Learning Activities

The mentor plays a key role in designing developmental learning experiences. Adults learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process and are willing to step outside their comfort zone. The goal is to create developmental situations where the mentorees can discover for themselves how successful (or unsuccessful) they are in a certain area or skill. The following are sample developmental activities designed to build relationships, navigate the organization and enhance technical expertise.

Communication Skills:

• Increase awareness of how others perceive your communication style (i.e., what mannerisms engage others in conversation; what behaviors seem to intimidate them?). Ask a trusted colleague for feedback after meetings.
• Practice listening skills by listening to someone explain an issue or challenge and paraphrase back to them what you heard. Ask for feedback in terms of how well you captured his/her key points.
• Remove sarcastic remarks, profanity and other insulting language from your vocabulary. Ask for feedback from a trusted friend or colleague.
• Draft a written memo and seek feedback from your mentor. Ask if your writing style fits the "style, tone or flavor" of the organization.
• Prepare for your next briefing thoroughly. Craft a compelling opening, defend your point with clear outcomes and conclude with highlights of points you want your audience to remember. Ask at least two people who were in the audience to summarize your key points.
• Ask your mentor to observe you giving a presentation and give productive feedback.
• Seek opportunities to promote the accomplishments of your team. Prepare a 60 second presentation that highlights your team's mission and accomplishments and present it at the next team meeting.
• Observe three people who communicate effectively and give them feedback in terms of what you appreciate about their communication style.

Prevent and Manage Conflict:

• Ask someone to monitor your non-verbal communication (i.e., body language, posture, and eye contact). Seek feedback on any possible negative messages you might be sending.
• Observe dynamics of effective conflict management or negotiation skills and discuss those techniques with your mentor.
• Increase sensitivity to and respond appropriately to feedback provided by co-workers.
• Role-play a difficult conversation with your mentor.
• Participate in a negotiation and/or conflict resolution process in a community-based organization.
• When getting ready for a conversation where you know others will disagree with your opinion, take time to understand their side of the issue. Look for as many areas of agreement before dealing with the disagreements.

Customer Focus:

• Brainstorm a list of customers you are currently working with (both internal and external). Create a list of ideas on how to visibly demonstrate your commitment to customer service. Select at least one new idea a month to implement. Seek feedback from the customers after the idea has been implemented.
• Facilitate a focus group with both internal and external customers. Explore their needs and get a better understanding of their expectations.
• Create a follow-up system for keeping customers up-to-date on important issues.
• Organize a team building session with at least one key customer every three months. Spend time interacting and getting to know each other better. Take time to learn about them as a person.
• Develop and implement a customer service feedback tool. Pay attention to complaints and explore possible causes. Prioritize those items that you have control over and create a plan to improve customer service in that area.
• Create your own personal guiding principles for exceeding customer expectations. Post them in your office and review them frequently.
• Make their day! Look for opportunities to make your customer's day. At the end of the day, investigate how you feel about yourself as a result of these spontaneous acts of kindness.

Leadership:

• Explore a problem or challenge that the organization/team is experiencing. Analyze the problem from the perspective of all of the stakeholders involved. Use this insight to create a plan to address problems and challenges. Take it to the next step and put the plan into action.
• Learn the "unwritten rules" of the organization by interviewing at least three situational mentors. Ask them to discuss what they consider to be the "unwritten rules" of the organization.
• Create discussion forums to share information and promote organizational values.
• Walk through your office space with "new eyes." Does your environment reflect the culture and values that are important to you? Discuss insights gained with your mentor.
• Promote a "continuous learning" environment. When mistakes are made, bring a small group together to discuss any possible lessons learned. Ensure that the information that is shared in the forum is openly discussed without fear of retribution.
• Consider having an informal meeting away from the workplace. Encourage teamwork and allow opportunities for employees to get to know each other. Identify a stretch assignment that can be delegated to an employee or team member who is ready to advance their career. Set up an action plan and spend at least one hour per week of your time transferring your knowledge.

