Do You Know 'Reverse Mentoring' Learned from Juniors? ... Daegu Buk-gu Office Holds Orientation

Daegu Buk-gu Office held an orientation for ‘Reverse Mentoring’ in a small conference room on the 21st.

‘Reverse Mentoring’ is a reverse communication method where juniors coach seniors on the latest trends, culture, and values of the younger generation, unlike the traditional mentoring where seniors teach juniors. It was planned for the first time this year to create a flexible organizational culture through generational empathy.

Daegu Buk-gu Office is holding an orientation for 'Reverse Mentoring,' where senior officials learn from the MZ generation.

At the orientation, 20 mentors from the MZ generation under 33 years old with less than 5 years of public service experience and 8 mentee senior officials aged 55 and above at grade 5 or higher attended. They broke the ice through simple activities such as balance games and sharing MBTI types to ease awkwardness and strengthen their commitment to future reverse mentoring activities.

Starting from the orientation, teams will engage in activities for three months on free topics sharing leisure, culture, and hobbies of the MZ generation, as well as common topics on improving organizational culture. The opinions proposed by each team will later be reflected in the Buk-gu organizational culture improvement plan.

A Daegu Buk-gu Office official said, “One senior official mentee and two MZ generation members will form a team and meet once a month to introduce new generation slang and culture. For example, they can introduce ‘Reels,’ the short videos on Instagram.”

“We will operate this way this year and plan to expand it next year. We expect that this ‘Reverse Mentoring’ will serve as a small catalyst to improve and make the public official organizational culture more flexible,” he added.

Baek Gwang-sik, head of Daegu Buk-gu Office, said, “Diversifying communication channels within the organization, such as reverse mentoring, will be the foundation for innovation and growth in our Buk-gu. We will continue to actively strive to enhance organizational capabilities through intergenerational communication and implement creative administration reflecting trends.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.