march06b.indd


Erin McCaffrey and Martin Garnar 

Long-range planning 
across generational lines 
Eight
tips
to
bridge
the
differences



Ahot topic in recent library literature is generational differences, particu-
larly those between Baby Boomers and 
Generation Xers. The May 2004 American 
Libraries cover story, addressing what 
Generation X needs to lead, resulted in 
frustrated responses from some Genera-
tion X librarians and a follow-up article 
addressing the generational tensions. In 
addition to numerous feature articles on 
this topic, Library Journal debuted the 
“NextGen” column in January 2004 to 
provide an ongoing platform for discussing 
these issues. 

Before we go any further, let’s take a 
quick look at the four major generational 
categories: Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, 
Generation X, and Millennial. Tradition­
alists are loyal employees, committed to 
the institutions for which they work. Baby 
Boomers are competitive and idealistic, a 
generation that has been able to focus on 
themselves. Generation Xers, by contrast, 
are skeptical and self-reliant. They have 
seen their parents divorce and institutions 
fail. Finally, Millennials are technologically 
savvy, diverse, and have been raised with 
a global media perspective.1 

These categorical differences have 
been examined in the broader context 
of generational characteristics, as well as 
the qualities needed for new leadership 
and management to replace the retiring 
Boomers. 

William M. Curran addressed the need 
for succession planning in light of these 
impending retirements, the related loss of 
collective knowledge and expertise, and 

the relative scarcity of younger middle 
managers to fill these leadership roles.2 

Carolyn Wiethoff characterized the unique 
attributes of Generation X and Generation 
Y (Millennials) to assist Boomers in under-
standing and managing colleagues from 
these generations.3 While the differences 
between Boomer managers and Generation 
X employees have been thoroughly exam-
ined, what happens when the tables are 
turned and Generation Xers are leading? 

Cross-generational planning 
In the fall of 2003, the Regis University 
Libraries began developing a long-range 
plan. The Long Range Planning Steering 
Committee (LRPSC) was composed of 
faculty and staff from across the library 
and included representatives from other 
units of the university. We were selected 
to be the cochairs; one of us was new to 
the university and participated in strategic 
planning at another institution, while the 
other was a relative long-timer with seven 
years of experience at the library. 

Despite the difference in backgrounds, we 
are both Generation Xers, and gradually dis-
covered the generational differences playing 
out in our planning process. Through shep-
herding the long-range plan from draft stages 
to eventual adoption, we have observed a 
number of points that may prove useful to 

E r i n  M c C a f f re y  i s  d i s t a n c e  l e a r n i n g  l i b r a r i a n ,  
e-mail: emccaffr@regis.edu, and Martin Garnar is 
reference librarian, e-mail: mgarnar@regis.edu, at Regis 
University, 
© 2006 Erin McCaffrey and Martin Garnar 

144C&RL News March 2006

mailto:mgarnar@regis.edu
mailto:emccaffr@regis.edu


others embarking on a cross-generational 
planning process. 

1. Be respectful. Respect what has gone 
on before you, both your institutional his-
tory and your colleague’s experience. Gen-
eration Xers like change, while Boomers 
favor tradition. The challenge is to balance 
the weight of tradition with the promise of 
a new approach and to not get sidetracked 
by discussions of how previous attempts 
to change were not successful. 

2. Encourage br oad r epr esentation. 
Employees from all departments, staffi ng 
levels, and generations should be involved 
in the planning process. Ensure that your 
steering committee or other coordinating 
body is representative of the library as a 
whole. Our committee was not composed 
with generations in mind, and, as the only 
Generation Xers on board, we occasion-
ally felt frustrated when trying to bridge 
generational differences. 

3. Have a timeline. It is important to 
build a timeline for your long-range plan-
ning process, and it is even more important 
to actually follow it. Building in some fl ex-
ibility allows for the ebb and flow of the 
process, but sticking to a timeline forced 
us to come to consensus when genera-
tional differences would have otherwise 
derailed the process. Coincidentally, our 
planning timeline ended up aligning with 
the university’s strategic planning deadline 
(which was announced after we began our 
process), thus giving us another reason for 
staying on task. 

4. Mix it up. Provide a variety of oppor-
tunities for employee’s voices to be heard. 
All employees should have the opportunity 
to share their knowledge and provide 
input in the process. Accommodate differ-
ent learning and participation styles with 
large group, small group, and one-on-one 
situations for input. We held “listening ses-
sions,” where employees were organized 
based on whether they were faculty or staff 
and supervisory or nonsupervisory. 

An outside facilitator from another 
university department led the sessions, 

using as her foundation a set of questions 
compiled by the LRPSC. Providing a variety 
of opportunities also allows generational 
perspectives to be shared, as different set-
tings may be more conducive to the range 
of generational preferences. 

