I recently wrote a 5-part series of on the topic of mentoring and that horse was sufficiently beaten to death before I was finished. It was a labor of love because I have always been a strong proponent of training in the workplace. I have not modified any of my thoughts since that time, but there is always something new or a different slant on a topic. Last week I read an excellent blog post by Dave Ellis, The Student Becomes the Teacher, in which he wisely counsels Gen-Y members of the workforce and interns to understand their role as reverse mentors. This was a needed call-to-action to the younger members in the workforce not to shirk their responsibility to bring their knowledge into their jobs and teach their coworkers regardless of age. Brilliant! My creative juices started flowing and I immediately thought of the need for a similar charge to Gen-X and Boomers in the world of work to accept this valuable exchange of knowledge and to learn from the experience. But why should it stop there?
One reason contributing to polarization of people in the workplace starts with a belief in the myth that certain classes of people are better than others. It is not wrong to celebrate youth and energetic ideas, but there is a subtle psychological message hinted that new is always better than old. Gen-Y has branded itself as “New and Improved†and rightly so. Better? I think not. It is also not a bad thing to consider experience and knowledge gained through years of trial, error, and hard knocks as important lessons of age. This should never be taken to mean that “Older is Wiser.†Sometimes this is true, but not always. I decided that a term that I prefer more than “reverse mentorship†is “mutual mentorship.†This term has been used in the past interchangeably with the concept of reversing the typical mentorship paradigm, but there is a subtle difference. Mutual mentorship doesn’t perpetuate the myth that it is reversing anything but instead is creating a new normalcy.
The new script of mutual mentorship opens with flattening the hierarchy of learning. Organizational relationships and titles mean nothing in a true atmosphere of curiosity about new things. Using the analogy of a military organization, much can be learned from a “shirts-off†discussion indicating that the rank or insignia on the individual’s uniform is removed from view. Ideas are created inside the minds and experiences of all present without regard for seniority. Outward signs of age may be hard to hide at the conference table, but words that come from negative attitudes can and must be squashed. The application of brainstorming rules in exchanging ideas will refocus learning by withholding criticism, welcoming new ideas, and combining old and new ideas into better ideas without regard for generational bias.
It has been said that one way of bringing groups of people together is to find out what they have in common. What if the one thing that they share is their stubborn attitude? I would choose not to go there! Hidden beneath a façade of apparent tolerance of other classes is that universal association with “people like us.†It is the job of human resources to cultivate a culture of inclusiveness that allows differences to be acknowledged while strengths are shared mutually.
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