Resisting Assumptions: What’s a Landline?

Megan Gerhardt • December 20, 2021

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I have to tell you a story regarding generational assumptions. Recently I received a voicemail from my friend Ty, a consultant I met during one of my first coaching courses at Gallup many years ago. Ty was on my book launch team and is in general just one of those people you want in your corner no matter what. She is the walking embodiment of charisma and even a voicemail from her is wonderfully entertaining. This one made me laugh out loud (not in the LOL kind of way, but in the literal way where I stood in my kitchen laughing so hard at her story I had to replay the message to make sure I hadn’t missed any of it). When I called her back I warned her I fully intended to steal this story. Why? Because it has everything to do with the assumptions we make and how they can break down communications.

A Tale of Two Generations

The tale starts out on a low note. Ty had a medical situation that sent her to the emergency room one morning. On her way to the hospital, the ever-responsible Ty handed her cell phone to her college-age daughter. She asked her to contact several of her clients to let them know that she had a medical emergency. She had important deliverables they were expecting from her that day. Doubled over in pain, she reiterated to her daughter that these were very important high-end clients. She made her promise she would contact them immediately. Her daughter assured her she would. And she did.

Thankfully, Ty recovered quickly and was back to work the next week. Imagine her surprise when one of those same clients reached out wanting to know why Ty missed their deadline. After doing some damage control with her Very Important Client, Ty called her daughter.

Ty: You said you contacted these people!”
Her daughter replied, “I did!”
And suddenly, Ty’s Gentelligence radar kicked in.
“Hold on. How exactly did you contact them?”
Her daughter said she had sent a text to everyone on Ty’s list.
“You texted them? Those were their office numbers! They aren’t mobile numbers, they’re landlines!”
“What’s a landline?”
…

Mind that Gap

Ah. There’s the rub. The place where we fall into the dreaded generation gap – the land of assumptions. There was a time when we would throw up our hands in frustration, curse about kids these days, and force ourselves to carry on. But that was before Gentelligence. Now the appropriate response to such a situation is instead to call me and leave the story on my voicemail because we all know this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I live for.

So let’s dissect this situation. As with most generational breakdowns, neither Ty nor her daughter was wrong in this situation. It was, however, a most excellent example of both of them forgetting the first practice of the Gentelligence Method. The Gentelligence Method is made up of four key strategies designed to decrease frustration as well as help us leverage intergenerational opportunities:

Resist Assumptions
Adjust the Lens
Strengthen Trust, and
Expand the Pie.

All four of the practices are based on the premise that Gentelligence is something we build over time. By committing to these practices, we commit to replacing our ingrained habits and behaviors. We practice becoming more aware of our own generational lenses and more appreciative of the value of a wide range of generational perspectives.

Do You See What I See

Ty’s experience is deeply rooted in the assumptions we all (regardless of age) make when we are interacting with those that grew up in a different time. We don’t usually realize the assumptions that go along with our generational identities, because to us our perspectives are obviously correct and don’t need explaining. It rarely occurs to us that others (using their own generational lenses and norms) may be looking at the same situation and seeing something entirely different.

For Ty, who is a fellow Gen Xer, it went without saying that the appropriate way to contact a professional colleague was via an office phone. When she began her career, people only had office phones and home phones. When her colleagues became friends, of course, she would reach out to them on their mobile, but not an important client with a message about needing to miss a deadline. She assumed this would be crystal clear to anyone.

Phone Home

Her daughter, a Gen Z, has grown up in a time when landlines are becoming extinct. According to a survey done by the CDC, “Among adults aged 25 to 29, 66 percent live in a house without a landline. Among the 30 to 34 age group, 60 percent live in a house without a landline.” As our oldest Gen Zs begin to move out to live on their own, it’s safe to say that almost none of them will bother setting up a landline.

The directive to “contact” her mom’s clients came with an assumption that this must mean via text. She hadn’t been given an email address, and a text seemed the obvious and most efficient way to communicate the message. Whereas her mom’s generation saved texting for those they knew well, Gen Z didn’t grow up with this distinction and has learned to use text for a wide range of interactions, both professional and personal.

It Goes Without Saying

Are we doomed to generationally-crossed wires? Not necessarily. But this is where the Resisting Assumptions practice of the Gentelligence Method becomes so important in changing these kinds of dysfunctional dynamics. When communicating across different generations, never assume. What you think goes without saying needs to be said.

When I talk with audiences about Resisting Assumptions across generations, the conversation is often about stereotypes. These are an incredibly important (and damaging) kind of assumption that we absolutely need to step away from, but they aren’t the only kind of assumption that can wreak generational havoc.

Assuming those of different ages understand the same norms as we do is also a recipe for disaster. In Ty’s case, it was the seemingly simple word “contact” that was the culprit.

What other terms are we using that might be interpreted differently than we realize?

