Reverse Mentorship: Transforming the Workplace for the Better

The Play by Play – Reverse Mentorship: Transforming the Workplace for the Better

Hosts: Jack McFarlane & Nick Schlemmer

Guest: Tawanna Myers, Chief People & Culture Officer, Big Brothers Big Sisters

This week on The Play by Play podcast, Jack McFarlane and Nick Schlemmer talk with Tawanna Myers from BBBS about the importance of reverse mentorship and what it means to Gen Z.

– Background of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

– Effects of mentorship on daily life

– Tips for matching mentors to their “little”

– Reverse mentorship in the workplace

Thank you for joining the show today!  Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Transcript follows:

Jack McFarlane 0:16
Hi everyone and welcome to the HR Happy Hour Network. This is The Play by Play podcast hosted by myself, Jack McFarlane, and Nicholas Schlemmer.

Nick Schlemmer 0:24
How’s it going, guys?

Jack McFarlane 0:26
Today we have a very special episode for you all the way from the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Foundation of America. We have the Chief People and Culture Officer. She joined the organization and 2022 to develop and lead the Human Resources strategy across the foundation. She also brings over 18 years of experience from HR, DEI, and change management. Please help us welcome Ms. Tawanna Myers.

Nick Schlemmer 0:52
Welcome to the show.

Tawanna Myers 0:53
Well, thank you. Thank you, Jack and Nick. I’m so excited to be here. And feel free to call me to Tawanna or T.

Jack McFarlane 1:00
Sounds good. We’re very excited to have you on and I think we’re gonna have a great episode today.

Tawanna Myers 1:04
I believe so too.

Nick Schlemmer 1:06
Yep. So let’s just start right into it. If you want to tell us a little bit about the organization and how it came about?

Tawanna Myers 1:13
Certainly. So Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America is the largest one to one youth mentoring organization in the country. We were founded over 100 years ago. And our mission is to empower all young people to reach their full potential through positive mentorship. So the way that we do that is by matching our adult volunteers, which we call our bigs, and then the youth which are littles. And typically those are ages five through adulthood, and it’s in the communities all across the US. So we are present in all 50 states, and we have a little over 230 agencies. So those bigs and littles set time to meet, sometimes weekly, or maybe during the month, they do everything, different everyday activities, so maybe go see a movie, do homework, play games, you know, ball, go out to eat, or just kind of have conversation. And we really are all about that, that matching of those bigs in in those little so that they can have that powerful one on one mentoring experience. So it benefits both that mentor and mentee. And they do you know, just those simple activities just for that connection. So I am so honored, I will tell you to be a part of this organization.

Nick Schlemmer 2:30
Awesome. Yeah, I remember from me and Jack’s high school, I always remembered hearing about Big Brothers & Big Sisters. It’s just great to read about it. And here’s everything that you guys have done for all the communities across the US. And I know that for our high school, it actually made a pretty big impact in a positive way.

Tawanna Myers 2:47
Oh that’s so great to hear, Nick, because that’s one of the things that’s critically important and why we believe in the power of mentorship, especially for those who are most in need of a positive adult influence in their lives. So certainly, that is our purpose and our mission. And it’s good to know that you’ve had some experience, at least knowledge of Big Brothers & Big Sisters in the past.

Jack McFarlane 3:08
So to kind of go off the importance of mentorship. It’s not really like training. It’s kind of it really is just being a big brother or big sister. But how do you think that affects the littles later on in life, especially in their career? Like what type of positive reinforcement do you think gives the littles when they do grow up?

Tawanna Myers 3:32
Yeah, so I’m glad you asked that, because one of our fastest growing segments of young people in a mentoring relationship is between the ages of 18 and 25. So like you said, as you get older, and you go into your adulthood, because they’re really seeking that opportunity for their careers and life. So when you think about the power of mentorship that allows the us to be able to see through those adults, some positive encouragement, because we know they’re already within them, they have that seed of greatness, right? Sometimes it just takes an adult in your life to talk it through with you to continually provide that encouragement. And so our program is an opportunity for those volunteers to get involved with those younger adults without leaving even their workplace, but also providing them encouragement and some direction throughout their career.

