Of Fortune 500 companies, 71% have mentoring programs, so it is clear that many organizations see mentoring as a key developmental offering. According to research by Professor David Clutterbuck, “Mentoring’s impact on retention is consistent internationally. One of the most significant ways well-constructed mentoring programs pay for themselves is by increasing the chances people will stay—by at least a third on average.”

But how effective are these programs? The difference between a good and a great program all comes down to program design.

“When effectively designed and managed, formal mentoring makes a positive impact on organizations, women and men, and mentors and mentees. Research shows that well-designed and well-executed programs are well worth the investment” Catalyst

We recently caught up with Jo Gray, Principal Consultant at Clutterbuck Associates, a Division of GP Strategies Ltd., for a 20-minute webinar on Discovering the Why and How of Mentoring.

Sharing insights from her experience, Jo focused on the following questions:

• Why do organizations set up mentoring programs?
• What are the key ingredients of a great mentoring program?
• How can organizations enhance an existing mentoring program?
• What can get in the way of success?
• Why is mentoring still as important as ever?

You can download the full webinar session here. But if you’re looking for the abbreviated version, Jo has offered a quick look at some of the key takeaways from the webinar:

1. Be clear about why you want to implement a program.
2. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
3. If your current program hasn’t been as successful as anticipated, a number of small fixes can be implemented that will have maximum impact.
4. Remember—creating human connections at work has never been more important; mentoring is a great vehicle to bring people together and offer development.

During the session, a number of questions came up, and while we were able to address most of them, we weren’t able to get to all of them due to time. Below are those questions and our best answers. This is an ongoing conversation, so we encourage you to keep the questions coming in via the comments section at the bottom of this page.

Q: Should mentees have a say in who their mentors are?

A: Best practice says yes. You will get a much greater commitment from mentees if they have had a say in who their mentors are. Having said that, it can be a very time-consuming process to do this, and you will need a pool of mentors to allow the element of choice. If you’re running a small program with 12 mentor-mentee pairs, sometimes you have no choice but to pair people up based on who you think will work best together.

Q: How important do you think it is to provide a choice of mentor to participants?

A: As stated above, it does add value and if you have the scope of resources to do it, then it’s great to offer this. However, you do have to watch out for giving a totally free choice. Mentees need guidance in making the right choice. You will often find that there are two or three popular mentors, mainly because people are already aware of them as strong people in the business. Sometimes mentees will choose the most senior people, thinking that this is a way to advance their careers (seeing the mentoring as a sponsorship opportunity), or mentees may pick someone who is doing the job they’d like to do in the future. In mentoring, it is arguable that sometimes it is more effective to work with someone who is very different from you, rather than the same. The different perspective you are offered can be even more beneficial.

Q: Are there any good resources on training mentors and mentees?

A: I’m not aware of much material on how to train people to mentor. If you’re setting up a program, the seminal book on the topic is still Professor David Clutterbuck’s Everyone Needs a Mentor—the book does touch on the topic. There are some key elements you’d always want to include, but great mentoring training is about having a facilitator who can share real experiences and help people practice and develop the core skills, including giving them feedback on practice.

Q: Is there a difference between mentoring and coaching, and if so, what is it?

A: There are whole chapters in books on this. But I will venture my opinion here, which is that they are more similar than they are different. I believe that a mentor and a coach use the same skills—listening, questioning, offering feedback, and helping people to find their own solutions. Mentoring and coaching use a lot of the same models and approaches. I think the difference is more in the application: Coaching tends to be shorter term and performance focused, and mentoring tends to be longer term and more career and future focused. However, there are exceptions to all these!

Q: Who should serve as mentors? What factors should play into mentor selection?

A: Mentors are often role models for mentees, so they should be your best people! However, it will depend on the purpose of your program and the needs of your mentees. Graduates probably need to be paired with people who aren’t more than five to six years ahead in their career; those in leadership programs would need to work with leaders.