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Why Generation A Might Just Be the...Analog Generation

By Megan Gerhardt • February 13, 2026

It has been said that everything old becomes new again on a long enough timeline. There's a fascinating generational trend I've been seeing among younger Gen Zs and the oldest of Gen A (Note: I am not calling that generation Gen Alpha, because that name is nonsensical and outdated already, and that generation is barely in their teens. More on that soon)--a craving for low-tech, no-tech, screen-free experiences. Gentelligence focuses primarily on generational dynamics in the workplace, and I do predict this will have implications for where and how these generations want to work. Despite the chaos surrounding back-to-office policies and experiments, our youngest members of the workplace (and our soon-to-be newest employees) are showing signs that they value time away from screens. I first noticed this last year among my own students, who were overwhelmingly setting change goals in my change management class focused on reducing screen time. Versions included "cleaning up my sleep routine" (putting the phone away at least 30 minutes before bed, eliminating blue light before bed, reading physical books), "reduce my weekly screentime", "stop doomscrolling", and "impose limits on TikTok and Instagram time". It was a sign that it was no longer just their parents or older generations who wanted them off their phones; they wanted themselves off their phones, too. For a wave of young people raised in an era of tech overload, it seems we have reached the point of maximum saturation, and they are pushing back. As one of my students astutely mentioned to me last year, "There are no boundaries now...our generation is just trying to figure out how to put some of them back." I've doubled down on the need for this in my teaching, having conversations with students about how to ethically use AI as a thought-partner while balancing protected time for our most scarce resource these days: deep thinking and connection. It was this need, coupled with the overwhelming research showing the improved retention and learning that occurs when students handwrite their notes and put away their laptops in class, that led me to declare our classroom a laptop and phone-free zone. We still use slides to guide conversations, but there are no longer 30 laptop screens popped up in front of them, distracting even those who are trying hard to focus. Surprisingly, I've had very little pushback. I was concerned they would feel like I was forcing them backwards, but collectively we seem to be exhaling. The discussions have never been better. As our younger Gen Zs reach young adulthood and our oldest Gen As become teenagers, they are emerging from a kind of social experiment they entered unwittingly — a life that has never known a world without constant screens. They are realizing how different they feel when they unplug. Gen Z and Gen A even have a term for this: touching grass. That's right, when the default is constant tech immersion, they had to come up with a phrase to represent the intentional effort it takes to step away. Whenever possible, I try to engage in some real-time generational anthropology, just to explore my hunches and (when possible) debunk stereotypes. Gentelligence is all about being curious rather than judgmental, and I am most definitely curious about these early signs that our younger generations are seeking a better balance between their tech and non-tech worlds. Last month, I was in Chicago for a keynote and found myself in a trendy food hall over lunch. There were little shops surrounding the food hall, including one of my all-time weaknesses, a stationery store . Pens! Journals! Paper! Notebooks! (I, too, love the analog. After indulging myself in a number of vital paper goods, I was tucking into a sandwich in the food hall and saw a (literally) noteworthy sight: a table of early 20-somethings, gathering on their lunch hour and...writing in their journals. Multi-colored pens, stamps, and conversation were plentiful. There was not a phone in sight. That in and of itself was remarkable. It turns out that stationary stores are experiencing a resurgence . Knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and sourdough baking are also all having a moment. Physical books ( and bookstores! ) are making a comeback. A few weeks later, I was at another event, this time a very trendy commercial interior design conference, where we were discussing ways to design spaces that promote intergenerational interactions (yes, it was as cool as you might be thinking). I saw a young designer at the cocktail hour and walked over to introduce myself. I asked if I could pick her brain on something, as I figured it was part of her JOB to be up on the latest trends. I asked her whether she was feeling a personal pull to use less tech, or if this was something she had seen among her peers. That's when she told me about Analog Bags . (I won't go down that rabbit hole here, but feel free to explore the link and know that I am absolutely creating my own Analog Bag as we speak). At that same design conference, a book was recommended to me: Megatrends by John Naisbett. The gentleman who suggested it said it changed his life. He thought I would find it interesting, given my interest in generational trends, behavioral cycles, and, of course, my classes in change management. I ordered it as soon as I got back to my hotel room (fun fact: it was published in 1982, so you'll have to find a vintage copy!). I've been devouring it, and among the many eye-opening insights was the observation that " the more 'High Tech' we become, the more we need 'High Touch.” Now, Naisbett was referring to the high-tech era of the early 1980s, when personal computers were entering the scene, but the relevance of the comment almost 45 years later, in the age of AI, was not lost on me. Those who have lived their entire lives as products of high-tech are now blazing the trail to meet their need for high touch. Let this be my formal declaration (for whatever it's worth) that I predict our youngest generations will lead us back to a balance between tech and high-touch: they are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, and their message is clear. They are living, breathing embodiments of a life flooded with endless tech, fake news, constant connectivity, dopamine hits, and input dictated by algorithms, and it appears they may have had enough.