5. Consult ACRL standards. The stan-
dards represent what our profession values 
and may shine a light on areas that need 
improvement. If a Boomer is concerned 
about a proposed change, the standards 
can help bridge the gap. 

We found that pointing to the standards 
made proposed changes more credible 
rather than being just another crazy idea 
the Generation Xers created over their 
morning café au laits. 

6. Plan for the future. Long-range plan-
ning should incorporate succession plan-
ning, which not only includes planning 
for management changes, but also for key 
positions within your organization. Genera-
tional differences may affect employment 
and turnover. 

Succession planning that also provides 
for re-education will appeal to Genera-
tion Xers who value learning opportuni-
ties, while Boomers will appreciate how 
succession planning explicitly values 
their career accomplishments and con-
tributions. 

7. Gather data. Both internal and exter-
nal data gathering should provide valuable 
input in your long-range planning process. 
External data gathering can occur through 
surveys, focus groups, and other assess-
ment tools. Internal data gathering can 
occur through a variety of formats, such 
as an all library meeting, small groups, 
departmental discussions, and the listening 
sessions previously mentioned. Like our 
professional standards, data can support 
proposed changes that might otherwise be 
questioned on the grounds of generational 
differences. 

8. Get outside opinions. Include other 
college or university members on your 
steering committee, such as faculty that 

(continued on page 164) 

March 2006  145 C&RL News 



fishing for a particular response, and in doing 
so recognized how many times I posed the latter 
when I thought I was asking the former. I felt 
sympathy for my fellow faculty when I saw them 
struggle with the difficulty of allowing silence 
to stretch out for people to have a chance to 
think about such questions before answering 
them. Whatever one’s age, one doesn’t wish 
to appear the fool in public! 

How to find out what students need 
Even without the magnificent opportunity of a 
sabbatical, there are many things we can do to 
become more familiar with student information 
needs in our classes. Ask if you can sit in on a 
session or two of a class you will be instructing 
in the mysteries of library research before you 
offer your session. Talk to students you see in 
those classes and ask them about their prefer-
ences and challenges in fi nding information; 
you can encounter them in the dining halls, in 
performances, in clubs or interest groups, and 

in the stands of the sports arenas as well as in 
the library and the classroom. Take the time to 
look at the texts for those classes; the results can 
be enlightening, to say the least. 

It might have been very interesting to use the 
Web sites from the text for the drama course in a 
library exercise to evaluate Web pages. Review your 
instructional material with an eye to media literacy 
as well as information fluency. If you have a center 
for teaching and learning on your campus, see if 
they have a peer observation program and ask to 
be included in it as both an observer and as one 
who wishes to be observed. Sit in on instruction 
sessions of your fellow teaching librarians and really 
focus on all the aspects that impinge on learning: 
physical space, movement, technology, content, 
delivery. If possible, do this for classes that are 
unfamiliar to you or which cover unknown mate-
rial. The more we can put ourselves in the place of 
“learner,” the more we will experience the needs 
of learners, and the more effective our teaching 
will become. 

(“Long­range planning across generational lines” continued from page 145) 

serve on your library advisory committee, 
library-friendly IT staff, or a representative 
from the provost’s office. They will serve 
as outside advisors and will broaden your 
perspective in the planning process. 

A final tip for any long-range plan-
ning process is to identify those issues 
that don’t require paradigm shifts and 
are easy to solve. We developed a list of 
such issues and addressed them before 
turning to the larger questions of the 
newly adopted long-range plan. This 
approach preserved the momentum of 
the planning process and allowed for 
the quick and decisive actions that all 
generations appreciate. 

Epilogue 
Despite the generational divides that 
needed to be bridged during the long-
range plan’s development, the process has 
already been deemed a success. A univer-
sity-wide meeting that was supposed to 
focus on the long- range planning efforts 
of all units was modified to focus on the 

library’s plan, as it was recognized by the 
provost as the model of how plans should 
look. 

Within the library, the generational les-
sons learned during the planning process 
led to thoughtful consideration of how 
the plan’s implementation group would 
be composed. Along with other diversity 
concerns, we made a conscious choice to 
balance the generational representation. 
So far, so good. 

Notes 
1. For further exploration of generations 

in the workplace, see Lynne C. Lancaster 
and David Stillman’s When Generations 
Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. 
How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at 
Work (HarperBusiness, 2002). 

2. William M. Curran, “Succession: The 
Next Ones at Bat,” College & Research Li­
braries 64 (2003): 134–40. 

3. Carolyn Wiethoff, “Management 
Basics: Managing Generation X,” Indiana 
Libraries 23 (2004): 53–5. 

164C&RL News March 2006