Much to my surprise, the plane headed from Sacramento to Orange County last week was de-iced before leaving. Though that is commonplace on morning flights from Lansing, MI to Chicago, and often the cause for delayed arrivals, this was my first encounter with the de-icing routine in California. Fortunately, my arrival was only delayed by 10 to 15 minutes.

I'd love to learn how Southwest manages to produce a magazine that is far more interesting than that published by other airlines. The current issue has a feature story about Chip Conley who has developed the concept of what he calls a “Modern Elder,” someone with the “ability to use timeless wisdom and apply it to modern-day problems.” I followed up on the article by watching a TED blog that elaborated: [The Modern Elder] shares with the younger employees the people skills he gained over decades, while [the younger employees] teach [the Modern Elder] about technology. Nearly 40 percent of Americans have a boss who is younger than them — and when people of all ages exchange knowledge and learn from each other, good things happen. “This is the new sharing economy,” Conley says. The article mentioned that only 8% of companies consider ‘age diversity' as a metric for company health yet studies show that age diversity improves overall company health and productivity. There are even HR books about this!

Conley recommends forming teams that consider age as one of the diversity considerations. For UC ANR, and academia as a whole across the U.S., this may come naturally as many, if not most, 4-year schools prepare for a wave of retirements in the next year or two. I can't wait to see what all of the new, fresh talent brings to UC ANR. However, Conley's point is that even the elder has significant contributions to make, particularly those that follow the four takeaways. Those takeaways are: evolve (be willing to change even if it means cutting your ego down to size), learn (be the most curious person in the room), collaborate (accept that work is a team sport and build diverse teams), and counsel (share what you know, with humility and respect; intern publicly and mentor privately – what Conley refers to as a ‘mentern').

Who can complain about a flight delay when you know you got far more than you expected for $59, one-way? Perhaps because it is a birthday week for me, and I'm so far over the hump I can't even see the hill behind me anymore, this topic resonated strongly. But I'd like to think it's because multigenerational thinking will bring great things to UC ANR and California.

This week I head down to Desert REC and the Imperial County office. I already have my TED talk downloaded and ready to go. But before I get there, the Program Council will be meeting, and the Ag Issues Center has a board meeting. No doubt I will learn much more.