Knowledge transfer mentoring—Part 3
mentoring as a springboard for networking and collaboration

Host events for mentors and mentees

To encourage networking throughout the mentoring process, some organizations host face-to-face events where mentors and mentees can circulate and socialize. Those events not only create camaraderie among program participants, but also expose them to a broad array of contacts and learning opportunities.

The ARDEC mentoring program, for example, hosts quarterly networking events called mentoring socials. The events are designed to cross-pollinate current program participants and alumni, foster a team environment and give mentees a chance to practice their networking skills. Each social begins with a senior leader or someone outside the program giving a speech about mentoring and providing insight into how he or she has been impacted by mentoring. Participants then have an opportunity to mingle and communicate informally with one another.

All the mentors and mentees who have gone through the program are invited to the social to hear the speaker, share ideas, network and build new relationships. The program also encourages attendees to bring colleagues who may be interested in having mentors, but are not quite ready to commit to the training involved in being an official program participant. That helps the program recruit new mentors and mentees while broadening the pool of potential networking partners at each social event.

The industrywide government mentoring program facilitated by the GovLoop Government Social Media and Knowledge Network uses an analogous event format to encourage relationship-building beyond specific mentor/mentee pairings. At the beginning of the program, participants local to the Washington, D.C., area are given a chance to meet and network during a face-to-face kickoff event. Halfway through the six-month mentoring cycle, the organization hosts a second event called a mentoring keynote to gather participants and reinvigorate them for the second half of the program. In addition to listening to a speech, attendees can network with other mentors and mentees, share information about how the program is going and learn from one another’s experiences. The culmination of the program includes a final in-person event where participants share stories, celebrate successes and continue their networking.

MD Anderson Cancer Center does not host events specifically for mentors, but it does hold an annual “mentoring day” conference that brings together people involved or considering participation in the organization’s various mentoring initiatives. Concurrent sessions occur throughout the one-day event, including speeches and panels on a variety of mentoring topics. Following the conference, the organization creates online videos that provide guidance on how mentees can increase their networks and ways they can make moments with their mentors count.

Leverage communities and collaborative outlets

Some organizations leverage communities and networks to supplement and enhance their mentoring programs. By leveraging existing collaborative tools, mentees are able to identify informal mentors to fill in the gaps and expand their personal networks.

At Boeing engineers can request an official mentor to help them with their technical development, but they are also encouraged to engage in informal peer-based mentoring through the organization’s topic-based communities. Run under HR’s knowledge management umbrella, they range in formality from communities of excellence—which must formally articulate their goals and how they add value to the enterprise—to less structured communities of practice and online groups. Although the community program and the technical mentoring program are separate, a great deal of informal mentoring occurs when engineers come together to talk and learn in those groups. Boeing’s enterprise mentoring program is also supported by its own community of practice. The community brings together past and current mentors to collaborate, share tips and tricks, and support one another.

Praxair’s business leaders also urge employees to seek additional mentoring and development opportunities to supplement formal mentor pairings. Employees in need of mentoring are advised to reach out to contacts they meet at technical lunch and learn sessions, technology exchange forums and other similar events. In addition, the organization is expanding its suite of collaboration tools to help employees find one another and make connections.

Collaborative catalyst

Traditional mentoring programs are designed to help employees make career decisions and develop competencies that will enable them to be successful. However, when viewed more broadly, mentoring can become an effective catalyst to break down silos, build boundary-spanning professional relationships and improve the quality of collaborative interaction enterprisewide.

Based on its research, APQC recommends that organizations find ways to incorporate networking opportunities into their mentoring programs. Group mentoring sessions and networking events targeted to mentors and mentees are obvious ways to help mentoring participants develop new contacts. However, successful organizations also encourage employees to seek out informal mentors and advisers through internal conferences and forums as well as communities of practice, expertise location systems and enterprise social networks.

To learn more about the research download the full report at apqc.org/mentoring.