Creative Destruction: Are myths useful?
There are lots of myths about age. Many of them relate to inflexibility, ability to learn new things, respond to customer needs etc.
The consequences is that some older people find it difficult to get work.
Is this helpful?
Assuming the myth can be shown to be generally true - in other words more right than wrong - then employing older people is going to be more of a risk (on this one factor), or will take longer to process than younger people (in order to weed out the inflexible people).
If the myth is no more true about older people than it is about younger people - or we are not seeing the full picture - then it may take a lot of time to find out what the truth is - expensive!
If the myth is plainly wrong - then it is just a set of co-incidences for a small number of people -and not very useful to adopt. There will be people in every workforce who will be "opinion leaders" and keen to impress their ideas on others. How easily influenced might you be about there opinion?
I was told at interview once that I was employed because I didn't have buckles on my shoes - and the other shortlisted candidate did. I have never bought buckled shoes since - and I do look at peoples feet instinctively!
In the workplace - how much time do you take to explore whether something is fact - or fiction? How easily might you accept a way of doing something from someone else?
We all adopt myths - things our parents say to us, rewards we are given when young, images and headlines from media. Many of them may not be true - and yet they influence our behaviour, our decisions, and our productivity.
The consequences is that some older people find it difficult to get work.
Is this helpful?
Assuming the myth can be shown to be generally true - in other words more right than wrong - then employing older people is going to be more of a risk (on this one factor), or will take longer to process than younger people (in order to weed out the inflexible people).
If the myth is no more true about older people than it is about younger people - or we are not seeing the full picture - then it may take a lot of time to find out what the truth is - expensive!
If the myth is plainly wrong - then it is just a set of co-incidences for a small number of people -and not very useful to adopt. There will be people in every workforce who will be "opinion leaders" and keen to impress their ideas on others. How easily influenced might you be about there opinion?
I was told at interview once that I was employed because I didn't have buckles on my shoes - and the other shortlisted candidate did. I have never bought buckled shoes since - and I do look at peoples feet instinctively!
In the workplace - how much time do you take to explore whether something is fact - or fiction? How easily might you accept a way of doing something from someone else?
We all adopt myths - things our parents say to us, rewards we are given when young, images and headlines from media. Many of them may not be true - and yet they influence our behaviour, our decisions, and our productivity.
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