M’s the word: Youth is wasted on the young

Experience matters, wherever you’re from



Well, the course is over. I am sitting in the hotel lounge crunching coated peanuts and nursing a beer while I wait for the taxi to take me to a celebratory dinner. A reedy voiced James Blunt is singing ‘You’re Beautiful’. I do not feel beautiful, but I do feel good.

The knack of running a course, any course, lies in remembering the u-shaped curve that represents attention and recall. The stuff that you do at the start and the stuff you do at the end should be the most important bits, because within days the stuff in the middle disintegrates into a mush, as yesterday’s papers with yesterday’s news.

In this case, the early session about coaching was a little flat. Through no fault of the presenters, I should add, in case they read this. Just that they missed the core requirements of the audience. Drawn from 17 countries, including the US on the left and China on the right, as well as Latin America and Northern Europe, the only thing common was the fact that English is the lingua franca and not German. So a culturally correct wooden German presentation on something as free flowing and sociological as coaching was bound to lose the attention of the audience. Fortunately, the jet lag meant that most delegates were still dazed and confused at this stage, so no real harm was done.

There followed a good summary on facilitation and mentoring, and I took a lot of notes. For some reason, we associate age with wisdom. Which is a little too generous; age should only be associated with sagging guts, fragile bones, and impending senility. The incumbent, of course, does not realise the decay and smiles on benignly, the face of the head that has already been separated from the rest of the body before the loss of innervation is realised.

We believe we still have the acceleration of our youth (in my case, I did not have it in my youth) and the reaction time (again, I did not have this in my youth). So it was valuable to learn new techniques that are suited to the slower lane. Listening, asking open questions, waiting for response, guiding gently, all fit naturally to the more seasoned. It is very rewarding to slow the conversation down and perhaps realise that the frenetic pace with which we conveyed enthusiasm, passion, and conviction in our thrusting youth probably confused and dazed many in the audience.

Even if you are not culturally sensitive, there are few countries that do not venerate age, under appropriate circumstances. There is a challenge to use the veneration as eminence, but it is an excellent prop when you want to convey process and enlightenment. Which brings me to the end of the course, and a perfectly weighted presentation from a grey-back in human resources about the importance of the program as a strand of personal development. He skilfully included a couple of slides on the importance of recognising and valuing experience.

Now I think I will suck the remaining nuts in the bowl, so I do not break my teeth and decline a second beer in case I start to drool or the unsteadiness is misinterpreted as senility.

For exclusive business insights, download eyeforpharma’s Pharma Emerging Markets Report 2011-12, Pharma e-Marketing Strategy and Pharma Key Account Management Report 2011-12.

For all the latest business analysis and insight for the pharma industry, sign up to eyeforpharma’s newsletters and follow us on Twitter.



Jan 1, 1970 - Jan 1, 1970,