Boomer Myths and Misconcpetions Blog

Stereotying Has Gone High Tech

Yesterday, I shared why a recent promotional piece by Deloitte to position themselves as the "go to" people to help you prepare for the coming aging of the Boom proved only that they "really didn't get it". Like most of the recent self help literature; most of their examples focus on companies efforts to change packaging, design and communications to adapt to the declines and losses of aging.

What about the personal growth? What about the research that says we can continue building upper body strength into our 9th and 10th decades? What about mind research that now documents it is possible to reverse cognitive loss? And we have only been studying the mature mind for about a decade.

A good example is Deloitte touting the "Third Age Suit" from Ford Engineers as a technological way to "introduce enhanced design for aging consumers". The suit "adds bulk, restricts movement in key areas of the body such as the knees, elbows, stomach, and back." That sound like a suit for the disabled. In the 70's and 80's this was called "aging sensitivity training".

One company even marketed kits to "teach staff what it was like to be old." The "learning" involved putting cotton in the ears, Vaseline on the lens of glasses, marbles in the shoes and tightly wrapping joints with Ace Bandages to simulate what it "was like to be old." What it really did was perpetuate the stereotypes that lead to the Kit's creation in the first place. Unfortunately we have too long confused declining health and aging. When age can be used as an excuse, we seldom look for other causes.

In my world view, Ford did not create a Third Age Suit but an ageist suit. What the exercise simulates is what it is like to wear and uncomfortable suit; not what it is like to get older. You don't put maturity on or take it off like a suit; but grow and adapt with each passing year. If Ford and other businesses truly understood the mind of the maturing adult, they would need to be closing factories. What is needed is not more research; but the beginning of understanding.

Business Just Doesn't Get It

As American business wakes up to the reality that our nation is becoming more senior than junior for the first time in history, they are beginning to search for answers about how to serve the needs of aging consumers. Unfortunately, they often seek answers from public and nonprofit agencies that have been serving older adults for decades, which would seem to make sense on its surface. I have long stated that while the “aging service providers” have done a respectable job caring for frail and at risk elders; and creating social, recreational and nutrition programs; but they know very little about older adults.

On several occasions I have administered an “aging perception quiz” on the myths and realities of aging to “aging professionals” and they scored as bad as or worse than the public at large. In fact, these public and nonprofit agencies and organizations both help perpetuate and are victims of aging stereotypes. When your funding is tied to “the problems of aging”, it would seem you tend to focus on the problems rather than the solutions – on the negative rather than the positive; on decline rather than personal growth and enrichment. If I wanted to know about marketing to older people or the shared values of an aging population, the last place I would look would be the State Aging Offices or the Administration on Aging.

For over two decades, we have had two images of an aging population put forth: 1) The decline and dependency image put forth by the nonprofit service provider and health care industry; and 2) The California age wave “Baby Boomers will be teenagers forever” image. Both are grounded in myth and misconception rather than reality.

Yesterday, I was reviewing two documents. The first was the “Future Directions for Aging Policy: a Human Service Model” published by the U.S. House Select Committee on Aging in 1980 in preparation for the 1981 White House Conference on Aging. It is amazing to me how visionary the Report was and how little of it has been accomplished in the quarter of a century.

The other document was the "Wealth with Wisdom: Serving the Needs of Aging Consumers" from Deloitte. If American business is looking to Deloitte for answers, I share a warning from Robbie the Robot in the Lost in Space television series, "be afraid Will Robinson; be very afraid." The Deloitte report does a good job of framing the demographic shift and the need to rethink the way companies do business; but the recommendations could have been written in the early 1980's when the "decline theory of aging" was the popular paradigm. It is clear that the authors of the "research report" spent a good deal of time looking at aging issues and very little time learning about current trends in developmental aging.

If those specializing in the field “Still Don’t Get It”; we shouldn’t be too surprised with the private sector that seems to just be discovering the fact that people are living longer more active lives and the Baby Boom has matured. Rather than investing hundreds of thousands of dollars with big accounting and consulting firms, I recommend investing about $50 and read David Wolfe's Ageless Marketing and Dr. Gene Cohen's The Mature Mind. If the "experts" you are considering are not conversant with principles and values put forth in both, "be afraid; be very afraid" about you chances of success serving an increasingly ageless market.

What I Meant to Say Was

Have you ever had one of your emails to a co-worker or friend misunderstood? Typed all caps and didn't really mean to be yelling? Thought you were being cute and been misinterpreted as being sarcastic?

Email may be doing as much to erode at build positive relationships. This is one of the major reasons the creators of www.YackPack.com, a new voice mail system for groups, created this unique service and why many of us became instant fans.

Just today, I received an email detailing new research that further documents the benefits of communicating in your own voice. According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, you have only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time...that's quite a perception gap!

"That's how flame wars get started," says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. "People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance," says Epley.

The research involved 30 pairs of undergraduate students and each received a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.

Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.

"People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write," Epley explains. At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times.

The conclusion I make from studies of this type is that many business communications are too important to start with only a 50/50 change they will be understood. For customer service projects, coaching and mentoring, I am moving almost exclusively to making YackPack the primary form of team communication to avoid misunderstanding, hurt feelings and flare ups.

If you're concerned about being misunderstood, go to www.yackpack.com and give it a try. It won't cost you a cent but the return could be HUGE>