In this entry, I will cover another innovative feature of Open Mentoring that allows organizations to effectively implement the broad concepts of modern mentoring.  In previous entries we looked at Seeded Engagements and Engagement Templates.  This time around, we will discuss Facilitator Matching.   While previous versions of Open Mentoring allowed program administrators to make ...

In a previous entry, I discussed one of the emerging practices within modern mentoring that is supported by our software: Seeded Engagements.  In this entry, I am going to cover another: Engagement Templates.   Upon seeing how successful seeded engagements were proving to be for a number of our clients, several months ago we enhanced Open Mentoring with the addition of Engagement Templ...

We have been speaking to the market for a while now about the concept of modern mentoring and how it is substantially different from the traditional one-to-one programs that organizations have been running for several years.  The idea of modern mentoring goes well beyond the goal of simply involving larger numbers of participants; it is also about how organizations are leveraging innovative w...

Clive Thompson from Wired recently dove into the significance of introverts in his article “Clive Thompson on the Power of Introversion” (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/03/st_thompson_introvert/).  Thompson explains that introverts get an unfortunate “bad rap” in American culture because we’ve embraced extroversion as a key to climbing the corporate ladder. He says “Your achievement – and...

Chief Learning Officer magazine recently highlighted a Korn/Ferry Institute survey that revealed that a staggering 75 percent of corporate executives question whether their senior executive teams are capable of generating growth for their respective companies (http://clomedia.com/articles/view/survey-firms-concerned-senior-execs-have-skills-to-generate-growth). The survey findings indicate that 52...

Michael Echols lays out an interesting argument in his March 2012 CLO article “It’s Time for Companies to Educate.” (http://clomedia.com/articles/view/it-s-time-for-companies-to-educate) He says that: “Good education helps learners learn how to push the boundaries, reconfigure the intellectual architecture of a problem and think critically.”  He then stresses that this type of education needs...

It seems everyone is talking about mentoring these days, but we don’t all seem to be using the same language.  While some people still talk about mentoring as a one-to-one relationship that lasts a lifetime, I think mentoring can be so much more. A March 2012 Forbes article by Glenn Llopis called, “5 Ways to Find Mentors and Make It Matter” (http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/03/...

We’re tired.  All of us.  All the way, bone-deep tired.  We’ve worked hard, really hard, these past few years.  We’ve done more with less, we’ve seen co-workers get shuffled out the door, we’ve seen our 401Ks plummet, we’ve had our houses foreclosed upon, and we’re tired.  Really tired.  Did I mention that?   The stress of the recession has taken its toll, ...

A few months ago, I posted a blog entry entitled, “Well, Duh.”  Three months later, I still find myself having the “well, duh” reaction from time to time as organizations and media seem to be catching up with their understanding around what employees need as it relates to professional development in today’s workplace.    The most recent example comes from the Globe and Mail: http...

From time to time, we field questions regarding how matches should be made in today’s approach to enterprise mentoring.  Due to that fact that many traditional hand matching programs leveraged personality-based systems in an effort to ensure good compatibility, there is still a belief among some that compatibility is a key criteria in the matching process.  While compatibility might not ...