Bridging Generational Gaps in the Laboratory

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This webinar originally occurred on March 21, 2023
Duration: 1 hour

Overview

This webinar will address a common cross-cultural issue experienced every day in the crime laboratory and within the greater criminal justice community, the generation gap. Simply defined as the different outlooks or opinions between individuals of different generations, this complex topic can create division within a workforce or, if understood, can elevate personnel to achieve organizational goals. This webinar will focus on helping leaders define what motivates members of each generation and how to use the strengths of each generation to create a more inclusive, respectful, and productive team.   

In particular, this presentation will work to define the outlook of each generation by examining what intimidates, frustrates, and motivates its cohorts. This presentation will not stereotype people of certain ages but will work to help develop an understanding of how personality may be shaped by factors associated with certain timeframes in history and how major events, changes in technology, and cultural outlooks can influence individuals. This presentation will first discuss how to recognize the factors that create the generation gap. Then it will provide methods to help bridge this gap to provide greater communication and understanding. The next level is to reconcile the generation gap, which will help reestablish and solidify a close relationship between each generation within the organization. Lastly, the benefit of multigenerational teams will be discussed. Creating groups comprised of members from multiple generations can help create a strong team that makes decisions based upon a wide range of opinions. Ultimately, these teams utilize input from members that have lived through a given situation, obtained formal education on that same incident, and know how to further research details related to the event. Leaders must no longer view the differences between generations as a “gap”. The focus of this lecture is to view these differences as an advantage that can be employed to enhance decision making within an organization. 

Detailed Learning Objectives

1. Attendees will learn how to recognize the factors that create the generation gap. 
2. Attendees will learn methods to help bridge this gap to provide greater communication and understanding. 
3. Attendees will learn how to create multigenerational teams that will enhance their organization. 

Presenter

• Dr. Timothy Scanlan | President, Forensic Analysis, Consulting, and Training, LLC