Tawanna Myers 4:22
And as you talked about, like the positivity and how it helps them to succeed later on in life, one of the things that we know is that in us serving so many different youth, actually, we serve more than 400,000 Big littles and families in a year. And a lot of those come from even communities of color, and from different backgrounds. So that doesn’t define them. But what it does is it allows us to see and to talk to them about what are their greatest needs, what are their greatest concerns, questions, preparing them for what’s to come? exposing them to diversity, so when they do get later in life, they’ve had that background And they also know that they have someone, hopefully these relationships continue on until adulthood that they can also consult with when they get to that place.

Nick Schlemmer 5:08
Awesome. Yeah, I really like everything you said there about how it helps them in the future to potentially progressive career or just get kind of a jumpstart as to what they should expect later in life. That’s really great.

Jack McFarlane 5:24
And, I think it’s one thing that I hadn’t really thought about is, like you said, the relationship lasting. So I guess it’s even a way to kind of start networking and a little bit of a sense, even if it’s just one mentor. You never know how that might help you, you know, 30 years down the road if you really need it. So I think that’s really important.

Tawanna Myers 5:44
Oh, it really is. And you know, it because you mentioned that I want to just mention, if you’re familiar with our Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back, Rashad White, so he was a little in Kansas City, and he was matched with his big so when you talk about into adulthood, so Rashad was matched with his big John when he was eight years old. And they bonded over the things I talked about earlier, the sports and the activities that they did together. And look fast forward. You know, John helped Rashad navigate all of his ups and downs during his college football career, through his career, but NFL journey, and now John is Rashad business manager, and they’re bonded for life. So whenever you see a photo of a shot and a life moment, you’ll see John probably somewhere right in that area. So again, that’s a career of sports and what we also see that same relationship, when you think about any other kind of corporate or any other type of career that a big has impacted on a little life.

Nick Schlemmer 6:45
That’s, that’s awesome. Wow, you getting some pretty big names out there in your organization?

Tawanna Myers 6:51
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, it’s wonderful, you know, and, you know, you don’t have to be the big name, football star, or, you know, track star or anything else, you can be you and I think about my mentors in my life. And those relationships are just so powerful, because, again, who doesn’t welcome the opportunity to have an adult in their life who continually sees that positive reinforcement?

Nick Schlemmer 7:20
Yeah, so kind of going off of that, can you kind of tell us about, like, what the process is for matching two people together, what you’re looking for with with each particular person?

Tawanna Myers 7:30
Sure, sure. So I’m glad you asked about that. Because it is so important to get a great match, right? That is so important to that mentorship experience. So we do have aid agency match specialists who spend a lot of time getting to know the potential big, also the littles and their parents or their guardians. So that takes a lot of effort there and a lot of intentionality to make sure that we get that, right. We look at everything from the individuals location to their goals for mentorship, hobbies, and interests and anything else that will help us to identify where there may be commonality in those interests between the big and the little, and again, their family because this is an ecosystem, so to speak of that experience. And so we look at personality trades.

Tawanna Myers 8:19
We also take our bigs through extensive training so that they learn what it looks like and what it takes to be a good mentor, and how to best support their mentees. And throughout that entire process, I’ll tell you that that match support specialist that I talked about earlier is always there to provide resources and support. Because again, this is a journey, we want this to stretch all the way until adulthood, if possible. So those matches always have a village to rely on for anything that they need. So we really just focus on meeting young people where they are. And from that one to one mentoring experience, all the way through workplace mentoring, like we talked about earlier, and even virtual mentoring. So we’ve adapted over the course of time as we’ve all been from a pandemic to what’s an endemic now. So certainly, that’s a little bit just about the process of matching our big with our little.

