5 Generations, 3 Models, 1 Workplace

Why your culture, people, or performance problem is probably a system design issue.

Leaders are now managing five generations within three different operating systems of work - each with a distinct social contract around trust, safety, and merit.

The good news is that all models of work (and the generations attached to them) are reaching for the same thing. The deeply human need to be seen, safe and significant.  

The key for leaders is understanding how they achieve that differently.

On the podium, we have:

The Industrial Model = Trust the Institution

• Largely Boomer/Builder-coded

• “Stay loyal and we’ll give you a seat at the table.”

• Predictability. Compliance. Hierarchy.

Think Ford’s assembly line. Cogs in a machine, efficiency and scale. Work as duty, not identity. Safety and significance in the system is achieved via tenure and being a ‘good soldier’. 

But when globalisation and automation swung a wrecking ball through those reward systems, the social contract was broken, which gave rise to:

The Knowledge Model = Trust Yourself

• Largely Gen X/Y coded

• “Be the best and earn your seat at the table.”

• Meritocracy. Mastery. Grind.

When the institutional model stopped providing safety, competence became the new currency. Power was still hierarchical but was almost moralised through effort. Gen X perfected this logic: if you’re good enough for long enough, you’ll get ahead. 

Achieving safety in the system was via autonomy, which was secured by working harder, being better because you could only rely on yourself. If the hard work wasn’t rewarded - the baton wasn’t passed or the excellence wasn’t financially recognised, the social contract was broken, which then created the:

The Networked Model = Purpose & Trust

• Largely Gen Z coded 

• “Let’s design a table we actually want to sit at.”

• Altruism. Self Actualisation. Collaboration.

Younger generations grew up watching systems, leaders and institutions break their promises in real time. Trust is their most precious resource. Purpose (why) is their major motivation. This model trusts relationships over hierarchies.

They ask: Why should I give you the best hours of every day if I can’t see evidence I’ll be valued, developed, and free to live a full life outside of work?

Meaning and belonging aren’t “perks” to emerging generations, they’re proof of a healthy system. They want work to fulfil more than financial and professional goals - they’re looking for relationships and purpose.

They don’t want to choose between having a job or having a life. 

This grinds the gears of older generations who signed on to a different social contract. And this response confuses younger workers who are assessing the appeal and reward of the system they’re being invited into.

The Leadership Challenge

When these models (and the generations within them) don’t play nicely in the sandbox, it creates friction. This presents as conflict, change resistance, defensiveness, entitlement, silos, disengagement - the list goes on. 

Understanding these models is key to helping generations interface constructively today while we design a new and intergenerationally coherent system that meets human needs today and productivity goals for tomorrow.