As the work environment becomes more on demand, the workforce must make sense of the complex and changing context that surrounds them. How do they make good judgments and sound decisions in these fast-paced times?
One way is situational mentoring — quick-hitting, short-term collaborative learning relationships that stimulate creative solutions.
As with traditional mentoring, learners in situational mentoring engage advisers and experts for information, advice and feedback. Unlike traditional mentoring, learners in situational relationships look for collaborators who can give them specific advice on a single, targeted issue that requires a quick resolution. These compact microlearning engagements are fast to set up and fast to shut down.
Using an online process to streamline these learning encounters, the person looking for help — the learner — would follow these simple steps:
1. Identify a situation, decision or dilemma where informational or creative input from others is needed.
2. Clarify the problem by identifying the core issues, context and type of help needed from potential advisers.
3. Search a database of potential advisers and find those with domain expertise and experience who have volunteered to help on these kinds of short-term, focused projects.
4. Invite collaborative advisers — usually one to three — to discuss the situation and work out a quick project plan to explore the solution needed. Learners also can post the situation for others to find and assist with based on their own interests.
5. Establish a mutually agreeable project plan with the collaborators and meet virtually, face to face or both to accomplish the goals.
6. Post discoveries in a shared online location when finished so others can learn from this experience and the collective knowledge that emerged.
Three core principles impact success in the design of effective, short-term learning engagements:
1. Focus on the people. Because tacit knowledge is the judgment and wisdom gained through experience — best learned in a relational context — that means it will not be gained by searching databases. Instead, tacit knowledge requires interaction. These relational connections provide the atmosphere for dialogue, critical for understanding the situation and testing ideas in the context of the job. This builds commitment from all parties involved for finding solutions to these short-term learning projects.
2. Create a clear context. For actionable results to occur, both learners and advisers must have a clear understanding of the situation within the actual context. This begins with the learners completing pre-work before they post their situation or search for advisers.
Using principles of action inquiry, the process guides learners through creating statements that have enough information for potential advisers to make a quick judgment as to their desire or ability to help. This also serves as a good starting point for the initial meeting between the collaborators to decide on the project plan and timeline. The action plan must include three parts: understanding the context, gathering additional information and selecting and testing solutions, if needed.
3. Leverage the technology. In addressing skill gaps, Galagan wrote that 27 percent of today’s workforce has grown up as the Net Generation. These workers have “advanced skills in three areas that are revolutionizing work — digital technology, interactive media and collaboration.” They intuitively use technology to accomplish their work, often without consciously thinking about it. They find information and answers quickly with a Google search, a Facebook post or a tweet. This generation is poised to make headway with microlearning and situational mentoring, in large part because they use technology to find information, but also for collaborative learning. Many intuitively know that creativity and innovation occur when people, often from different disciplines, come at issues from multiple perspectives.
The quick, self-directed nature of these learning collaborations creates an environment conducive to freely expressing options and testing ideas without pretense or judgments — microlearning at its finest.
