The Theory of Broken Window and Reverse Mentoring

Reverse Mentoring

Jack Welch in his book talks about reverse mentoring. Its a paradigm shift from the traditional mentoring system I was used to. When I was a management trainee with Food world I had a mentor to guide me. The mentor was from the senior management, much older than me. The stereotype you come across about mentoring is that 'Company seniors perform the role of mentors to company juniors'. But Jack in his book talks about a role reversal. He says during the 90's when the computer bug hit the World corporates, GE decided to use the reverse mentoring concept. Computers, internet and email pretty much belonged to the younger generation and was a new technology mastered by the Gen X. Given this, GE top management decided to have younger people as mentors when it came to computers. Say a guy like Jack would have a much younger computer mentor and spend two hours per week with his mentor learning it. (A person in the 50's would have a person in the 20's as a mentor). The reverse mentoring not only helped GE's senior management to understand the technology but also to understand the Gen X better.

Theory of Broken Window
New York is know for its notorious crime rates. Before Rudolph's term as mayor it used to be even worse. Rudolph's `Broken Window Theory' inspired the New York Police department to crack down on the small stuff in order to keep out the big stuff. It worked keeping on top of broken windows, graffiti, and other small infractions reduced the serious crime level. The theory is based on the assumption that one broken window, left unrepaired for any substantial length of time instills in the inhabitants of the building a sense of abandonment---a sense that the powers don't care about the building. So another window gets broken. People start littering. Graffiti appears. Serious structural damage begins. In a relatively short space of time, the building becomes damaged beyond the owner's desire to fix it and the sense of abandonment becomes reality and small crimes makes way for bigger ones. The broken window theory along with increased manpower, surveillance and introduction of the new MIS system helped Rudolph in bringing down the crime rate. The MIS system which he developed was selected as the best management tool of the year for governmental agencies by Harvard .