Ted Audio Collective One of my most satisfying and kind of unusual

work relationships started on the airplane. Prior to being an academic, I was a consultant

and I traveled so much and one time I remember flying to visit a client with a partner

on the case. I was just 23 years old just out of college new to the company and here I

was traveling with the partner. The most senior member of the team responsible for making

multi-million dollar deals that keep the company going. He was in first class with all of his

miles while I was all the way in the back of the plane. But when we landed, instead of the

usual mad dash of getting off the plane, going to baggage claim and being in your own world,

he waited for me. And we started a conversation that would lead to a long lasting friendship

and mentorship. When stuff was going down at work, I went to him for advice. When I decided

I wasn't passionate about consulting, he helped me think through my options even though he

didn't want me to leave the company. And it wasn't just one sided. He started to come to me

for advice also about how to recruit students of color to the company or challenges he was having

with the young folks. At the time, I didn't have a word for what this was, but I do now. It's called

reverse mentorship. I'm Madupe Akinola. This is Ted Business. And in today's talk, Patrice

Gordon tells us more about this idea of reverse mentorship. This is based on her experience of

Virgin Atlantic, mentoring not just anyone, but formally reverse mentoring the CEO. And while her

experience was more structured, after the talk, I'll share some tips on how to integrate reverse

mentorship into your organization, formally and informally.

We've always thought of mentoring as the older generation passing down wisdom to the young,

but there's a huge benefit to flipping that around and allowing the novice to teach the master.

The workforce currently consists of up to five generations, and it's becoming more diverse

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