[Ailist] Re: AI and Mentoring programs

[Michael Holdstock]

Muriel
During the past few years I have been involved with establishing an 
appreciative-oriented mentor programme for a Swedish professional 
association - engineers - where senior managers (45+) have been mentoring 
graduates taking on their first job or first management role.
I'm afraid all the documentation and evaluation is in Swedish, which 
probably wont help you much but here are the nuggets of what we learnt:

- pay attention to matching needs an interests of mentees with experience of 
mentors
- give the mentor/mentee pairs something to get them started - enough so 
that, if they haven't a clue themselves, they have some questions to get 
them going
- give the mentors some parameters - explain differences between mentoring, 
coaching, therapising and consulting
be clear with mentees about what is and isn't in the relationship - 
mentoring parameters as above
- arrange some gatherings at a prestigious place and/or with prestigious 
dignitaries where the pairs can talk about their positive experiences, share 
experiences of what has worked and the fun of it all
- pick up their suggestions at such meetings and in individual evaluations 
and see if the suggestions can be put into the system for the benefit of all
- track the pairs in the early phase to ensure that - they are getting 
together - frequency matches expectations - personalities work - things are 
humming along and do something if there is a bug
- be prepared for expressions of the fact that there is a mutuality in the 
relationship - mentors get as much from it as mentees!
- do an annual evaluation with some basic software - I used surveymonkey - 
and make the results available for all

My favourite quote from the sharings still is "I have a Dad, I have a boss, 
but this is something totally different"
And from the mentors in a teleconference hearing one mentor telling how his 
mentee had rung him to let him be the first to know that the mentee had got 
a new job. Another mentor capped this with news of a house purchase. A 
third, not to be outdone, told us that his girl was going to have a baby!.

Mentoring is a very powerful appreciative process. The "Dad/boss/different" 
quote above underlines that it gives the mentee a very good opportunity to 
be seen as an adult mature person as they are now, without the filters that 
parenthood or superiority create.

Good luck and don't hesitate to contact me again if I can be of any more 
help.

Mike Holdstock, Karlstad, Sweden

PS the process in Sweden is now being extended "downwards" to graduates and 
third year students, at the suggestion of the mentees who will probably be 
doing the mentoring of our "second generation". Nice bit of "pay it 
forward", I think. Hence - any of your thoughts and reports on how the 
process is structured would be useful - we are just starting thinking about 
how to handle this new group.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Marafine at aol.com>
To: <ailist at lists.business.utah.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 3:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Ailist] Re: AI and Mentoring programs


> Hello all,
>
> I am working with a university in developing mentoring programs for 
> graduate
> students in two professional schools.  Students will be matched  with an
> experienced professional in the community. I am gathering best practices 
> for
> effective programs in preparation for mentor/mentee orientations. If any 
> of  you
> have had experience in developing a similar program, I would be interested 
> in
> hearing about it.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Muriel Finegold
>
>
>
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