Jack McFarlane 9:13
Yeah, and so I know it’s very important to find the right little for a big because obviously the biggest trying to be the mentor and help the little. But do you ever see a little bit of reverse mentorship going on where you’re trying to also find a little that might even help the big maybe break out of their show or just give them a different perspective? Do you ever see like, kind of double mentorship going on from both sides?

Tawanna Myers 9:39
Yeah, so what I will tell you is our mentors, which are our bigs receive just as much from relationship as our mentees. In fact, 95% of the children and the young adults in the program say that they include and they’ve experienced such a great sense of belonging. A lot of our our bigs will talk about how much they’ve learned from their little, because you got to think about it even I know, your podcasts when we think about the younger generation and all, you have to offer all of your experiences. And I’m not trying to date myself. But the younger generation, there’s so much knowledge there from technology to academics to service minded and commitment to exposing. And when we think about the diversity of the youth that we serve, and matching them with a big, there’s so much this transfer of knowledge between experiences, and we certainly see a lot of our big be able to respond and act on that as well. You know, Jack and Nick, as we talked about the power of the experience that a big has, and listening and learning from our little and reverse mentorship. I love to ask you all have you experienced reverse mentorship? And and and if you’ve either had some resistance, and reverse mentorship, when you try to educate someone who’s more like to say mature than you are, be it an age or experience, but really wanted to get your thoughts and insight because that helped me as well.

Jack McFarlane 11:15
Yeah, so I mean, when I think of any experience of reverse mentorship, so I played high school football. And one of our coaches had a pretty young son, his name was Colt, he’s, I think he’s an elementary school. So he’s still pretty young. And he would come to all our practices, all our games, he’d be on the sideline, and we would really bond because I mean, I was around him for four years, pretty much every day. And so it was really just just helping them learn the game of football, kind of learn how to enjoy school, because he was in the process of, you know, like, oh, school, I really don’t like it. And I was trying to teach him like, Well, I mean, you’re gonna be in it for another decade. So you know, try and find some fun in it. And I think he learned a lot. And then what we what he showed me is that, you know, sometimes in high school sports, you know, it almost can feel like a job some days, but he always showed me like, it is just a game, you know, we got to have the fun, bring some light. So he’s really nice. And then at the end of my senior year, he even drew me a picture of me playing football, which was really nice that I keep my truck. So I think that’s my best experience of like, reverse mentorship and see, I mean, that was a really, that was really good experience for me.

Tawanna Myers 12:29
You know, with that Jack, it sounds like you know, you had that experience. So you may even consider exploring what it means to be a big for the two of you? I just threw that in there. I just had to.

Nick Schlemmer 12:46
Yeah, so my mind is kind of in the workplace. So I worked at Dick’s Sporting Goods for retail, and all of our managers and just higher ups, like the team leads, they were all of the older generations, and then all of US workers for pretty much all Gen Z. And a lot of the times, you know, throughout the year, they’ll move certain products to certain areas of the store to just bring attention to it. And I can’t remember exactly when this was but the whenever the Air Force ones were just on a craze, if you know what those are.

Tawanna Myers 13:21
They’re always on a craze.

Nick Schlemmer 13:23
We were just selling like crazy. And for some reason, we had them all the way like in the back of the store. And so we had to our footwear team went to the managers and the district managers like we should do something about this. And just kind of tell them like, hey, put these at the front of the store just on display, get people touching them looking at them. And then sure enough sales for those just blew up. And so it’s not exactly like reverse mentorship, but in a way, like our younger generation kind of helped out the older generation in like, hey, like these things are going to be a really big hit in our right now. We should probably put those somewhere else.

Tawanna Myers 14:00
Well, I think that is reverse mentorship. Right? So I think we don’t have to confine it so much to this, this one thing, what you just did is, is reverse mentorship, you inform based upon your experiences that others were on were unaware of, they didn’t know. So that helped to advance the business. Hopefully, you got a bonus out of that. But it’s, you know, from those sales, but, but certainly that’s what it is, you know, and it’s so impactful of Jim Gen Z on reverse mentorship. You know, when I think about the workplace overall, because it does create exactly what you did, which is learning, honestly. So that’s that continuous learning and development. That’s so important. Regardless the workplace, it’s in sports and recreational activities in school. So that no matter what our age is that we’re always on that place of learning. So the more we can inform one another, especially through reverse mentorship or or traditional mentorship, we had that opportunity. So I love that you share those and allow me to ask you that question.

