Reverse Mentoring in Lansing

An article appeared online within the Wall Street Journal this morning entitled, Reverse Mentoring Cracks Workplace: Top Managers Get Advice on Social Media, Workplace Issues From Young Workers by Leslie Kwoh. The link is here.

Three reputable companies, General Electric, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard, have all been successful in implementation of a Reverse Mentoring program. Jack Welch from GE championed such an initiative a decade ago by pairing senior level managers with emerging professionals to learn how to surf the web. In today’s programs, these managers are learning about Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and more.

Why not have this here? In Lansing, we have a huge transient population of frustrated college graduates. It’s easy to find job postings, however each and every single one of local businesses either expects them to have extensive volunteer or “unpaid internship” experience in lieu of 3-5 years of experience in their respective field. Rather than chasing away our young, emerging professionals, why doesn’t Lansing step up to the plate and start some reverse mentoring of its own?

Imagine a Lansing that wants to retain these college graduates. Just because somebody may be studying Human Resources, don’t discount their knowledge of social media. Perhaps you could start a young professional out in a mentoring program to teach some of the more experienced marketing managers how to effectively use Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. Let’s say after a one year reverse mentoring program, the company then turns around and mentors that young professional for a year.

Can you see Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sparrow Health System and more jumping on this bandwagon? This would really benefit companies and emerging professionals alike. It builds a professional relationship and creates a commonality and purpose for both to exceed expectations.

Can you imagine that Lansing would be competitive within our state? Rather than having an out flux of our talented graduates migrating to Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, what if the new desire was to remain right here in the Greater Lansing area?

Let’s do this Lansing!