Issue: Today’s Extension colleagues and clients represent five distinct generations – Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z. The diverse backgrounds, perceptions and experiences of these generations influence how they communicate, interact, learn and work together. But the assumptions made about people based on the era they are born can lead to misunderstanding, miscommunication and missed opportunities. To help turn differences into advantages, a multi-disciplinary, multigenerational Extension team (Mercedes Fraser, Amy Kostelic, Ken Kulp, Melody Nall, Kendriana Price) led by Kim Henken, created a versatile extension training program that provides insight into how each generation approaches communication, technology, work motivation and values in the workplace. Research demonstrates that understanding generational distinctions is key to creating a cohesive, effective and successful team. 

Program/Audience: To help agents and other extension personnel become more familiar with and respectful of each generation’s history and core values, we created an innovative and replicable program that provided participants with tools and resources to take back to their offices to help them bridge generations in their workspace. Formal plans for this training started in Spring 2023. It was first delivered in January 2024. To date, this program has been taught eight times to over 200 participants. We are scheduled to train county Extension staff assistants and program assistants on September 11^th, 2025. Two (2) abstracts were submitted in June 2025 for the Kentucky Volunteer Forum scheduled for February 2026. 

Outcomes: The initial core extension trainings were in Woodford County (n = 24 on 1/31/24) and Christian County (n = 28 on 2/6/24). We accepted an invitation to adopt the training and present at the Chi Epsilon Sigma meeting, a professional association for Extension Support Staff (n=48 on 4/18/24). We were accepted to present at the National Epsilon Sigma Phi Conference in Virginia Beach on 10/29/24, and at the Kentucky State Extension Conference in Louisville in March 2025, where we presented twice (29 total survey respondents). More recently, we were invited to teach at the May 1, 2025 Extension Core Training in Hardin County (n=28) and at the KEHA State meaning on May 7 (38 survey respondents). 

Of the ~200 total participants, 189 completed some level of evaluation (e.g., Mentimeter surveys, post training and follow-up evaluations). In summary, of the 54 participants who completed post training evaluations, 100% reported that the training (1) “increased my confidence in my ability to bridge generations”; (2) “improved my attitude or approach at work”; and (3) “increased my comfort and confidence to offer multi-generational programs”. 98% reported that the training “equipped me with skills and knowledge to bridge generations in the workplace“; and 96% reported that the training “helped me consider the importance of having generational diversity on advisory councils and stakeholder groups”.  

A summary of “Key Takeaways” from Mentimeter includes:

1. Every generation feels misunderstood
2. Every generation has the opportunity to learn and grow from each other 
3. Good old days are great, but we all need to focus on moving ahead
4. Consider all generations when programming and how it can be tailored to appeal to all audiences to reach the most possible
5. Communication preferences influence who participates
6. Find commonalities to build community
7. Create more office team building to include all generations 

A summary of “Next steps” from Mentimeter includes:

1. Go out and be in the spaces of different generations who are your clientele
2. We are not one size fits all. Be proactive. 
3. Be more inclusive with all generations
4. Review marketing approaches
5. Be more mindful of generational differences and preferences
6. Recruit more representation on advisory councils
7. Don’t make assumptions
8. Be more intentionally aware of how I can bridge generations and appreciate other generations other than my own. 
9. Be more purposeful in marketing and designing programs
10. Be sure all extension employees take this training. 
11. Reassign responsibilities of volunteers and council members
12. Apply more variety of learning styles in programming