Sepekan lebih yang lalu, secara nggak sengaja nemu buku The Ultimat3U -nya Coach Renè Suhardono di IPusnas. Cus langsung dicicil baca.

Nemu yang menarik, di saat kita mulai akrab sama istilah generasi Y, generasi Z, generasi Millenials, generasi boomers, dkk. Di salah satu part buku dibahas soal Generation Flux.

Gen-Flux. Yang nggak dibatasi oleh sekat-sekat tahun lahir, tapi diidentifikasi berdasarkan apa yang jadi dorongan mereka buat bergerak dan berkontribusi buat sekitarnya.

Saya nyatat beberapa ciri soal Gen-Flux ini; tidak terbebani oleh keharusan punya sebutan, fokus pada impact dan kontribusi yang diberikan dam kapasitas apapun yang dijalani, not about affiliation but connection & contribution, and most important tools for Gen-Flux is the ability to acquire new skills.

In many industries these days, you’re seeing a somewhat-renewed focus on “people” — Fast Company just ran an entire cover package on “Generation Flux,” the focus of which often came back to finding purpose in work and building a people culture.

It should be something we all continue to embrace. I’ve been thinking about it in the context of healthcare — where I’ve spent the bulk of my professional existence — and for me, it comes down to one aspect:

Healthcare needs more rebels.

Anytime an idea comes into my head, I jot it down in my Springpad notebook and move on with my day. Most of the time the initial idea evolves to a blog post with a twist from the original. Few months ago I jotted down a simple question: “How does one stay relevant?”. Our world and the associated changes move so fast that keeping up with all the content out there is almost impossible. Few weeks after the initial thought, I came across an article by Meghan Biro on Forbes.com: “5 Methods for Social Leadership: Try Reverse Mentoring” and that shifted my initial idea as usual.

So, how does one stay relevant?

Aside from continuously trying to keep up with the twitter feed, reading new and exciting books and articles as well as going to networking events or meetups for your particular industry of interest there is one more that Meghan points out - reverse mentoring. The traditional mentorship model or as I blogged about , your Advisory Board, usually consists of professionals that have been around the block and can teach you a few things from their past lessons learned. But one that has not been talked about much is learning from young, enthusiastic, driven and forward thinking #GenFlux (Great series of articles on FastCompany btw) 

The other day I met with a young engineer, who I interviewed for a job a while back. Given the uncertainty at the time, I could not bring myself to hire someone full time, especially with the fact that he had a young kid and a stable job. We kept in touch and I am glad we did. We spent a great evening talking CakePHP, Objective C and other geeky interesting topics, but it also gave me a chance to understand even further what drives young, enthusiastic people and the feedback that corporations desperately need in order to continue innovating. 

So while there are many hours in the day to tweet, read, and network dont forget to do a little “reverse mentoring” - which I believe is the only way to actually stay relevant!