Mind the Gap: Own Your Past, Know Your Generation, Choose Your Future

by Graeme Codrington, Sue Grant-Marshall

The way you parent, the clothes you buy, your relationships with your boss and your daughter, your attitude to money and sex, are, to an extraordinary extent, defined by the era into which you were born. Parents, the church, teachers and employers think they understand youngsters because they, too, were young once.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

Kindle Edition

First published May 16, 2005

Reviews

[Yuthika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book allowed me to understand the different generations as well as the stereotypes associated with them. Great foundation to learning about generation gaps!

[Joe Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a highly informative and well written book. Filled with insight and dashed with humour, this book will undoubtedly become a valuable resource for me as I regularly interact with people from multiple generations in my line of work.

I found that the book dragged on a bit in the latter chapters where some of the topics and themes overlapped with previous chapters. However, all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

The theoretical understanding of generations changes constantly as people age and new generations arise. I therefore look forward to hopefully engaging with an updated copy of this book as the current Gen Z grows up and the next generation starts making their presence felt.

[Courtney Palmersheim]

Although this book wasn't very adventurous, it was very informative. It helps to explain why different aged people act the way they do. I think a lot of parents would like to read it if they are look for parenting advice. Also, a main part of the book is about generation gaps in the workplace and how to overcome them. A big fear among common Americans is that they will just get too old, whether that play on them physically or mentally. This books gives advice on how to appeal to generations that you are not a part of. Communication between generations is a hard thing to accomplish, especially in present day with the over take of technology. It was very interesting reading about the way other generations may see mine and vise versa. The author categorized five generations, ranging from 1900 to 2000. Codrington is truly aiming his words to people who want to be leaders. Understanding how the minds of different generations tick is what shrinks the generation gap. One of the things I found most interesting was how vastly likes and dislikes differed. For example, people in the 1900's category, GI'S, liked to help out, fulfill civic duty and be responsible, while generation 2000, Millennials, like to shop, be with friends, and indulge in technology. Its crazy how fast the world changes, and we don't seem to notice at all. The author does say that this is just generalizations and obviously not every person will follow the norms. The information in the book, though, will help you to communicate with all ages; which only in turn raise success. This book is a very good source for my capstone research project, generation gaps. My persuasive paper is about how age differences affect the workforce. There's a large amount of information discussing leadership in the working world and how different ages learn to interact. The whole book will help to further my knowledge.

[Teryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use the concepts every day in managing people. Also having seen the author present his concepts a few times, it gave the words even more resonance.

[Demyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coaching Generation Y is often rather challenging. Reading this book provided huge insight int "their" world.

[Johan]

Do as the book says...!

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, though the second half could probably be judiciously pruned. The latest edition has not always been updated when referring/ relating to the current ages / life stages of generations.