Old dogs,new tricks - Reverse mentoring works

I recently watched a TED talk given by Chip Conley, a US entrepreneur and author, about his experience of reverse mentoring while working at Airbnb and the power that comes from sharing skills, knowledge and experience across generations. I frequently find myself learning from the young business people that I mentor (in a sort of “why didn’t I think of that?" kind of way) because they are unafraid to question orthodoxy and confident enough to try different ways of doing things. 

Reverse mentoring is an inverted relationship in which a junior and usually younger employee helps a more experienced worker to acquire knowledge or skills. Typically the learning relates to technology but there are examples of older workers wanting to learn more in areas such as managing work-life balance and diversity from their younger colleagues. This form of mentoring is still relatively new in corporations but might be relevant for companies with a high proportion of younger workers with transferable skills.

There’s no reason why boomers wouldn’t value personal growth as much as millennials. Conley urges organisations to capitalise on the alchemy, as he calls it, between older workers’ wisdom and younger workers' technical skills. Power in organisations is moving towards a younger generation who place high value on learning but older employees are also looking for new perspectives and skills. A month or so ago I met with a senior manager at a large non-profit who was in the process of learning all about social media from a junior member of her team. She was totally bought into the benefits of reverse mentoring.

There’s evidence that older workers’ commitment and engagement may be affected by a perceived lack of opportunity to acquire new knowledge. Encouraging reciprocal learning opportunities for older workers through reverse mentoring would seem to offer a at least part of a solution.