I don’t teach during the summer. As a result, I lose my direct feed of ‘what’s-what’ on a variety of topics for three months. I’m grateful to my Columbia College students that I’m able to keep {somewhat} current during the balance of the year. So when school starts this September, there they’ll be again….inadvertently teaching me as much as I teach them. Different topics, of course, but still an {oddly} equitable exchange.
In the most basic of descriptions, reverse mentoring involves having a less experienced (often, but not always, younger) person serve as the mentor to a more experienced (often older) mentee. {Sidenote: in a perfect world, mentoring is a mutually beneficial, two way street—no argument}. Now, more than ever before, those fresh-out-of-school architects, engineers, and construction managers can teach our mid and senior staff in at least two areas:
1. Anything related to technology—especially around the internet, social media, and smart devices. As well, computer software systems such as BIM. In the case of the latter, the mid-senior level professional may never actually plan to learn the software himself. However, it will behoove him to know how that technology can be stretched to its highest potential on a project.
2. Sustainability; green design. Sure, all of us older folks can go through our LEED exams, and become highly versed on the most environmentally-conscious best practices. But for the younger set, social and environmental responsibilities have been instilled in them from the getgo, making it flow naturally within their very beings!
As I was thinking about the merits of reverse mentoring and about bridging generation gaps in general, I looked through other posts to learn about applications and lessons relating to reverse mentoring. I narrowed my favorites:
- >Synopsis of benefits to reverse mentoring: http://davidspinks.com/2009/09/21/benefits-reverse-mentor/
- >Additional benefits/applications, plus guidelines to make it more ‘official’ (your Human Resources Department should also be able to assist in best practices for mentoring programs without making them trite or forced): http://www.encore.org/find/advice/how-reverse-mentoring-ca
And here, I’d like to add my extra two cents to the above mentioned posts on this topic:
1. It’s essential that mentor-mentee partners agree upon specific learning outcomes. (This can be casual, but it still needs to be stated. As they say, ‘what gets written gets done’. Fine, it’s more typically ‘what gets measured gets done’ or ‘what gets rewarded gets done’. But you get the point.)
2. Because we don’t know what we don’t know, it’s a good idea for each partner to proactively propose some ideas on learning objectives for the other person. If they wait for one another to make special requests on what they’d like to learn, wonderful kernels of wisdom may be completely overlooked.