a mentoring idea

[Doersam, Laurel]

Your suggested theme, Harrison, is almost identical to the one I'm using for
an Open Space on designing a Corporate Health Plan:  "Creating a Workplace
We Love".  Some of the corporate "suits" were a little horrified at the use
of the "L" word, but it sort of summed it up for me . . . if we could love
our workplace, how much could that contribute to our individual and
collective well-being?  (And how would a loving and loved workplace assist
our frantic attempts to recruit people into both education and healthcare?)
I've had a great response to my invitation so far, so don't think I've
offended anybody too deeply!

Laurel.
Laurel Doersam
Human Resource Consultant (Employee Wellness)
Capital Health Region
Victoria  BC   Canada

-----Original Message-----
From: Harrison Owen [mailto:owenhh at mindspring.com]
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2000 5:00 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: a mentoring idea


At 05:57 PM 6/29/00 +0000, you wrote:



Here's what I imagined today:  What if all the mentors and all the new
teachers at a particular site (say, 25 of each) attended a half-day (or more
if we can) Open Space to start things off.  The focus groups would be
convened around the needs of the new teachers.  Useful relationships would
be formed, but not in a one-to-one fashion; the new teachers would leave
that event with the names and contact info for ALL the mentors, and with
relationships with several of them based on their OS interactions.

>From then on, the new teachers would choose when, how, and from whom they
would need help.  Mentors could be paid for being available, and, hopefully,
for attending regular mini-open-spaces with the new teachers throughout the
school year.

So:  Has anyone else done this type of thing as an alternative structure of
a mentorship?

And, here's my specific question:  During the first OS, I am considering
inviting only the new teachers to convene focus groups.  On one level this
feels heretical to the spirit of Open Space.  But on another level I want to
deliberately break the set-up of the mentors being the experts.  I want the
whole program to be oriented around the needs of the new teachers, not
around the expertise of the mentors.  In my current thinking, requesting
that the mentors not convene focus groups but instead to simply attend the
ones to which they feel they can contribute the most would serve to empower
the new teachers.  WOULD YOU DO THIS?  Or is it a bad controlling idea?


I think this could be wonderful! And I would suggest two things. a) Try for
a whole day -- it will really pay off. b) Don't restrict who can post. This
is not about keeping Open Space "pure" -- although I guess there is some of
that -- but mostly because I am sure everybody will have value to add, and
the Law of Two feet will take care of the difference. To make all this work,
I think the theme should be a lot broader then just the needs of the new
teachers -- How about something like "Building a school System we would all
like to be a part of" (and please forgive the dangling preposition )

I once did an OS for a corporation (different venue but similar issue) that
began the orientation program for new employees. We had about 100
participants roughly divided between old hands and new comers. The theme was
Building X Corp that swerves all the stakeholders. Folks really got into it
AND the mentoring relationships just naturally formed. The one thing to
watch out about is that the new folks might take their contributions
seriously and actually think they had something of value to add -- Could be
a bummer for all those who thought they knew how to design the program and
determine the content ( smile).

Harrison



Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
phone 301-469-9269
fax 301-983-9314
website
www.mindspring.com/~owenhh <http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh>
Open Space Institute websites
www.openspaceworld.org <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>

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