Q: For mentors in sales, what are your thoughts on having that person be a more experienced teammate (same manager) or someone from another team?

A: I think for it to be a true mentoring relationship, your mentor has to be out of the performance line, that is, not your manager or anyone too close. Mentoring works best when it is a confidential and safe space to share and learn. Regardless of how great your manager or teammate is, you would never be 100% safe to say anything as they will have a say in managing you and your performance. However, that’s not to say that great managers don’t use their mentoring skills to work with their team. They do. In fact, it’s something many mentors report on taking away from mentoring—that they go back and work differently with their team, that is, they listen and question more than they tell.

Q: What if, instead of having a mentoring program, mentoring as a behavior is part of every supervisor/manager’s role? Have you seen this work/not work?

A: Brilliant! This is what great organizations are always looking to achieve—a coaching and mentoring culture. Where everyone understands what a good conversation looks like and regularly employs this approach with peers, managers, direct reports, and clients. I think it takes a high level of organizational maturity and many years of embedding coaching and mentoring behaviors.

Q: In terms of evaluating the program, when is the best time to request feedback from mentees—three or four months after completing the program?

A: I guess evaluation and feedback are two different things. I think you plan your evaluation as you define your purpose. So ideally you will be clear on the measures you are using; it’s great if you can have a mix of quantitative and qualitative. Evaluating on those is good at the mid and end of the program, and you may even want to set a benchmark at the beginning if it is relevant to your measures. I think feedback should be happening all the time! It’s important to do an early, light touch check-in to make sure pairs have actually met and are happy with their match.

Q: How do you recommend recruiting mentors for the program?

A: Set expectations early! Be clear about the skills people need and the commitment you expect from them, and provide a rough guide to the process. The more people know up front, the easier it is for them to self-select. You may well identify a certain group that you need as you’re wanting them to support specific mentee needs, so maybe this will require people to be at a certain grade/level or they do work in specific areas of the business. Make sure you invite people to take part voluntarily, and if that doesn’t bring in enough people, then directly approaching people in your network can help. If this is a new program, ideally you want the best people involved so that you start in a good place.

Q: What are the main soft skills mentors should have?

A: I recently wrote a blog on LinkedIn called “What Makes a Great Mentor?”—this might help.

Q: Our challenge is when we hire well-seasoned salespeople who feel they do not need mentoring as new employees. How do you “sell” a program to potential mentees?

A: It’s really about enabling people to see the huge potential of mentoring. I think some people misunderstand and think this is about training or some kind of support as you might be struggling. But it is so much more. Sometimes offering lunch and learn-type sessions to explore this or having people who can share successful mentoring stories is great. Ultimately, if you can’t convince someone, then you’re probably better off not having them involved as they won’t be committed and will use up the valuable time of a great mentor who could be helping someone else.

Q: Should an employee’s dedication to participation be part of their review? That is, if someone agrees to mentor a new employee but drops the ball, should it be reflected in their merit review?

A: I think this is a great idea, and those mature organizations I mentioned earlier that have a well-established mentoring and coaching culture will definitely recognize these skills and commitments as part of their performance review systems. It would be an expectation of people who took on this type of activity.

Q: Is there a technology you recommend to help support the mentoring program?

A: If you’re looking for a great tool to support your mentoring, check out CRB Hub. This is a system I’ve seen in action, and it’s great and can be totally customized to fit your needs.

Recent news that Accenture was doing away with the traditional “rank-and-rate” approach to performance management made headlines in the Financial Times with the article “Common sense frees staff from appraisals.” In The Washington Post article “In big move, Accenture will get rid of annual performance reviews and rankings,” Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme describes the change as a “massive revolution.”

It will be a “big move”—changing a process that involves 330,000 people is bold and intimidating. And there is no question that changing your approach to performance management means reevaluating the culture you aspire to build.