Jack McFarlane 15:07
Yeah, so to kind of almost turn the question around back on you Tawanna, I know that this is a fairly new position for you, as you took it in 2022. Have you seen any personal experience, at least from joining the organization of maybe reverse mentorship from the younger audience or just anything you’ve seen while helping it really anything?

Tawanna Myers 15:31
Yeah, a lot. So, I will tell you that one of the opportunities we have which is so, so great, at BCBSA, is we have a cohort of AmeriCorps VISTA members. And so we’re in partnership with them. And the VISTAs are embedded in our national office culture of mentorship and their perspective are really important to the success of our work. So while a VISTA can be of any age or experience level, the majority are Gen Z. And so one really good example is that, even though they are under the AmeriCorps VISTA program, and not necessarily a direct hire of our organization, we have exposed them to benefit. And one of the points of feedback I received from one of our Gen Z visa is that we need more time to understand what benefits are like this is our first time ever coming into an organization or first career opportunity. And this is just so confusing. I don’t know if I should have like this plan or that plan or what what is the FSA? What’s an HDHP? What is this mean?

Tawanna Myers 16:42
And so that insight, to me, again, when I talked about reverse mentorship, not being so confined, that was a point of reverse mentorship. Because what it did was it informed me that, hey, I can’t assume my audience is here, in this place of experience and knowledge, I need to consider that the younger generation, this is the first for them. So we began to adopt and take more time and explain or offer resources so that they understand that. So that’s just one example. And it helped me to build a more robust employee experience. So it’s really been eye opening between that and other insight that we received from the younger generation.

Nick Schlemmer 17:23
Okay, yeah. So, I’m kind of curious, are you seeing you may not be, but are you getting any feedback from like, potentially your bigs or your littles who have went out into the workplace and are doing this kind of reverse mentorship? Are they kind of telling you like, how important it is that like all these all the startup businesses and everything else should start implementing some kind of a mentorship within within their business?

Tawanna Myers 17:48
You know, I can’t say I’ve directly heard that from them. But what I do hear a lot is the impact of the big and little relationship, be it what they received from they’re big in terms of knowledge, building experience, and also to what they’ve shared and their big sharing how impactful it was from them, and how critical it was to that relationship that they took into the workplace. So I think because they’ve had that experience, even walking into the workplace, while there may be an opportunity for reverse mentorship to be to be implemented there. They’ve had it so much in their lives, that they kind of walk it, you know, they don’t hesitate to give feedback or their share insight. So they may walk into it a little differently than someone else who’s not had the power of that type of one on one mentoring experience.

Jack McFarlane 18:38
Yeah, so as you say, like they kind of walk into it with the experience, do you ever see or notice maybe a trend that people that have gone through the program, either as a little or as a big, maybe get a little farther up in their business company, whatever it may be? Do you ever see a trend like that?

Tawanna Myers 18:55
You know, I can speak probably a little bit more to what I see overall, in terms of how it helps advance someone’s career when they’ve had the power of mentorship. So when I think about the professionals that I see in my current workplace, or any place that I’ve worked, I know that it is so highly beneficial to that workplace because especially in their career development, it provides those opportunities to learn from experienced colleagues. And then likewise, like we talked about vice versa through that reverse mentorship. So there’s that transfer of knowledge. And it’s not always professional, sometimes it’s personal, right? So when we think about diversity, equity and inclusion, which is also so key, I mean, mentorship in the workplace, can really help create equity and boost diversity, equity, inclusion outcome, that mentorship fosters that diversity in the workplace, because often you have those employees who may not traditionally have a voice or the exposure. They had that type of support and guidance that they need to navigate the workplace. And then you also have have the power of those mentors being a voice or advocate or creating visibility for those mentees, which helps to again, advance in their careers. Also that sharing of skills and access internally and externally with the professional network. So again, that’s helping to advance your careers. You also get the bonus of representation. So those mentors show their mentees what’s possible, and, and, you know, help them guide them through that. So there’s definitely so much value between mentorship and the workplace, and also advancing in someone’s career.

