,399 Silence. 126 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:57,360 Compliance without engagement. 127 00:08:57,679 --> 00:09:01,679 Not because she doesn't care, because when the nervous system 128 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:05,360 cannot fight or flee, it goes still. 129 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:10,240 One announcement, four threatened responses. 130 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:16,879 Four people who look like they are in different conversations 131 00:09:17,279 --> 00:09:20,480 because neurologically they actually are. 132 00:09:21,919 --> 00:09:24,879 What the leader in the middle can actually do. 133 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:28,960 The standard answer to multi-generational conflict is 134 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:30,879 communication training. 135 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,639 Learn each generation's preference, adjust your style, 136 00:09:34,799 --> 00:09:36,000 bridge the gap. 137 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:38,000 That is not wrong, by the way. 138 00:09:38,159 --> 00:09:40,080 It's just insufficient. 139 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:43,600 Because communication preferences are downstream of 140 00:09:43,759 --> 00:09:45,120 nervous systems state. 141 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:50,480 You cannot communicate your way into safety for a nervous system 142 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:53,360 that is running a threat response. 143 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:58,639 The words land differently depending on the threat level 144 00:09:58,639 --> 00:10:00,799 the receiver is carrying. 145 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:06,159 What actually works before communication strategy is 146 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:07,919 co-regulation. 147 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:13,519 Co-regulation is the neurobiological process by which 148 00:10:13,759 --> 00:10:18,960 one person's regulated nervous system helps another's settle. 149 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:24,639 It happens before worse, before strategy, before any 150 00:10:24,639 --> 00:10:28,480 generational communication framework you learned in a 151 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:29,360 training. 152 00:10:29,919 --> 00:10:34,320 When you walk into a room regulated, you give every 153 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,279 nervous system in that room a signal. 154 00:10:37,919 --> 00:10:41,840 Threat level is manageable here. 155 00:10:42,639 --> 00:10:45,440 That signal crosses generational lines. 156 00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:48,799 It does not require translation. 157 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:52,240 That is what the brand line means. 158 00:10:52,639 --> 00:10:56,000 Leaders are a thermostat, not a thermometer. 159 00:10:56,159 --> 00:10:59,519 You don't read the room temperature, you set it. 160 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:04,000 In practice, this means three things. 161 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:10,000 First, name the different responses without pathologizing 162 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:10,320 them. 163 00:11:11,039 --> 00:11:15,759 When you walk into a multi-generational AI rollout 164 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:21,759 and say out loud, I know this lens differently for different 165 00:11:21,759 --> 00:11:26,960 people here, and I want to hear all of it, you give every 166 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:32,320 nervous system permission to respond authentically instead of 167 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:33,840 performing compliance. 168 00:11:34,399 --> 00:11:40,240 That sentence alone reduces the threat signal in the room. 169 00:11:40,559 --> 00:11:47,200 Second, slow the AI timeline to the pace of human integration, 170 00:11:47,519 --> 00:11:50,720 not the pace of the technology. 171 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:55,279 The nervous system needs time to integrate change. 172 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:02,159 When implementation moves faster than people can adapt, threat 173 00:12:02,159 --> 00:12:04,240 responses lock in. 174 00:12:04,879 --> 00:12:11,120 The boomer doubles down, the Gen X disengages, the millennial 175 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:14,399 spirals, the Gen Z freezes. 176 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:19,840 Slowing the pace is not weakness, it's leadership. 177 00:12:20,159 --> 00:12:23,039 Third, stay regulated in the room. 178 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:26,960 This is the hardest one and the most important one. 179 00:12:27,279 --> 00:12:32,159 When four nervous systems are running four different threat 180 00:12:32,159 --> 00:12:37,440 responses simultaneously, the leader who gets pulled into 181 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:42,960 reactivity amplifies every existing threat signal. 182 00:12:43,919 --> 00:12:50,320 The leader who stays steady, genuinely steady, not performed, 183 00:12:50,799 --> 00:12:55,600 steady, gives every person in the room their best chance at 184 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:56,879 thinking clearly. 185 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,799 This is the work I do with executive teams through my 186 00:13:00,799 --> 00:13:04,960 proprietary brain, B-R-A-I-N framework. 187 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:09,519 Five evidence-based principles that create the neurological 188 00:13:09,679 --> 00:13:14,799 conditions for leaders to hold diverse teams through change 189 00:13:14,799 --> 00:13:17,120 without losing the room. 190 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:23,519 So if your team feels like four people speaking four different 191 00:13:23,519 --> 00:13:29,279 languages every time AI comes up, you're not failing at 192 00:13:29,279 --> 00:13:30,240 communication. 193 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:34,399 You're leading four different nervous systems through the same 194 00:13:34,399 --> 00:13:34,960 change. 195 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:40,000 And that is a completely different skill set than most 196 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,799 leadership training ever taught you. 197 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:45,519 Not sure where you stand in all of this? 198 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,159 Book a leadership clarity call. 199 00:13:48,399 --> 00:13:49,519 30 minutes. 200 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:52,080 No pitch, just clarity. 201 00:13:52,639 --> 00:13:56,399 The link for the calendar is in the notes. 202 00:13:56,639 --> 00:14:00,320 Share this episode with a leader who is trying to hold a 203 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:05,039 multi-generational team through an AI rollout right now. 204 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:06,879 They need to hear this. 205 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:08,639 I'm Sahar Enradi. 206 00:14:08,879 --> 00:14:11,600 This is AI Cafe Conversation Podcast. 207 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:13,600 See you on Wednesday. 208 00:14:13,759 --> 00:14:16,000 Before I go, show me some love. 209 00:14:16,799 --> 00:14:24,080 Save, share, subscribe, rate, comment on this podcast. 210 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:25,519 I would really appreciate it. 211 00:14:25,679 --> 00:14:28,480 It makes us be distributed to more people. 212 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:32,399 Thank you for your support and making us one of the top 2% 213 00:14:32,879 --> 00:14:34,159 global podcasts. 214 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:35,360 I really appreciate it. 215 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:41,679 We are the only podcast that integrates AI, neuroscience, and 216 00:14:41,679 --> 00:14:43,200 leadership together. 217 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:45,279 Again, this is Sahar and Dragi. 218 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:47,200 Till I see you Wednesday. 219 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:48,559 Peace out.