But it’s hardly unique. Many large organizations are embarking on this journey, and the path Accenture is going to tread is already well beaten. Microsoft, Medtronic, Gap, Juniper Networks, and Kelly Services have all abandoned the old-school approach in favor of a more collaborative focus on coaching. A seminal moment in this trend was a slight foot-in-mouth moment in 2012 when Adobe’s SVP Donna Morris, jet lagged after a long flight to India, told the HR press that the software firm was going to abolish the practice—forcing the hand of the company to move on the plan. With over 12,000 employees, this was also a big move.

We are working with dozens of organizations to answer a key question: If we do away with performance evaluations, what do we replace them with? We have captured best practices in a recent research report published by our BlessingWhite division. We have also shared the specific story of Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Pasadena, CA, where tremendous improvements resulted from this change.

Borrowing insights from Geoffrey A. Moore, the innovators have already shown the way. We are now experiencing a wave of “early adopters” who are seeing the real value of scrapping forms and ratings in favor of coaching and effective leadership. No doubt this will lead to an “early majority” of companies, large and small, who are finally letting go of this industrial-era management approach. Will you be there with them or part of the laggards?

Do you remember when companies had telex machines? When you had to print out black and white charts and tables on acetate to stick on an overhead projector? Yeah, back in the days when business suits had flared trousers and all telephones were wired to the wall?

The corporate world has come a long way since then. But one vestige of yesteryear still clings on: the old-school performance management process. You know the one—where each manager gets to sit down, one by one, with his or her direct reports and hand them a grade-card for the year. Jane scored four out of five, but Bob scored a two. “We are really going to have to do something about Bob this year,” thinks the manager…

This approach to managing the performance of a team is widely disliked. Team members don’t find it useful in getting coaching to improve performance; managers find the process bureaucratic and counter to the kind of teams they are trying to build. So the organization as a whole must be getting something out of this, surely? Apparently not—most executives have no faith the approach is having a positive impact, and the HR or organizational development team is trying to make important decisions around talent based on fundamentally flawed data.

By and large, companies around the world agree it’s time the old performance management process went the way of the fax, the floppy disk and the Tippex.

But hold on a minute. Performance still needs to be managed, right? We still need to set goals and then evaluate performance towards those goals, providing course correction where needed. So if we throw out the old forms and the ranking, what will take its place?

Luckily a growing number of pioneering companies are leading the way, trying out new approaches and models that are a better fit for today’s nimble, social work environments. At the heart of these approaches is a growth mindset—the assumption that every employee has untapped potential—along with greater coaching by managers via more frequent interactions and ongoing feedback.

Organizations that have taken this approach have experienced better teamwork, higher engagement and participation, less turnover and a tremendous reduction in “busy work”—all that administration that added so little value. Managers who provide feedback throughout the year increase the sense of fairness and ensure employees feel included in the work.

BlessingWhite, a division of GP Strategies that focuses on leadership development and employee engagement, has been working with many of these pioneering organizations to define the new approach and equip managers, individuals and coaches with the right skills and perspectives to make this change happen. We are pleased to share our research and recommendations to those organizations looking to make this journey in the recently published Performance Management: Assess or Unleash report.

You can download a copy of the report at http://blessingwhite.com/research-report/performance-management-research-report-2015/ and you can join report authors Fraser Marlow and Kristen Bakalar as they provide an overview of the report during a webinar on June 24^th at noon EST.

A 3D animation has many factors that can alter its complexity. In this blog post, we will take a behind-the-scenes look at how 3D animation is created, including: creation of the environment, application of textures, creation of the object, application of textures to the object, animation and rendering.

Creation of the Environment

The first step in 3D animation is to create the environment. To create an environment, create your objects using basic shapes assembled together. In the example shown below, you can see that steel coils, a stop sign, and pipes and other parts of the infastructure were added to the environment that will be needed during the final animation. This process can take up to a week to produce depending on the complexity.

