What importance do you generally attach to age in the world of work?
"I find the very different perspectives of recruiters and companies interesting: For some, silver agers are "The forgotten labor market resource", too expensive, too stuck, too inflexible, not digital and certainly not agile. For others, they are "The often underestimated economic power", who bring entrepreneurial thinking, an established network, human maturity and valuable experience with them. Still others define silver agers as best agers (whatever best agers are) or as people between 60 and 80 who are retired. Although stereotypes make our everyday lives easier and help us to better assess people we do not know, they neglect the individual differences within a group. For example, there are 30-year-olds who are already very fixed in their thinking or are extremely far-sighted for their age, and 70-year-olds who, despite their age, have a high digital affinity or little professional experience. Finding out who is good at what, in which mix and with which personalities teams are particularly creative and high-performing – regardless of age, gender, social and cultural background and hierarchical level – is what I see as the real challenge. Age is just one of many factors, and I don't think it's enough to look at it in isolation," says Sabine Duddeck.
... and does a team always have to be diverse?
"In any case, a diverse team is more innovative than a homogeneous group that only confirms the views of the others – you may reach your goal faster and more easily that way, but the full potential is not exploited. Above all, this means analyzing certain topics from different perspectives, discussing them and developing suitable solutions on this basis. There are many instructions for implementation – de Bono's "6 thinking hats" provide a practical example. Heterogeneous teams, and in particular the exchange between "young" and "old", absolutely need a culture of openness and mutual respect – then we will achieve the best results," Sabine explains.