High-Impact Mentoring

High-Impact Mentoring

by Randy Emelo

Never has the need for rapid learning been greater. The swiftly changing workforce and marketplace bring new challenges every day; generational pressures and attitudes make transferring knowledge both critical and difficult; and downsizing and consolidation of organizations means each worker has increased responsibilities that require new understanding and skills.

Talent managers have attempted to address learning issues such as these with e-learning and knowledge management systems. Neither provides a comprehensive solution to a complex problem. On the one hand, old learning structures, such as classroom training or e-learning modules, lack the relational support and situational adaptability to be effective learning tools for an entire workforce. On the other hand, knowledge management systems have failed to deliver promised results because people often bypass sophisticated databases and look to other people for their immediate knowledge needs.

The common denominator in both of these attempts seems to be people's desire for relational and social interaction. This has led many to believe social networking will be the panacea for their learning development pains. They believe people will connect virtually in constructive, intentional learning relationships through social networking sites, and not just for social interactions. But many companies that have used social networking software for workforce development have been disappointed by the lack of intentional learning relationships that develop. While some accidental learning may increase due to participation in social networking sites, they lack focused learning structures and support mechanisms needed for goal-oriented, intentional learning.

What is needed is a process that combines the strengths of learning structures, knowledge management and social networking in a way that produces intentional, collaborative learning relationships where anyone in the workforce can find the knowledge he or she currently needs to succeed.

Today's Mentoring: Social Learning Systems

The future of mentoring and learning systems will begin with innovation in social, not content, components. While the expansion of e-learning, learning content management systems and knowledge management databases has increased access to information, new forms of social learning connection technology will lead the way to actual employee performance improvement. Continuing to expand the conceptual understanding and the range of applications for mentoring will be critical to implement any social learning system that will:

a) Use technology to increase access to knowledge in a relational context.

b) Facilitate intentional learning relationships in a goal- and competency-centered process.

c) Create a growing network of social learning opportunities.

A system like this will create intentional learning relationships by providing a learning structure and access to virtually all the tacit knowledge in an enterprise. Personal learning networks will form that speed tacit knowledge transfer in real time. Connecting this with various forms of mentoring will expand talent development, employee engagement, productivity and retention efforts.

Build a Network of Collaborative Learning Relationships

To create a social learning system, organizations need to implement a less restrictive, more open use of mentoring. In their book Intelligent Mentoring, which looks at mentoring at IBM, authors Audrey J. Murrell, Sheila Forte-Trammell and Diana A. Bing suggest that people need access to multiple, collaborative learning relationships and environments that fall under an expanded view of mentoring. Mentoring, when rightly understood and applied, can be a broad umbrella under which companies can organize a variety of self-directed intentional learning relationships. There are three distinct uses that can be applied concurrently for greater learning as people build a network of collaborative learning relationships.

1. Expand the use of one-to-one mentoring as a productivity tool.

Many people still see mentoring as a way to gain encouragement in career path choices. However, Triple Creek Associates research shows that when people are allowed to conscript one-to-one mentoring relationships based on their needs and preferences, they are used in a variety of ways to address real issues. In May 2009, Triple Creek conducted a study, "Impact of Web-Based Mentoring on Productivity and Effectiveness," of 13 organizations (1,323 respondents) and found 88 percent of mentors and mentees agree that their productivity or effectiveness increased due to their current mentoring experience. Mentees and mentors both felt the impact in areas such as expanding networks (64 percent), interpersonal effectiveness (63 percent), confidence in role (62 percent) and leadership skills (59 percent). Participants rated on-the-job training (88 percent) and mentoring and coaching (79 percent) as more effective than e-learning (37 percent). Essentially, mentoring most profoundly impacted complex development areas that are notoriously hard to address with traditional development options. Further, participants provided insights into other productivity gains impacted by a broader use of mentoring, as seen in these anonymous quotes:

a) Problem solving

"We were able to work on problem solving for a couple of specific job-related issues, and his advice will help me with future problems."

b) Functional skills

"My mentor provided me with some good ideas for managing from a distance. He also helped me to be more organized and use pre-planning for phone conferences with my direct reports."

c) Job-specific information

"My mentee shared information about the project side of processes, which [helped] me to learn some new codes and understand how pieces fit together."

d) Technical skills

"My mentor was able to teach me some very specific computer skills, which allowed me to create some usable spreadsheets for my manager."

2. Increase learning networks with group mentoring.

Group mentoring, when a group of individuals comes together to collaborate and share learning focused on central development goals, is typically seen as a way to stretch limited mentor resources to accommodate multiple mentees more efficiently. However, the power of group mentoring is being re-examined.

"I can integrate it into our leadership development program so that it is embedded and becomes integral to [participants'] learning," said Paula Schwartz, manager of instructional design services at Thomson Reuters. This means groups who learn together in a workshop can stay together afterward via group mentoring so they continue growing and learning from one another. Schwartz said she estimates Thomson Reuters can save $70,000 by using group mentoring this way.

Long-term social learning connections set today's group mentoring practices apart from traditional classroom training methodologies. With group mentoring, participants learn from leaders and other participants during meetings, but they also can engage one another between meetings, expanding the breadth and depth of learning that can take place in real work situations.

When combined with collaboration technology, group mentoring can address a variety of organizational outcomes and needs. Dell has used group mentoring with its accelerated development population, where high-potential directors mentor emerging leaders. Lisa Graham, learning and development consultant at Dell, said the company plans to expand the use of group mentoring to other departments such as sales, where top performers can mentor colleagues and share highly focused knowledge, such as insights around the K-12 sales group.

Group mentoring also appeals to younger generations. "We realized in our pilot younger employees were really looking for social networking opportunities," said Mary Cummings, program analyst for the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration. Group mentoring offers people a way to network with peers and senior-level managers to whom they might not have access normally. "It's a good retention mechanism for our office," Cummings said.

3. Solve pressing issues with situational mentoring.

Today's workers often need quick access to advisors and experts who can provide them with specific guidance on a finite topic. Situational mentoring enables mentees to recruit a team of advisors who can collaborate with them on whatever high-impact issue they face. This process allows learners to move beyond their current social network to search for new nodes of knowledge in the organizational network, and it creates a collaborative learning team formed for a single, high-value purpose.

Situational mentoring is not an isolated process; a variety of collaborative learning relationships can emerge, including:

a) Short-term learning coalitions that end when the project is complete or the problem is solved.

b) Ongoing open nodes of learning that function like communities of practice.

c) Group mentoring interactions where expertise gained is exported to a larger audience so more people can benefit.

d) One-to-one relationships that broaden the learning.

Social Learning Redux

Critical learning often occurs best in a relational context. The future of organizational learning will promote the development of a highly integrated, technology-supported structure that focuses on the expansion of socially based, intentional learning relationships. An expanded vision of mentoring is emerging that will allow multiple modalities of learning relationships based on the needs of learners and the expertise already present in the organization. All three processes - one-to-one, group and situational mentoring - will stimulate and reinforce each other, creating a positive feedback loop that accelerates the development of intentional, social learning relationships across the enterprise.

This kind of flexible, intentional learning system combines the strengths of social networking and knowledge management systems with the intentional learning focus of mentoring relationships. It will provide the flexible, just-in-time learning environment critical for all workers to maximize both their own performance and their contribution to the learning needs of others.

[About the Author: Randy Emelo is president and CEO of Triple Creek Associates.]