In Nonnas, the 2025 Netflix dramedy featuring Vince Vaughn as Brooklyn’s Joe Scaravella—the real-world story of a city employee mourning the loss of his mother, who decides to rebuild his life by opening a Staten Island restaurant—the kitchen symbolizes the clueless side of many of today’s organizations.
In the film, Italian grandmothers are hired to cook and revive recipes and dishes from the past in Scaravella’s new restaurant. Unexpectedly, at least to me, these nonnas serve as a model of what leaders can do differently.
While the plot may follow Scaravella’s real-life loss, what lingers is something else entirely: the nonna’s newfound purpose found through contribution, identity sustained through the employment of their experience, and the sense of community deepened by the transfer of their gained wisdom.
Older Workers as Contributors, Not Ghosts
At Enoteca Maria—the namesake restaurant of Scaravella’s now-deceased mother—the nonnas manage the menu, calibrate sauces and pasta by intuition, and lead the kitchen service with confidence. They cook, teach, dance, and regale others with their deep cuts’ menu items. There’s even a little imbibing of limoncello.
In one scene, Lorraine Bracco’s Sicilian cook character and Brenda Vaccaro’s Bolognese counterpart engage in a playful culinary tiff rooted in regional pride and mutual affection. It’s a moment that underscores how experience and humor can build camaraderie.
Many organizations mistake this sort of elderly impact by assigning older workers to advisory roles. Worse, they exit them from the organization, depicting them as too expensive or too slow. Nonnas demonstrates how wisdom can matter when it is actively applied.
A flashback scene with Scaravella’s mother, Maria, cements another lesson, one of something every leader ought to employ: learning by doing. Maria looks into the camera while plating the “gravy,” also known as spaghetti sauce, and states, “One does not grow old at the table.”
Those words shift from sentiment to a calling card for today’s leaders. It is through experience, conversation, and collaboration that wisdom can grow on your team.
Indeed, data reinforces that “the times they are a-changin’.” At least demographically.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the share of workers aged 65 and older in the labor force is projected to account for nearly 60 percent of total labor force growth between 2022 and 2032. The labor force participation rate for adults aged 75 and older has also increased steadily, reaching 8.3 percent in 2023 and is projected to rise to 10.1 percent by 2033.
In Canada, the labor force participation rate for those aged 70 and older more than doubled from approximately 3.0% in 2000 to 6.7% in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.
Add to that plummeting birth rates, and, eventually, the wisdom of older workers will become unequivocally necessary in your organization.
Culture Emerges Through Experience & Knowledge
In an interview with TIME Magazine, Scaravella captures the sentiment of older workers and their positive effect on corporate culture sublimely: “This is not a restaurant,” he says. “It walks like a restaurant, smells like a restaurant, talks like a restaurant, but it’s not a restaurant. It’s a cultural exchange.”
That declaration reframes Enoteca Maria as a living ecosystem of cultural exchange rather than a venue simply for food delivery.
Too many corporate cultures rest on glossy posters, mission statements, and hollow slogans of purpose. They further demonstrate their lack of foresight when they push experience out of the building. Culture does not swap easily for slogans. It requires presence, patience, and a plan for knowledge transfer.
While many organizations recognize the importance of knowledge transfer, i4cp research highlights that most still struggle to implement effective programs and processes to capture and share critical knowledge, with significant challenges remaining in fostering a strong learning culture and eliminating silos.
At Enoteca Maria, culture lives in each shift: the rhythm of risotto, the turn of tagliatelle, and the pass of the ladle. Lessons are not delivered; they are demonstrated between the nonnas and the customers. That is a strategically curated culture, not a short-term quest to drive down costs and drive out wisdom.
Experience Fuels Innovation
Innovation is often cast as the province of the young. Nonnas positively reframes the conversation entirely. There are several scenes in which the nonnas’ wisdom is on full display as they concoct meals with new abundance and creativity.
Research consistently demonstrates that the accumulation of crystallized intelligence—knowledge, expertise, and wisdom acquired over time—empowers older workers to excel in complex and ambiguous situations.
Studies also show that older adults often outperform their younger counterparts in strategic decision-making, particularly when judgment and experience are required. This cognitive advantage of older workers can enable teams and organizations to navigate uncertainty with greater confidence and resilience.
Those that foster generational diversity within their leadership and teams benefit from a broader range of perspectives and insights.
For example, research by McKinsey & Company highlights that companies with diverse leadership teams, including those spanning multiple generations, consistently achieve superior business outcomes and innovation. By embracing the strengths of older workers, organizations not only leverage their wisdom but also position themselves for sustained success in evolving markets.
Nonnas cooks that same lesson throughout the film.
Contribution Across Life’s Stages
Many organizations still view career paths as a ladder, encouraging employees to climb until they are pushed out or the ladder is inconveniently snatched away.
Nonnas tells a different story.
Scaravella’s restaurant is built around the power of their wisdom and contribution. They have boomeranged back into a working environment where not only are they thriving but also making meaningful contributions. They are not ornamental. The nonnas are foundational to the business’s success.
When organizations stop treating experience as an aging asset, contribution becomes lifelong. Wisdom remains active, and younger employees can learn from the ways of their older brethren.
Nonnas delivers a simple, powerful lesson: experience does not have to expire. As the demographic crisis begins to take hold of the Western world, leaders will ignore the wisdom of wisdom at their own peril.