Delivering Mentoring Remotely

Here is a question asked by a webinar participant recently. It was beyond the scope of the webinar on The Role Of The Mentor (you can view the recording here http://mentoring-works.com/webinars.html) so I promised to answer here in the blog.

“My question was around the issue of the capacity to deliver the mentoring process over time 'remotely' ie not face to face (even if some sessions were face to face)...can you reliably deliver the training to a group that may be in different locations simultaneously (much like you are doing in the webinar now) and also for those mentors and mentorees to sustain and support a mentoring process remotely, over a period of say 12 months.”

Martin

Yes Martin, the technology available now makes remote delivery easy, reliable and very cost-effective.  While nothing beats face-to-face, we certainly can do both mentoring and training online and provide ongoing support in a number of ways.

In 2009, I facilitated an e-Mentoring program for ninety participants throughout NSW, some in fairly remote areas. About half of them attended a workshop at the beginning of the program but most never met their partner face-to-face.

The features of the program included:

·      An online community – where they could interact with each other (a bit like a members-only Facebook)

·      Online discussions and Q&A

·      Online audio-visual learning modules, supported by downloadable worksheets

·      Access to ebooks and articles, guides and checklists

·      Teleseminars – now we have webinars and this is a much better option

·      Bi-weekly emails describing what to do next and on the alternate week, an emailed Mentoring Tip

·      Personal support from the program coordinator and myself

I was particularly delighted to see the level of interaction between participants as they started their own discussions online and shared resources and ideas. They “met” people, with whom they had a lot in common, that they would never have met otherwise. It was a real network of support.

This year I’m launching Mentor-the-mentor, a multi-media, interactive remotely delivered program. It will be available very soon but if you want to know more now, give me a call.