Nick Schlemmer 20:40
Awesome. Yeah. So sounds like you’ve had some really great responses from people that have went through this program. And with everything we’ve talked about so far, it sounds like it’s just been nothing but positive. And you’ve been helping out the community so much with it.

Tawanna Myers 20:55
Yeah, you know, and again, that’s why I liked hearing that you knew about it, you know, in your schools. So that means that there’s visibility, and we’re creating even greater visibility now. But the positive response has been just overwhelming. And in a good way, right, I’d rather be overwhelmed in that way than any other way. But, in fact, we have over 30,000, that are still waiting to be matched. And that just speaks to the positivity. So there’s 30,000 kids on the waitlist for a mentor, and they need us. So we need more mentors to make a difference in a youth life right now. And the majority of the kids I’ll tell you on waitlist are young men who identify as young men of color, and just know you don’t have to be perfect to be a mentor, right, you just need to be present. And we don’t necessarily have to match, you don’t match necessarily based on color, you basically match based on those experiences that we talked about. So when you talk about the positive impact and response, knowing that we have 30,000 kids on that waitlist helps us to know that it’s a positive interaction that’s happening, and that they’re hearing about it. And they want to get in on that as well. So we just need to keep doing the great work that we’re doing to attract bigs to serve as men.

Nick Schlemmer 22:16
Yes. So that just kind of made me think of something. So if somebody’s tuning into the to the podcast here, and if they want to be a mentor, what’s the process for them to get started reaching out to you guys?

Tawanna Myers 22:29
Yeah, so you can sign up to be a mentor, you can visit BBBSA.org. And you’ll find your local Big Brothers, Big Sisters. So you can do that you’ll reach out to that agency, someone will contact you. And they will take you through the process a little bit of what we talked about earlier, someone else can donate to support a match. So maybe you don’t, you know, feel that you are in a place to be a big at the time, but you can certainly donate to ensure that we reach more of those 30,000 kids. And then we also we call on corporate America to invest in mentoring programs, to engage with their employees, because you also have mentorship in the workplace, we have some great partnerships with various partners, engaging their employees to live their expertise and serve as as mentors at Big to our little. So there’s a couple of different ways for you to get involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Jack McFarlane 23:22
That’s great. And I think, yeah, I think one strong point is, maybe you don’t really want to be a mentor, maybe you feel like you don’t have the time, but you can always donate, definitely go check out the website, BBBS.org. It is very cool. And you will learn a lot on there. So I think it is very important for anyone listening at least give that a listen, especially because most of our audience is, you know, Gen Z or older. So please don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and maybe even be a mentor.

Tawanna Myers 23:52
I love that. Thank you for that, Jack. Appreciate that.

Jack McFarlane 23:57
So is there any other questions you might have for us?

Tawanna Myers 24:00
Yeah, so I think as Gen Z ears, you know, what, what’s important to you? Like? How do you see the workplace evolving with the support and the guidance or the insight of Gen Z?

Jack McFarlane 24:16
So for me, my biggest thing when the workplace is I guess, if you look back on it, and obviously I don’t have much experience working back in the day because, well, I am a Gen Z. So I just feel like the technology is a huge change and especially with the pandemic of hybrid working so you know, working, you know, some days from home or somebody’s going into office and then working with zoom in the rise of computers and phones, I think it’s really important to find a workplace that is pretty open with that. And, and one that is diverse and inclusive, you don’t want to go at least for me, I don’t want to go into workplaces where I’m just gonna sit behind a desk and never be heard all day and nothing’s ever going to change so I think programs like this is a huge way to really improve that. And I think it will only get better. I really do.