Application of Textures

The next step is to apply the textures. This is where all the objects in the environment begin to take shape. Logos, colors, textures, and writing can be added at this phase, as shown in the graphic below. This typically takes 1–2 days to produce.

Creation of the Object

Next, the equipment is created in a manner similarly to the way the environment was created, as shown in the graphic below. This also can take a week to produce depending on the complexity.

Application of Textures to the Object

Next, the textures are applied to the object, in this case the forklift as shown below. This is where the writing and additional textures and colors can be added. This typically takes 1–2 days to produce.

Animation

The next phase of the process is animation. Animation is where you create the movement in the graphic by changing what is happening on the screen in small increments. Across the bottom of the screen you can see a timeline. The animator specifies what the screen will look like at each of those points, and the software fills in the small gaps.

Rendering

The final step in the process is rendering. This is when the computer takes control and creates the animation in still frames. GP Strategies has a render farm, a group of interconnected computers that are dedicated to rendering, that operates 24 hours a day/7 days a week to complete animation tasks. Once the computer is finished, the still images are assembled into the video file and implemented in the module. This can take anywhere from a few hours to several days depending on the complexity and size of the animation. The graphic below shows rendering in process.

And the final result is a video file ready to be embedded in your next eLearning module. A huge thank you to our Digital Creative Lead, Adam Roman, for the behind-the-scenes tour. For more information on creating eLearning modules with 3D animation, please review the recorded webinar Designing SAFE Instruction: The Use of 3D Animation for Safety Training or contact Sheri Weppel to continue the conversation.

Rapid development of training collateral always has its challenges including the fast pace and compressed timelines; however, developing training in a fluid environment, one subject to constant change, poses unique and sometimes frustrating challenges for instructional designers.

Software systems, while under development, are constantly in flux, much like the ocean tides; there seem to be no distinct beginnings and endings, with revisions scattered like seashells, washed away by the whims of the tide. Software developers are intrinsically okay with this and have a level of comfort with imperfection and incompleteness. They put together a basic package; throw it out there, and then revise the heck out of it as needed, throwing in patches and updates.

For instructional designers trying to keep up with these fluid changes and take training development to completion, the following offers some insights to provide a better understanding of the process and of the challenges encountered and strategies to overcome them.

Communication on a large scale is often difficult and sometimes takes longer than usual to filter down to the designer level. This means as designers, we have to sift through large volumes of emails to scan for nuggets of information and have to keep our ears open for conversations that may have an impact on the work.

Constant version changes also pose a challenge to the design process. Screens change color, buttons move, menu paths change, and system refreshes make data disappear. To cope with this situation, we must be flexible and willing to accept that each new version of the software may have small or significant changes included and plan to deal with them as they come.

Milestones that are moving targets increase the challenge factor as well. For instructional designers to succeed in this environment, we need to stay aware and in front of any impacts and then quickly decide which may require revisions, reviewing and reassessing planned activities frequently.

The fluid environment is fraught with challenges for designers, but it is also an opportunity to grow and change with the rapid pace of development to become more flexible and responsive instructional designers.

As learning and development professionals, we know the value of locating resources, sharing ideas, and learning from best practices from the experts in the field, so why then do we seem to underestimate or ignore the value of our own, hard-earned knowledge and insight? Our experience and expertise are unique assets we can share in the workplace. They are a professional advantage that we can leverage within the organization to mentor colleagues and use to gain new clients.

The expectation that all learning and development professionals should be comfortable sharing can be intimidating; knowing how to share the insight appropriately and usefully can be misleading. We often have more opportunity to share because of the nature of our work but may feel unprepared or aren’t sure how to distill, organize, and communicate what we know and have learned from a project. By organizing the information into digestible chunks, the material becomes useful and shareable.

Why share?

Sharing what we know and what we’ve learned allows us to embed and process our past experiences. Both good and bad endeavors can offer a wealth of information, but sometimes it takes reliving it from another angle to realize lessons learned. Sharing these situations can help others gain a fresh perspective and avoid pitfalls.

