Mix IT 2018, REX on mentoring

boxer and his coach who represent mentoring

I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the last edition of the MiXiT. For 2 days, I was able to attend different conferences and workshops on very varied themes but always linked to Agility or IT.

I was particularly interested in a talk on “Mentoring”, presented by Nicolas Savois and Aurélie Ambal. Nicolas, the mentor, is CTO and Aurélie, the mentee, is a young developer. They both worked at Société Générale, and presented us with their feedback on this practice.

Delphine

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Mentoring, a weekly ritual

Mentoring consists of a weekly 30-minute ritual between 2 people: the Mentor and the Mentee.

This “One to One” is an opportunity to determine achievable objectives (SMART) to help progress, for example in mastering a technology.

During the 1st session, the mentor reminds that the mentee is the only actor in his progress. The mentee will define his objectives, via a checklist of closed questions which will be used during subsequent mentoring sessions.

Then, each session proceeds as follows:

  • Global Openness: around a coffee (or not), we get news... Please note that the meeting room is not an obligation. It's up to the pair to find the right place and time.
  • Review of the checklist
  • Definition of small objectives to achieve to advance the previous checklist
  • Open discussion

The “Ups” of progression in mentoring

Mentoring is marked with “Up” to mark progress. For example, the developer teams at Société Générale have established this progression: “Newbie” (3-6 months), “Dev. Junior” (9-11 months), “Senior Dev” (1-2 years), “Dev Archi” (Lifetime). The principle must be adapted and transposed according to the context of each profession and society.

The “Andons”

Historically created by Toyota, the "andon" was an industrial and visual tool which made it possible to reveal at a glance that a workstation was encountering an anomaly in order to resolve the incident within a very short time frame.

In mentoring, the mentee goes to see his mentor to alert him as soon as he finds himself facing a difficulty that does not seem surmountable. (“Help, I’m not going to make it” = “andon”).

For this to work, the mentee must be easily accessible. And let us clarify that the mentor must not go looking for andons. The number of andons is a good indicator of progress. It is easy to guess that there will be many of them at the beginning (several per day) and then will decrease as the mentee’s skills increase. The mentor can record them in a follow-up document so that they can come back to them during weekly rituals.

Is Mentoring management?

Mentoring is not management, and that is why the mentor should not be the manager. The mentor is one of the mentee's peers who will help him progress in his profession or technology. He can follow up on several mentees, and moreover, a mentee can also be the mentor of another person depending on his “Up”.

It is preferable that the pair does not work on the same projects in order to maintain an outside point of view. On the other hand, the mentor can question the team on one of the points of the checklist in order to validate an objective (for example “Would you say that my mentee is proficient in technology?”). This exchange with the team can also raise new avenues for progression.

The Mentor/Mentee pair can work for several months or years, and it is up to each person to say when the mentoring is not working or no longer working in order to change pairs. A change can allow the resumption of an upward progression curve. Mentoring is a network of skills transfers, applicable in any company and for all professions.

And are you convinced?

Marine

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