Reverse mentoring – or inverse mentoring – is an increasingly popular collaborative learning modality in large companies.
Traditional training codes are being disrupted as it is now the young employees from the Y generation who will accompany senior executives to help them develop a digital culture by adopting new digital uses, applications and tools.
But for it to be effective, the reverse mentoring approach must be supervised, structured, and accompanied.
Engaging top management in the transformation of the company
No one can ignore that the world has changed, and business leaders no less! 60% of executives say they still lack an integrated physical and digital strategy*. To keep up with the new buying behaviors and conquering new markets, The leaders must now building their strategy in a digital environment. But how do you approach this universe when you weren’t born with a tablet or smartphone in your hands?
Reverse Mentoring is an entirely appropriate response to this situation. By allowing the younger employees to support their older colleagues in their process of discovery and learning, this new training modality offers numerous advantages:
- Accelerate managers’ ability to understand the tools and uses of digital technology and to integrate them into their daily work, which will facilitate their understanding of the current and future environment;,
- Valuing the «Mentors» selected for deployment,
- Promote transgenerational connection beyond the project,
- Living an enriching experience of collaborative learning.
Accompanying and structuring the Reverse Mentoring process
To be effective, the Reverse Mentoring program must be well prepared, tailored to the individual needs of each participant, operational, concrete, and collaborative. It takes place in 3 phases:
1. Identify and select the mentors
This first phase consists of selecting among the company’s «digital natives» those who will have the best aptitudes and skills to train their seniors. The selection criteria are essentially based on the mastery of new tools and practices, the ability to transmit and adapt their posture and behavior.
2. Structuring the support approach
It is about making available a pedagogical kit (materials and equipment) that will serve as support for the mentor in their support process (key figures, state of the art, illustration through concrete examples, videos, practical exercises, questionnaires, etc.). A real effort to familiarize oneself with this kit will be necessary for the mentor.
3. Adapt the content to the needs of the leader (mentee)
Each Reverse Mentoring program must be specific and adaptable based on the Mentee’s wishes and needs. Together with the Mentor, they will define the modules, the schedule, and the credit-time (schedule, duration, number of sessions…) necessary for the success of this program.
* IBM Institute for Business Value study: «Digital Reinvention»