Tawanna Myers 25:07
So and Nick, would love to hear from you also, you mentioned diversity and inclusion. And certainly equity goes in with that, as well. So I’ve noticed that that is a huge focus for a lot of our younger generations. They that’s one of the first questions I know, we get asked when we’re attracting talent is, how are you looking at diversity, equity inclusion? What are you doing about it? Is that really important to you? And some of others in your circle? Who have Gen Z?

Nick Schlemmer 25:42
Yeah, I would say that is for sure. Yes, I know, like, whenever I’m looking for a potential employer, whenever I’m interview process, whatnot, I’m asking them questions like, so what different generations work for you? What’s the feedback that we can get from you versus like, what we can give them? I know from some of my past experiences that the job team has been so diverse, that it has helped out so much and everybody was included, everybody’s voice was heard, it didn’t matter if you were a higher up, or if you were first day on the job, like your voice was heard your opinion was, was taken and thought about, I think that’s one of the main things that a lot of us are looking for is just to be able to enter into a workplace and feel welcomed in every aspect that we’re that we’re doing there.

Tawanna Myers 26:33
That’s really helpful to me, because one of the things even we talk about mentorship in the workplace, it’s about representation, and that that representation really matters. So you know, it’s it’s about having that voice and creating a space for that voice. Right, that you said, you’re asking, pointedly, you know, what, what are you hearing from that generation? You know, and how have you acted on that? So that then puts us in a position as an employer to have the answers to say, yes, we’ve done this, or we plan to do this. So that’s really helpful.

Nick Schlemmer 27:06
Yeah, I just feel like as people from our generation, knowing that like, hey, we can go up and we can talk to whoever in in the company and whatnot. Like, if we have any problems, any questions like, just feel free to reach out, and I feel like that just takes a lot of stress off of our generation, if it’s our first job and, and stuff like that.

Tawanna Myers 27:26
So when we think about those various generations that we know are in the workplace, and it’s really important that we build communication there. Have you all experienced any type of, I guess, great positive experiences or not? So positive experiences between those different generations and engaging?

Jack McFarlane 27:45
Yeah, so for me, I guess one positive experience is just so I’ve worked at Denny’s as a host. So I know it’s not the most glamorous, but it was just a summer job.

Tawanna Myers 27:56
I love Grand Slam, okay.

Jack McFarlane 28:00
But it was a really good experience. I think it you know, it really did help. You know, I met a bunch of people, because obviously, there’s a ton of people coming in every day. But our manager, he was, I believe in his late 40s, maybe early 50s. So, when we first got there, it was almost like, he didn’t know exactly how to talk to us. And he has a bunch of younger workers. But he was kind of shy a little bit, which is okay, but I think just with me, and a lot of my co workers were also Gen Z, I think we were able, just to show him like, you know, open communication and, you know, being more flexible, hey, you know, if someone’s sick, they can’t come in that day, like, that’s okay, you know, someone’s going to cover their shift. Like, I think the big change was almost relaxing the work environment a little bit and making it much more open.

Tawanna Myers 28:51
Yeah, yeah. You know, engagement between the various generations, it’s really vital if companies want to continue to attract the best employees like like you, and develop that multigenerational customer and the client base. So that will set them up for future growth. So knowing how to work with you, as your manager and to communicate with you, then you feel like you have more of an open space to share some feedback, like you talked about earlier, Nick around the recommendation to put the Air Force ones in the front of the store, you know, who feel invited, then you speak up more? So it’s like this continual process that allows both the individual and the organization and the rest of the employees to to advance?

Nick Schlemmer 29:40
Yeah, I think from even just this past year, and post pandemic, and moving forward, we’re gonna see, I bet at some point, it’ll be every business where we’re going to see a lot more diversity, a lot more voices being heard. Everybody’s I think is going to start to realize like hey, that’s, that’s so and According to everybody coming into the workplace that we need to start doing that, and it’s only going to help them out in the long run.

