AutomatedBuildings.com Review - Metamorphosing Me

“reverse mentors” -- a concept that has recently become more formalized as the benefits of learning from a younger generation

Just back from a very fun and informative event, AHR Expo 2018 Chicago, the largest ever over 72,000 folks.

What did I learn from those younger than me?...... lots. These are today's makers and shakers metamorphic mentors, that are driving the metamorphosis of me and the digital transformation that I have been ranting on about, giving it a Brain. Face, Body, and Voice in the last few columns.

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From my Takeaways from the Expo, The education sessions have turned this event into an annual pop up learning venue that keeps our industry-current. A trend I saw this year was that the industry is starting to bring their younger mentors and new employees to the show; their "IoT mini Me's" ....big smile. So my first take away that this ever-growing event has become the melting pot for the old and new to get a toehold in our rapidly changing industry.

MENTORING IS NOT ABOUT CREATING A MINI-ME

If you have any notion that people come to mentoring to learn how to be a clone of their mentor, think again. People want to learn from the particular knowledge and experience that a mentor possesses. Whilst a mentee may look up to a mentor as a role model, the mentee doesn’t necessarily want to be just like the mentor.

I am crushed that these young folks do not want to grow up just like me......smile, but it is me that needs the mentoring, but mentoring is a two-way exchange.

Why You Need A Different Mentor At Every Step In Your Career

When you’re starting out, you need a mentor you can look up to, but later in your career, you’d benefit from getting a fresh perspective.

We’ve been told countless times how important it is to find a mentor to help guide you early in your career. But searching for mentors doesn’t stop after becoming established: There’s immense value in learning from others throughout your career, even if those mentors are younger than you.

You Need a Mentor Who Is Younger Than You

I’ve learned key lessons in life and business through my “reverse mentors” -- a concept that has recently become more formalized as the benefits of learning from a younger generation are becoming more tangible. But, reverse mentoring came organically to me.

When we think of “new ways of working,” what often comes to mind are visible examples like flexible work schedules, new technology to enable remote working and open office space centered around collaboration spots. But, the new way of working involves a mindset shift, not only in how people work together and where they work, but in whom we work with -- and, more importantly, learn from.

The benefits of mentorship are clear: greater retention, skill-building and higher company engagement. In fact, according to a Gartner study, retention rates are higher for mentees (72 percent) and for mentors (69 percent) than non-mentoring participants (49 percent). The same study also found mentors received promotions six times more often than their peers.

I have been on this crusade for a while but feel more passionate about it now than ever. Many years ago we started

We will reinvent, refocus and repurpose this group for the engagement of the industry task of attracting Youth for our IOT journey. The group is presently an old boys network, even the young have grown old….smile but the roots of this group are strong and the reach long so I feel it will be very useful to create a network of engagement for us the industry. A where to and how to reach these desired young minds.

I have been on my journey to connect with younger mentors since ever. Here is some history from 2009.

Seeking Youth for the IOT Journey of our Industry This is a request for online input to help map out a process for gathering thoughts, suggestions, and action of how we can attract young minds to our industry.

Young mentors begat younger mentors. One of our original Young Energy folks, Brad White, P.Eng, MASc. Principal SES Consulting, Inc., is now our Contributing Editor.

and now has this company http://sesconsulting.com/team/engineering-team/

This year in Chicago I was part of the control trends awards CTA with another one of our original Young Energy folks, Alper Üzmezler at the far right of the picture.

http://controltrends.org/2017 Young Guns Awards Recipients
Aaron Gorka, Innovation Manager, ANT Technologies
Lance Patterson Distech, Sales Support Engineer
Brian Cline Owner, BC Technical Services, LLC
Drew Mire CEO, Computrols
Rick Barnes, Branch Manager, Connect-Air, Atlanta

This post made my day Aaron Gorka Innovation Manager - ANT Technologies Ken Sinclair ... You challenged to engage MORE young-people in our HVAC & Control Industry --- ACCEPTED : )

Here is my call to action get involved in iotday to start your metamorphosis and find your younger mentors. BTW they will come with IoT skills trust me, my 12-year-old granddaughter is always teaching me things you can do with your cell phone.

What is iotday? Iotday is an open invitation to the Internet of Things Community to participate in an event, host a hackathon, or just share a beer/coffee with a friend or fellow collaborator focused around the IoT and its implications.

The Council is a formidable, unique network of talents encompassing all skills, experiences and trades, from entrepreneurship to philosophy, public sector and private sector, and it brings together people who beyond their specific knowledge share the same passion of tinkering with technology to put it at the service of individuals, communities, society, and the whole planet. The IoT Day is an irresistible momentum enabling IoT lovers to meet, share, co-create, present solutions, and find new problems to work on ;-) ...The future is not purely destiny; it is in our hands. - Gérald Santuci

So we can all become part of growing younger on iotday please add your comments on the bottom of this article or my LinkedIn post or share a tweet #RUIOTREADY with a comment sharing something you learned from your younger mentors. I will collect the best comments and share them with our readers. Simple stuff is the best example below.

What did I learn from my younger mentors? Do not take notes, take a picture, use your phone to capture more than what you wanted to note then you can share easily with others. After sharing a moment with a younger mentor on my phone, he asked if he could take a picture of my phone? Very agile that was the moment he needed to capture and only wished to spend a moment capturing it, a new concept to me.

Share your discoveries of what you have learned from your younger mentor with us all, part of which might be how to share your ideas on the flavor of the month social media.

Just have fun and introduce yourself to a younger mentor who has grown up digitally, you will learn more than you can imagine.

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