Demonstrate and Promote Teamwork:

• Invest time each month to share new knowledge and information with your team members. This might occur in a formal setting such as a team meeting or informally over lunch.
• Investigate upcoming trends (future opportunities or barriers) that may impact your team. Create a brief presentation to share this knowledge and a plan of action with your colleagues.
• Ask three colleagues to give you honest feedback in terms of how "team oriented" you are. Do you tend to push your own ideas rather than listen to the collective ideas of others? Are you independent or interdependent? Do you consider how decisions affect other members of the team?
• Seek an "ad hoc" team or committee assignment. Rather than take on a leadership role, be willing to participate as a team member. After each team meeting, jot down insights gained regarding how well you participated on the team. What would you do differently? At the next team meeting, set a goal to change at least one behavior.
• Serve on a project team that requires collaboration with a variety of different perspectives and people. Pay careful attention to what becomes a barrier for you-is it the communication styles of others? Gender issues? Age? Position? Look for patterns and discuss insights with a mentor or colleague.
• Offer to assist a peer or teammate with a project that is falling behind. Explore how this act of kindness makes you feel. Is it an energy giver? Or an energy drainer?
• Facilitate a team building session. Discuss the strengths of the team and where the team is going? Give team members personal and sincere praise for their accomplishments!

Organizational Savvy:

• Assess your organizational savvy over the past year. How well have you navigated the unwritten rules? When have you "stepped in it" politically? What were the political ramifications?
• Create a list of the "unwritten rules" from your perspective. Share them with your mentor. How much does s/he agree or disagree.
• Interview three key executives. Ask them to describe the culture of the organization.
• Create a list of "go to" people in your personal and professional network. List names, phone numbers, email address, etc. Keep this list updated. Get feedback from your mentor.
• Ask three trusted friends and/or colleagues about your professional image. Are you sending the right message?
• Spend a few lunch hours at the local cafeteria. Pay careful attention to professional dress. Carefully critique their attire.
• Create a list of people you would like to get to know better. Commit to building better relationships with the key people on your list.

Manage Change:

• When a new change effort is being launched, investigate why the change is occurring and what skills will be necessary for you to adapt to the new changes. Create an action plan for aligning yourself with the new skills.
• Look for opportunities to become a visible advocate of a new change or process.
• Employ stress management techniques during times of change and transition (i.e. relaxation techniques, exercise program, nutrition, etc.).
• When you are faced with a personal and/or professional setback, keep a journal of what you are feeling and going through. Find a trusted friend (or mentor) to openly discuss how you are feeling and any lessons that you learned.
• Create a journal of how often you are sick. Pay careful attention to the stressors in your personal and professional life. Are there any themes or patterns? In other words, pay attention to whether or not you get sick before or after a big project is complete.
• Look for opportunities to show flexibility in meeting a customer's needs. Document every time your customer(s) has changed his/her expectations and carefully notice how you react. Identify what you did to demonstrate flexibility and how you could improve in the future.

Respect and Value Differences (Diversity):

• Plan a "Mini-Conference" within the mentoring group. Have each member give a live presentation of their division's mission and how their job impacts that mission. This activity has a dual purpose-it gives the mentoring group a new perspective on the diversity of its members and is a great way to practice presentation skills.
• Take a very junior professional under your wing, particularly someone who is quite different than you. Become a mentor and share your special skills and perspectives.
• Create a small project that requires a diversity of opinions. Be willing to respect and value the contributions different than your own.
• Use a different brainstorming technique at your next team meeting to seek input from a variety of sources.
• Create a list of people in your network. Explore his/her background, generation, race, education, career path, gender. Do you tend to network with people who are similar or different than you? If similar, commit to expanding your network to include more diversity.
• Interview three situational mentors who solve problems differently than you do. What insights can you gain from their approaches?
• Identify a senior manager who is very good at managing a diverse workforce. Set up a meeting to observe them in action. What do they do well? How do they do it? Give them productive feedback on how they seem to capitalize on the uniqueness of each individual on his/her team.

