Communicating Between Generations

It’s not always easy to communicate between two different generations. Listen to Navin Amarasuriya discuss some of the challenges and offer suggestions on how to facilitate dialogue.

You know, it’s so cliché, but you know the communication between generations is something that might be difficult for some families, not necessarily due to culture, but maybe just even parents being able to see their children as the people ultimately inheriting these shares and this ownership and the responsibilities that go with that. I know my dad will always see me as the kid that crashed his bicycle onto his car. That will never change. So the question is now, how do you sort of acknowledge that these individuals will never be your equal but you need to have discussions on that level to ensure the understanding of the dynamic, not just of the business but how the family would work together. It is possible that sometimes people might find it difficult to approach a family problem, particularly between a next generation and a patriarch directly, so finding indirect routes might allow the same message to be conveyed in a way that might be taken more seriously. Different generations will really have to make more accommodation to finding out ways to communicate with each other and it has to be mutual and fairly equal in terms of effort.