Learning from Gen Y: Help needed!

Posted: - Modified: | gen-y

In a few weeks, I’ll be giving a talk called I.B.Millennials: Working with and Learning From Generation Y at the IBM Technical Leadership Exchange. I want to help managers and technical leaders understand my generation better, get inspired by ways they can engage, coach and learn from younger members of their team, and find out how we can all work together to make something cool.

I’ve got lots of stories from my one and a half years at IBM, including:

  • how I got to know my team and they got to know me even before my first day at work
  • how my team’s learning from the way I search for information online, the way I reach out and connect, the way I give presentations, and the way I experiment with new things
  • how mentoring and reverse-mentoring are awesome
  • how Gen Yers at IBM are connecting online and in person, and how that’s different from other networking groups within IBM
  • what my manager, my team members and I have talked about
  • how we pulled together a panel of Gen Yers to help clients brainstorm ideas
  • what issues usually come up (face-time, communication, etc.) and how we’ve dealt with them

But I’d love to tell your stories, too. If you’re a Gen Yer, tell me a story about how working with your team has been, and how they’ve been learning from you too. If you’ve worked with Gen Yer, tell me what that’s been like, what you’ve learned, and what you’ve helped them learn as well. Leave your stories below in a comment, or post it on your blog and leave a link back, and I’ll look for a way to feature your story, name, and picture in my presentation to IBM technical leaders!

Best story will get a $25 Kiva gift certificate so that you can support an entrepreneur of your choice in a developing country!

Please post your stories or e-mail them to me by Wednesday, May 20, 2009 to be eligible for the Kiva gift certificate (and lots of thanks and gratitude). If you’re reading this after that date, feel free to share your stories anyway – it’ll be a great way to inspire others!

You can comment with Disqus or you can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.