Alastair Greener - Lost in Translation: Communicating across generations

In this week’s 4-Quarter Lives Podcast, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is joined by Alastair Greener, speaker, consultant and author of Generationally Speaking, to unpick what we get wrong about generations at work. Alastair argues that much of what we label generational conflict is really about life stage, and that organisations stereotype at their peril: his research across six generations found we are, on average, only about 65% “stereotypical”, meaning a third of people won’t match the labels applied to them. The conversation explores a striking gap: just 6% of HR leaders report overt generational friction, yet almost two-thirds believe better intergenerational communication would boost productivity. Avivah and Alastair dig into the overlooked Q3 workforce, the value of multi-generational teams, and three strategies leaders can adopt now: omni-channel communication, “tangling” the generations within teams, and recruitment that genuinely matches onboarding.Alastair Greener is a speaker, trainer and consultant specialising in intergenerational communication, helping organisations turn generational difference into a source of engagement and productivity rather than friction. His book Generationally Speaking, published in November 2025, draws on his research with 4,000 people across six generations and all socioeconomic groups, examining how each generation prefers to communicate and how far the stereotypes really hold. After a career in the corporate world, Alastair now works with major organisations on communication, culture and multi-generational teams, with a follow-up study and a second book already in the pipeline. Get full access to 4-Quarter Lives | Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe