Mentors: Now in New Flavors!
I wonder how many people who are familiar with mentoring in the traditional sense and understand its value, have yet to consider it in its lighter forms. My experience shows me that many people—especially those who feel overwhelmed by “all the information out there”—have yet to figure out how they can benefit from other people’s minds in a way that is lightweight and unobtrusive.
Let’s consider mentoring as being possible along a continuum—from heavyweight to lightweight. Heavy is the one most of us are familiar with. Its coordination costs are high. The mentee must know the right person and be able to schedule the appropriate time and place where they can meet. The mentee often has to agree to the terms put forth by the supervising institution, whether it be a workplace, school, or some other organization. Commitment levels are high for both parties. Violations of agreements (formal and informal) can, and do, result in the relationship dissolving. This type of mentoring can be fragile, complex, and hard to come by.
Lightweight mentoring, on the other hand, uses today’s social media, avoiding many of the difficulties associated with traditional mentoring. While it’s not necessarily better than traditional mentoring, it provides opportunities that many people would otherwise not have. It allows you to connect with a variety of minds and is very dynamic, easily adapting to your changing needs. Let’s look at some possible ways to get involved in lightweight mentoring, both as a mentor and mentee.
First and foremost, it’s crucial to find the right person(s). This is a process. It takes some effort. A good place to start is by finding some blogs in your area of interest. Alltop’s index is good for this. Wefollow is good for finding people on Twitter (enter a tag). Twitter profiles are often linked to blogs. If you’ve read a book that was written recently (as in, the author is still alive) you may want to search for their website (often a blog). There’s a good chance they have one. Once you find a blog or two (or ten) that suit your interests, you will notice that their owners frequently link to other sites of interest (blogroll). They also frequently include links to their social media. These links can be learning gold. What’s interesting to note is that today’s platforms have made sharing easy. The best are “designed for generosity”, in the words of new media black belt Clay Shirky. The transaction cost of making something available to others is so low that doing so makes sense. By sharing, people often learn more, feel good, connect, establish their reputation, and in the end, improve their lot while they help someone else’s.
Let’s take a look at a few real-world examples of how today’s new media can help us engage with other people in simple, yet effective ways.
Sites like Delicious, Twitter, Facebook…can give you access to some of the best minds in your area of interest—people that you otherwise might not have any access to at all. As an example, not too long ago I read Jay Cross’s book Informal Learning. Finding it highly engaging, I decided to follow Jay on twitter and added his sites to my RSS reader. I’ve learned a lot from his book, his sites, his tweets, and have even had some lightweight interactions with him (attended an online class he put up for free; received a blog comment, etc.). Another example of an author I follow is Dan Pink who blogs and tweets regularly. Through telepresence, I was able to attend a live (and free!) interview with Mr. Pink which provided opportunities for listeners to ask questions and converse as a group. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge consultant Steve Hargadon’s contribution to the whole effort. His free, online, interactive interviews have provided deep learning opportunities for thousands of people. Author and blogger Will Richardson is an example of someone who, in an effort to improve education, has made himself generously “followable”. If you were to visit his site you’d see the following links:
Let’s look at some of the items on his list and see how they might be used for lightweight mentoring. I’ll only mention uses that are not obvious to the service. (The best way to learn about these services is to simply start using them. Beware though that much of what goes on in social media is, you guessed it, social. It’s open for others to see—which of course, is the whole point. All the sites in the list above give users a lot of control of how they share their media. Decide what’s right for you.)
Flickr has great groups for sharing and conversing about a variety of subjects—anything people like to take pictures of. LinkedIn, a professional social network, has a huge variety of interest groups. I’m amazed by the quality of information that is “curated” by the people I follow on Twitter. I have some of the smartest people in their fields selecting the best information on the web and passing it on to me, seamlessly, with no bother. On Twitter, another great way to find expertise is to find out who the experts are following. This is easy to do from their Twitter profile. YouTube is not just for videos of water skiing squirrels anymore. There’s a vast repository of instructional material on this site. As a bonus, people who post videos are often willing to answer questions and engage with their viewers. (Here’s a nice example.) Delicious gives you a wonderful peek into an expert’s mind without having to bother them. By sharing their bookmarks (often with the added value of annotations), experts can let you know what they are finding important/useful/relevant.
Be patient with this process. It will take time to find the right experts who are sharing the kind of information that suits you. I can guarantee they are out there—in spades. That’s the beauty of two billion connected minds. Also, don’t forget that the currency of the gift economy is gratitude, goodwill and recognition. Throw it around generously.