What are some methods to use for sharing?

Write about it. Write clearly, concisely, and professionally about your experiences in professional journals, blogs, and social media.

Speak about it. Use any and all opportunities to share specific examples from past projects via webinars or face-to-face engagements.

Mentor about it. Assist colleagues and staff to understand your experiences by sharing and being open to learning from those you share with. Once you have shared your information, have a discussion to capture additional ideas. This type of collaboration not only helps capture essential organizational knowledge, it also keeps this intrinsic knowledge from disappearing when you leave an organization.

Chrissy Scivicque, in her blog post 5 Ways to Share Your Professional Expertise and 4 Reasons You Should, writes about the virtues of sharing best practices: “…your expertise is a powerful gift that deserves to be shared. It’s yours, yes; you earned it. But why keep all that wisdom to yourself? Why not send it out into the world to be free and lift others to new heights as well?”

Sharing your expertise, whatever the form it takes, lends professional credibility and spreads knowledge throughout the field. Leveraging knowledge can also become a part of career development strategy. It can also become another organizational asset—a way to develop and manage intrinsic organizational knowledge assets.

A recent study published by EY  looked at the perceived strengths and weaknesses of Gen Y/Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers, the research opens up the discussion on managing a multi-generational workforce and the emergence of Gen Y/Millennials as managers. The study included more than 1,200 US, cross-company professionals with evenly split responses from managers and non-managers in three select generations: Gen Y/Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers.

At a minimum, the findings from this study continue the valuable dialogue into how to engage employees across generations. One of the findings of interest to me was the perception of Gen Y/Millennials in terms of collaborative team members and of them as managers.

A small selection of the perceptions of Gen Y as peers:

• Scored high marks for being “enthusiastic” (68%)
• Had lower scores for being perceived as a “team player” Gen Y(45%) compared to Gen X(65%)
• Perceived as “difficult to work” with (36%) compared to Gen X (16%)
• Every generation view their own generation as entitled, including Gen Y(60%), Gen X (49%) and baby boomers (27%).
• Outscored baby boomers for being the “best” at “collaboration” (27% vs. 20%), “adaptability” (41% vs. 10%) and being “entrepreneurial” (29% vs. 15%).

A small selection of the perceptions of Gen Y as managers:

•  (69%) just surpassed Gen X (68%) managers in displaying “diversity” managerial skills, or the ability to build culturally competent teams and to not discriminate based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, etc.
• Earned the fewest mentions for being the “best” at displaying eight out of 11 management skills,
• They outpaced boomer managers (33% vs. 16%) in their ability to be the best “inclusive” leaders, or involving a diverse set of people in providing opportunities, developing strategies and making decisions.

In developing leaders, GP Strategies appreciates that there is a conundrum: effective leaders need to be aware of how they are perceived by others, yet the foundations of effective leadership transcend labels.  As with the debate over female leaders (as discussed in this month’s eNews from GP Strategies division Blessingwhite), young leaders need to identify what makes them unique, compelling leaders to those they aspire to follow.

As our own research indicates individual engagement increases as we build confidence in our skills and as we develop a stronger sense of how to contribute to the organizations goals (see 2013 Employee Engagement research – http://www.blessingwhite.com/EE2013 )  But the engagement levels and the leadership competence of millennials can be greatly increased with the deliberate support from the organization.

When engaging Gen Y/Millennials in your workforce, think about the following:

• How can you nurture more agile Gen Y characteristics like adaptability and entrepreneurial, while managing the downsides of being perceived as difficult to work with?
• How can you maintain diverse managerial skills, while building upon their managerial tool kit?
• How to provide multiple development opportunities for millennials to engage with the organization and develop leadership skills through on-the-job challenges?
• Ensure millennial leaders have mentors and managerial support to help them develop self-awareness and provide guidance along the way.

