I’ve always been curious about people. So, I study human beings,” says Phil Gwoke, CEO of BridgeWorks and a keynote speaker at this year’s FCSI The Americas Symposium. For more than 20 years BridgeWorks has helped thousands of organizations retain and engage each successive generation of talent. For Gwoke, the study of generational theory is a seemingly endless source of fascination, in part because he is drawn to its hybrid nature, being comprised of various elements of sociology, psychology, neuroscience, biology, and physiology. Ultimately, he says, he is simply “intrigued by what makes people tick.”
What makes Gen Z consumers tick, as well as that generation’s role in the foodservice and hospitality workforce, will be the subject of Gwoke’s presentation in Atlanta. For Gwoke, it is vital the industry gets a better, deeper understanding of Gen Z consumers in order to better serve them. “I am passionate about this. I like to help people gather skills in this space so they can continue to provide a great service,” he says.
Gwoke has always had an affinity with younger people. He started his career working in education with high school students and college kids. “My life mission is just to help people become the best versions of themselves. After I graduated college, I was working with that age group and at the time I was only four or five years older than them, so without realizing it, I could be very effective. I could get my message across, be funny and cool,” he says.
“I worked in that field for 20 years and with each passing decade, while I became older, they stayed the same age. So, I became less cool and less funny,” laughs Gwoke. “To be good at my job I had to reinvent myself and learn how to effectively connect with them. I like to say I got a 20-year living laboratory of watching those generations’ mindsets shifting.”
When Gwoke first met the team from Bridgeworks 10 years ago, they already had 25 years of experience – and two bestselling books – studying the habits and behaviors of different generations. “When Millennials began creating a lot of disruption in the workplace, [other companies] then got into this industry. But we were in it long before that. For us, it was not driven by ‘Oh, there’s an opportunity here’, it was really from a passion that the team had in helping organizations of every size and in every industry, to understand these generational differences.”
Learning lessons from history
Gwoke’s other passion is history – and understanding how to interpret it. For Gwoke, a key differential in how younger generations behave in the workplace has become ever clearer over the past 25 years. “The real challenge between Baby Boomers and Gen Xers came around work ethics. Boomers were used to putting in 60–80-hour weeks, so that they could one day achieve the corner office, the gold watch, and the Mercedes. Instead, Xers, wanted a work/life balance,” he says. “Then, when Millennials came in, that became an even bigger conversation.”
So, how can we help different generations connect in this ever-changing landscape? “It’s about understanding what shapes a generation, says Gwoke. “Our formative teenage years is when our minds absorb experiences in very influential ways. As we mature, our minds begin to solidify and shape our beliefs about what is right or wrong, religion and politics, what motivates someone, their values, and where trust is established. What the Baby Boomer generation or Xers valued and what indicators they would look for to trust, has shifted. It is most certainly now shifting for Gen Z too. We try to help people understand the why, because that drives our decision making.”
No generation lives in a vacuum, says Gwoke. “The oldest Millennials turned 44 this year. The oldest Gen Zs are 28, but we don’t really want organizations to focus on the ages: it’s about the mindset that was shaped in their formative years. Once you understand that, you have the tools to connect with a mindset.”
Authenticity is key
Gwoke and his team support organizations – primarily in sales and marketing functions – to find effective ways to attract, retain and promote their workforce, and help them to understand what message is going to resonate for specific demographics. “I probably spend 85% of my year helping folks understand their workforce,” he says. Since 2020, this has been a big challenge for organizations. All generations had a moment to rethink their careers in that period: what they enjoyed about it and what they didn’t. So,
it’s about helping people gather skills in this new space to help them continue to provide the great service that they do.”
In his keynote, Gwoke will first focus on the differing mindsets of those first three generations – in terms of both employees and consumers – before diving deeper into the Gen Z demographic specifically and unpacking some significant experiences that are unique to them, before formulating specific strategies for dealing with them. Focusing on relationship building and effective ways to communicate is a crucial way to build trust between generations, he says. “We have identified 11 different clash points in terms of generational differences. Three of those we might focus on could be communication, motivation, and attraction. How do you inspire [a colleague or consumer] to want to be a part of something? How do we connect with them in a way that feels authentic?”
Gwoke likes to call upon his own experience as a father and grandfather too, to help contextualize these issues. And authenticity is always key, he finds, “I’ve got four kids, and any time I do something like speak in their language, I get told ‘You’re being cringy, Dad, stop it!’”
In terms of how younger consumers are changing behaviors – and figuring out how to appeal to them, Gwoke believes that establishing trust is paramount. Again, he believes that history is instructive here – in this case understanding the history of marketing and analyzing what messages resonated in the past and why. “In the US in 1988 the most popular ad campaign was Nike’s ’Just do it’ campaign. It resonated because the mindset at that time for teenagers was of independence. If you wanted something done right, you do it yourself. That generation was very self-reliant. We were just going to figure life out on our own. 20 years later in 2008, arguably the most popular ad campaign in the US was President Barack Obama’s ‘Yes we can’. It was no longer an individual message – it was about the group. It was about coming together as a grassroots effort.”
Understanding the reasons behind those successful campaigns and slogan helps to appreciate what will resonate with Gen Z, says Gwoke. “We’re at an interesting time in history here in the United States. Millennials are the most confident generation, according to the American Psychological Association. They just believe in themselves. But Gen Z is the least confident. Where the phrase FOMO (fear of missing out) applies to Xers and Millennials, when it comes to Gen Z there’s more this idea of JOMO: the joy of missing out. They’d rather not go to the group activity. So, crafting a message that speaks to stability, safety, mental health and personal well-being is really important when trying to build trust.”
Gwoke jokes that his particular niche creates a “never ending” source of work. “Sometimes I call it ‘job security’, because just about the time you understand a concept, something changes. History unfolds, and new dynamics are presented. There are new things to learn. But seeing the lights go on in people’s eyes when they say, ‘Ah, now I understand everything: from my kids to my parents, to my co-workers – and now I’ve got a tool that I can better connect’ – that’s what lights my fire,” he says.
And it could end up being a family enterprise too, laughs Gwoke. “Our granddaughter turns one this year. I’m going to be doing this work for another 25 years and I have this vision that, when I’m going to be 75, she’s going to be 25. So, she and I are going to do a presentation together one day!”
Michael Jones
