Claire Raines

Claire Raines pioneered the study and discussion of generations over thirty years ago. She believes that when people become more knowledgeable about values—their own and others’—they can fine-tune their messages so that relationships are strengthened and team performance improves. Her best selling books include Generations at Work, Twentysomething, Connecting Generations, Beyond Generation X, The Xers & The Boomers, The Art of Connecting, and Millennials@Work.

In the early 1990s, Claire developed a model for understanding the generations and their differences regarding such critical business issues as work ethic, communication, and leadership. Her model was influenced by the work of Dr. Clare Graves, specialist in the theory of personality and its application to industrial problems, and by marketing research from Yankelovich Partners. Claire’s model has been widely accepted and used in organizations throughout the world to create more effective business relationships and results. Her original model ascribed generation based solely on birth year, although Claire had long recognized that there are significant numbers of people born into one generation, but with values, beliefs, and attitudes consistent with those of another. In 2010, Claire began design of an assessment that was based on four distinct values sets and would go beyond birth years. The result was the Values & Influence Assessment™. Since its introduction, it has been used widely in team-building sessions.