Self Direction:

• At the end of each day, honestly evaluate your attitude. Did you maintain a positive attitude all day? Or did stressors get in the way?
• Create a journal of how often you ask your supervisor for help. Do you find yourself asking the same questions? Brainstorm an action plan with your mentor to become more self sufficient.
• Review your system for daily goal setting and meeting deadlines and projects. On a scale of 1 to 10, is your system effective? If your supervisor would rate you what would s/he give you? How can you improve your process?
• What are your three greatest strengths? What are your greatest areas needing improvement? Seek feedback from your peers and colleagues. Do they agree with your self assessment?
• Create a list of commitments (personal and professional). On one side of the page, list all the things that you completed. On the other side of the page list the items that are still pending. Discuss insights gained with your mentor.
• Seek 360 feedback (self, boss, and peers). Look for patterns and themes.
• Review and update your Mentoring Action Plan on a quarterly basis.

Technical Knowledge:

• See one, do one and teach one. Observe a seasoned expert performing a task, perform the same task in front of a coach or mentor and ask for feedback, then teach someone else how to perform the same task (Adapted from Deep Smarts, pg 207-208).
• Shadow an expert (situational mentor) for a day. Prepare a paper on what you learned from observing him/her that day.
• Volunteer to take on a project (maybe one outside of your normal realm of work) that will stretch you outside your comfort zone.
• Study a master. Create a list of the experts in your field. Interview them. What do they read? What conferences do they go to? How do they keep on top of their game and up to date?
• Foster a network of situational "technical" mentors. Spend at least one hour a month fostering relationships with them.
• Attend a least one professional conference per year. Set a goal to strengthen technical skills in at least one area as a result of the professional development conference. Write a briefing on any lessons that you learned and commit to transferring your knowledge to at least one other person.
• Join a professional association. If you already belong to one, take on a leadership role or give a presentation at the next annual conference.

Human Resource Management:

• Write a "want ad" for a position on your team. Write the ad with behavioral characteristics of the team/organization as well as the behavioral demands of the job. Ask at least three people on the team to critique your ad and give you honest feedback on whether or not they would apply for the position.
• Facilitate a mock interview with your mentor.
• Volunteer to be on a group interview panel.
• Interview three situational mentors who you feel are really good at holding people accountable for results. Investigate themes and patterns. Discuss insights with your mentor.
• Create a list of developmental activities that will help your employees grow personally and professionally.
• Interview a professional employee relations counselor. Find out what the most compelling issues employees have about their employers.
• Give positive feedback to someone who has the skill but does not have the confidence.

Problem Solver:

• Isolate at least one recurring problem. Take a broad view by looking at several alternative solutions. Explore pluses and minuses with your mentor. Adopt a new approach.
• Shadow a senior executive who is very good a making gut level decisions. Investigate how many times in the past they have had to make a similar decision and whether or not his/her past experience impacted the current gut level decision.
• Explore what time of day your feel the most creative (Morning? Afternoon? Evening?). Spend 15 minutes each day for 21 days "thinking out side the box." Reward yourself for each non-traditional solution you come up with.
• When faced with an obstacle, look for creative ways to turn the obstacle into a solution. Share success stories with your mentor.
• Benchmark an organization that is using a new technology or process to increase its efficiency. Prepare a "white paper" that highlights the pros and cons and present it to your supervisor.

Time Management:

• Discuss the top ten priorities of your team's work with a senior manager.
• Maintain a work journal chronicling deadlines and daily work goals. What are greatest time wasters? When are you the most productive? What do you have control over?
• Interview three key executives who you find are able to balance their time with ease. Discuss their techniques for staying focused and on time.
• Take a look at your office from "fresh" eyes. Is it efficient? Can you find important information? Create a personalized list of ways you can make your office more efficient. Commit to implementing one new idea each month and ask your mentor or supervisor for feedback.
• Ask someone to visit your office and give you constructive feedback on its efficiency.
• Seek feedback from three key stakeholders. On a scale of 1 to 10 how would they rate your ability to prioritize your work effectively? Discuss insights gained with your mentor.
• Investigate the use of automated tools for managing your time and/or complex projects. What would be the advantages or disadvantages of using automation to manage your time better?