I often co-present with my colleague, Maria van Hekken, on how organizations can leverage generational diversity as an asset. If you’re not up to speed on the generational stuff, suffice it to say that individuals and organizations are having a hard time dealing with the relatively new phenomenon of four generations of adults in the workplace. We help people address this through our joint venture, GenEdge.

Maria and I have a unique standpoint: multiple generations is a good thing. Additionally, the biggest piece of the “generation gap” sits in our own sterotypes, prejudices and assumptions. Once we help our audience flesh that out, we share with them our Top 5 Strategies for Leveraging Generation Capital. Interested? Check out our super cool, very funny audio thingamajig here.

I digress.

At the end of a recent presentation, one fellow commented that our material could really be applied to anything. He said, “It’s communication 101.” Maria’s immediate response was right on target: “We couldn’t agree with you more.”

It was never clear to me whether the comment was meant as an insult. But here’s the deal: it doesn’t matter. The conversation we had with the group was powerful. Powerful enough that a woman come up to us afterwards, sharing how a lightbulb went off for her, enabling her to see an entirely new way of addressing some intergenerational issues she as facing.

Communication 101 is what most of us need. We forget to lay aside our prejudice and stereotypes. We resist the idea that collaboration is better than jockeying for power. We never get around to asking open-ended questions and then shutting up to let someone fully answer. We stop speaking respectfully.

Communicating effectively is no easy endeavor. Whether it’s between friends, lovers, colleagues, races, genders or generations, we’re always swimming in a sea of noise. The good news is there are some presentations out there that remind us of some new ways to do this. The good news is we can always go back to basics.