In our latest column dedicated to mentoring, we discuss how to set up cross-organisational mentoring
By Lis Merrick
I have been fortunate enough to work on three cross-organisational mentoring programmes in my career, in one of which I am now deeply embroiled. For me, this can be mentoring at its finest, provided you have sufficient coordinator support to manage the different organisational relationships and deal with some of the quite different dilemmas that arise in this sort of learning partnership.
Cross-organisational mentoring is used to describe a programme between a consortium of organisations, which can be in a similar sector or within the supply chain of the lead organisation. My experience has been in the private, public and NGO sectors, but I think the lessons learned have been the same in all of these programmes.
This type of mentoring tends to occur when an organisation cannot find the right type of mentor internally, or has a low supply of mentors in its own organisation so they may look outside for a fresh supply.
Generally, this leads to a number of organisations being approached to see if they are interested in providing mentors and mentees and cross-matching between the consortium members. The mentoring tends to be role model developmental mentoring as opposed to peer mentoring, since accessing senior role models outside your organisation, without having to pay for it, can be an enormous advantage.
What are the benefits?
- Enormous cross-fertilisation of mentoring knowledge and expertise between a number of organisations, including evaluation feedback and lessons learned. This experience will often spearhead more mentoring in the organisation. It is a fantastic chance to develop coordinator experience in each member organisation.
- Provision of better quality mentoring briefing or training, matching, support, supervision and evaluation than some of the consortium members could organise themselves.
- More openness between mentor and mentee in the relationship, less concern about confidentiality and a perceived safer space for the mentee to discuss their issues.
- A really fresh perspective for the mentee on strategic and political issues in their own organisation from someone who is not embroiled in these aspects internally. It can really challenge ‘groupthink’ perspective, which can be an issue in purely internal programmes.
…And what are the challenges?
- The biggest fear is often that mentors will poach the mentee into their own organisation and that it exposes organisational talent to someone in the same market, but an open discussion with all participants can allay this concern.
- The amount of work involved, in both selling the benefits and organising the consortium, can be a nightmare when you have a number of members involved. Appoint an assertive lead coordinator to project manage at the outset.
Cross-organisational mentoring is not for the faint-hearted, but the energy and enthusiasm around mentoring that it can generate is amazing and in my experience it sows good practice and an appetite for mentoring in organisations that can develop and endure for years to come.
Next issue: how mentoring can develop leadership traits as a byproduct of the mentoring experience
Lis Merrick is a consultant and visiting fellow of the Coaching and Mentoring Research Unit at Sheffield Business School. She welcomes correspondence on anything to do with mentoring.
Contact: Lismerrick@coach mentoring.co.uk