By Liz Kentish.
Earlier this month I had an interesting meeting which gave my conscious mind a reality check and my comfort zone a massive shove, I call it the ‘Alice effect’.
Let me ask you the same question that I had to ask myself during this meeting, ‘Do you read about, listen to and watch on tv, only things about which you agree and generally share your point of view’? Because if you do, you will almost certainly be missing out on contrarian opinions and new and different ways of thinking and doing things.
At this meeting with our PR and marketing company, one of the newest (and youngest recruits) the lovely Alice challenged our thinking and explained how her generation take in information. This is a generation who within a few years will be making up about a fifth of the workforce. Not only that but even a gap of 5-6 years between ages gives a differing perspective of how you need to engage and communicate, both socially and in business, which for the younger generation is almost seamless.
My learning from this is that you must open your mind and engage with people who think and do things differently to you, not just the young, but all generations. As an example, follow someone on Twitter that you would not normally follow. If you can understand where their interests lie and what is important to them, then you can use this knowledge to communicate your messages effectively.
This article originally appeared in the December edition of Tomorrow’s FM.