Tawanna Myers 30:07
So I’m going to put you on the spot. And I know this is a podcast conversation with you. But, you know, there’s so many, what I call stereotypes around the different generation. And I’d love to get your insight not to just be for all Gen Z, but your insight is helpful around communication, and, and visibility. So there are some who will say your generation only communicates via text, you don’t want to be on screen, you don’t want to be on person, I’m getting the job done. Leave me alone. And then there’s others who say, no, we want to be connected, we want that in person time, we need to talk and communicate. So based on your your preferences, and again, not to say you speak for all of Gen Z, but how do you see that unpacking in the workplace?

Nick Schlemmer 30:59
Yeah, so that’s a really good question. I personally that I think, from everybody that I’ve worked with, on my past co-workers, they have been on the side of, we want to be heard, we’re not just going to text you and whatnot, we’re going to actually be there in person, or like, we want to be on camera and whatnot. Everybody that I’ve worked with has been like that. But there is that other the other side that I’ve seen, especially in high school, even though it wasn’t really like a workplace, there are those people that they just show up, get stuff done, don’t really talk and just kind of just lay low, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s just whoever you are. But I think that we’re gonna see a lot of change. In these upcoming years, people leaving high school or even going into high school as well, with kids being more active in the classroom, in the workplace, I think we’re gonna see, we’re gonna see a change as to not so many people being as shy, for example.

Jack McFarlane 31:59
We are almost in a transition period. As like our generation, you know, we’re not, we’re not little kids anymore, we’re ready to actually get some good input and really make a real change. So I think you’re gonna, like Nick said, see a lot more people, you know, stepping up speaking out, wanting to get really involved, because we almost feel like as it’s our time to shine, you know, like, We’re the new rookie in the league, we’re ready to so we can do.

Tawanna Myers 32:26
Now, you’re assuming I know, sports, all right. But, certainly, I get it, I get it fully. And I am seeing more of what you both said, right? The we’re a fully remote workforce right now. And we have to purposeful in person meetings of all of our staff, and it is just the most celebrated time, regardless to what generation and people want that connection. You know, regardless, you could be Gen Z, you know, all the way up through the more mature folks. But it is about I get to see you, and this meeting is going a lot better, because we’re in person a little bit. Not that we can and we don’t want to come into, I don’t want an office space time. I love working from home. But when we do get together, it’s really productive and helpful. So your insight again, this is even in this conversation is the power of reverse mentorship, right? Again, it doesn’t have to be formal. It can really be informal. In fact, sometimes it’s even better because it’s more organic, right? It’s, it’s just having that conversation and me taking this away this conversation away and going back and saying, Ooh, let’s think about this. Maybe we need to add another in person connection or encourage our managers to make space even more to connect with in person with their with their team members.

Nick Schlemmer 33:49
Yeah, definitely. So I think we’ve talked about a lot of great stuff today. Is there anything else that you want to talk about Jack?

Jack McFarlane 33:59
I guess all I have is just a big thank you for coming on the show. And we really do appreciate it. Everything we’ve talked about today.

Tawanna Myers 34:06
Wonderful. Well, I thank you both. And I don’t have any other questions. But I may have to make you both a part of my cohort where I reach out and say, Hey, I need some additional insight. Oh, well, I appreciate that. And I’m definitely now following your podcast. To learn more and hear more insights from others. And again, just thank you for being great home and making this so comfortable.

Nick Schlemmer 34:33
Yes, for sure.

Jack McFarlane 34:34
Thank you very much for your time.

Nick Schlemmer 34:37
Yep. Thanks for joining on the show. It’s been a great episode. It’s been such a pleasure to speak with you today and learning about Big Brothers Big Sisters. And we look forward to sharing this with our audience. And yeah, it’s been a great episode.

Jack McFarlane 34:49
Till next time, guys, this has been The Play by Play.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai