ORLANDO, Fla. - A lot can change over the course of 64 years. That's the age difference between the youngest and oldest employees at the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) here, representing a relatively new phenomenon of four generations in the workforce.

With mentorship being a priority across the NAVAIR workforce, four generations of NAWCTSD employees shared their thoughts about the importance of mentoring across multiple generations during a NAVAIR-wide training session, “Cross-Generational Mentoring: Four Generations Learning from Each Other,” Aug. 12. The session aimed to improve the effectiveness of mentor-protégé communication with all employees, regardless of age.

The panel of eight employees -- two from each generation, including the youngest millenials, generation X, baby boomers and the most senior traditional -- shared how they overcome challenges of communicating with employees who may have different experiences and expectations.

"We all recognize that building awareness and opportunities to the workplace will facilitate an open dialogue and increase our ability to leverage the unique skills and abilities of each generation," said Selina Vik, NAWCTSD's training and career development manager, who coordinated the event.

“It’s an honor hosting this mentoring event, which brings four generations of our workforce together,” said NAWCTSD Commanding Officer, Capt. Wes Naylor. “It really shows a change in the demographics of our workforce. With four generations, there is a lot of wisdom, there's a lot of knowledge, there's a lot of energy and there's a lot of new ideas. With all of those things coming together, there can also be a lot of conflict.

"I think it was a great idea to get a mentoring event together where we can talk across the 'digital divide'," he said. "Newer generations, the millenials and the Gen X'ers, are what we refer to as 'digital natives' because they grew up with technology. Then you have the 'digital immigrants.' We (baby boomers and older generations) are the immigrants coming into the digital age. What we were brought up with from the technology standpoint was completely different."

Naylor explained why he believes mentoring events are important to NAVAIR. "I think one of the biggest parts of the digital divide is how we look at technology," he said. "This session is a great step. Mentoring is at the heart of our culture here at NAWCTSD, and it is at the heart of our culture across NAVAIR. We need to ensure that as we move through the next generations of our workforce, we often talk about knowledge transfer, but I'm not sure that's the best term, since a lot of our new generation workforce has plenty of knowledge. What I'd like to think of it as -- and what I think we are really dealing with here -- is wisdom transfer.”

Naylor explained that sharing wisdom is critical because nearly half of the workforce is approaching retirement age. "Wisdom is a combination of knowledge and experience," he said. "What we really need to pass on is the wisdom of how to get things done and how to work through the system to achieve things."

Following Naylor's opening remarks, Tom Reed, president of Reliant Learning LLC, facilitated the discussion by explaining the characteristics of the four generations currently represented in the U.S. workforce. Each member of the audience also had the opportunity to self-assess which generation they related to the most.

After discussing the generational differences, Reed reinforced Naylor's message about the need to share wisdom. "Wisdom is really the power of cross-generational mentoring," he said. "The amount of wisdom, knowledge and unique perspective that exists within each one of the generations is a power sitting there waiting to be tapped. The question becomes how we tap into that; how do we leverage that power?" He continued to explain that mentoring is one of the best ways to share that wisdom.

To illustrate the differences between the generations, Reed asked each member of the multi-generational panel to discuss some of the world events that shaped their generation.

For NAWCTSD Electronics Engineer Peter Engel, the Apollo program, bringing the government and industry together to develop the space program and, eventually, send people to the moon, was inspirational.

“I grew up without a television. We used to listen to the radio after dinner,"  said government employee of 37-years Judy Magdiasz. "I remember in the 1950s, black-and-white TVs were beginning to come available for purchase. I used to get my information about what was happening in the world from listening to the radio.”

On the younger end of the spectrum, Lead Systems Engineer Troy Bennett said, “I can’t even imagine how people worked before email. I personally prefer email to communicate because it allows me time to think about a proper response to any questions which may be asked of me.”

Other questions illustrated a strong commonality across all the generations. When asked what inspired them the most about their jobs, most of the panelists discussed their pride in the mission of supporting our nation's warfighters and the opportunities afforded by a NAVAIR career.

The people and the work itself are what motivate NAVAIR's Director of the Human Systems Department John Meyers. "No matter what site you are at, and no matter what project you are working on, we are all part of something bigger, and that 'jazzes me'," Meyers said. "We are here for a reason. Because of that, we have folks working here because they want to be here, to be part of something bigger."

Using a live video teleconferencing (VTC) feed, the mentoring event benefited employees across multiple NAVAIR sites nationwide.   "It was interesting to learn about the different characteristics of each generation and how their perspectives influence everything from the way they communicate, the way they view authority, how they view their careers and what motivates them," said AIR-1.5's Program Management Community Management Lead, Leslie Fazio, who attended the training at NAS Patuxent River via VTC.  "The panel discussion also gave me insight into the value each generation brings to NAVAIR and emphasized how important it is to ensure we communicate effectively across all four generations."

The training event received mostly positive reviews from those who attended, and the focus on cross-generational mentoring will likely continue across NAVAIR.  NAVAIR Mentorship Program Manager, Donna Belcher explained that succeeding at cross-generational mentoring will be an ongoing process.  "It was very interesting hearing the different perspectives from the various panel members; I think we just scratched the surface of cross generational mentoring with this event," she said.  "I believe we can delve deeper, maybe focus on overcoming challenges that may arise when mentoring different generations."

The session was the latest in a series of formal NAVAIR mentorship events facilitated by Reed. NAVAIR’s mentoring program, established in 2007, offers training, group and speed mentoring sessions, and an online iMentor tool to match potential mentors and mentees based on their skills, interests, location, experience or keywords.