Share your thoughts in the comments section below and watch a 20-minute archived webinar to hear insights from the perspective of a Gen Yer.

Past studies have estimated that Millennials will make up one-half of the US workforce by the year 2020. However, new information suggests that Millennials will now make up 75% of the workforce by 2025. Why does this matter? A recent Forbes article by Josh Bersin indicates that Millennials have the opportunity and desire to take on leadership positions, but they don’t feel ready for it. This is a problem. As a business leader tasked with paving the way for the future success of your organization, it’s your job to address this!

The good news is I’ve developed 10 tips/areas to help you get started now:

1. Support Mentoring/Coaching – Mentoring and reverse mentoring make up a key element to any Millennial Talent Management program. I’m shocked at how many organizations completely ignore the value of mentoring and executive coaching altogether. This is an easy one to implement and carries minimal costs. Just do it! The most self-aware Millennials will actually seek outside mentoring to ensure support in this area if it’s not offered within the organization.
2. Implement Technology & Social Media – This is part of the Millennial Talent Management program previously discussed. As a business leader, if you don’t play a role in implementing these fundamentals now, you’ll risk losing key talent and eventually be forced to adopt and fall into the late majority and laggards categories while Millennials run all over you (technologically speaking).
3. Understand Project vs. Career Differences – Are you a business leader that suggests a new project every time a Millennial asks you about the next step in their career path? If so, stop it. There’s a big difference. Career path changes usually come with more responsibility, additional functional work assignments and the chance to work with more team members. Additional projects are usually just more of the same work.
4. Ensure Quality of Life – There’s been a lot of research conducted on how important quality of life is to this generation as perceived to other generations. No doubt, that’s certainly true. However, I firmly believe that Millennials are the best at maximizing consumption and maximizing quality of life. Embrace this as a business leader, but make sure consumption/production goals are always met.
5. Be Authentic – Millennials are interested in authenticity, open collaboration and constant feedback (yes, even negative feedback). They are not interested in business leaders posturing, behaving unethically or communicating ineffectively because of office politics. Be careful here. You will lose credibility very quickly if you’re not authentic.
6. Invest in Them – Give them opportunities to advance within the organization. Millennials have no issues making their career growth expectations clear. It’s your job to provide a leadership development plan to get them there. Fully understand #3 before you develop a plan for this one.
7. Accept That Millennials Often Have Diverse Job Experience Over Short Amounts of Time – I remember when I entered the workforce over 15 years ago, it was frowned upon for an individual to have “jumped around” to multiple jobs in a short period of time. The perception was always “Can we count on this person long term?” This is no longer the case, and hiring managers and business leaders alike need to accept this if they’re looking at attracting top millennial talent.
8. Provide Opportunities for Rapid Career Growth – Millennials expect they’ll have to work hard, but they also expect rapid career growth. Possibly more importantly, they expect to be put in a position to succeed at their work assignments so that their skills are widely recognized and rewarded. Rewards may not be in the form of a traditional promotion but a new, unique and exciting work assignment in a completely unrelated area of the organization.
9. Provide Fair Performance-Based Appraisals – Taken from the Bersin article reference above, I believe this is spot on. How many times have you seen a performance-based appraisal for a HiPo (high potential) Millennial rated just “average” or “meets all criteria” when it’s clear they’re a top performer in the organization? On the other side, what about tenured employees that seemingly have no perceived positive impact to the organization or no direct accountability for results, yet are continually rated just as well because of their length of experience?
10. Don’t Treat Them All the Same – Older Millennials are more like Gen X: Not all Millennials are created equal, and as a business leader it’s important to understand that you may need to tailor your leadership approach accordingly. For example, older Millennials may care more about career progression, whereas younger Millennials desire more interesting and varied career paths.

There are obviously more than 10 tips to effectively develop millennial talent. To effectively lead Millennials to become successful business leaders, you need to ask, “What matters to you and why?”

Interested to see how Millennial you are? For fun, I decided to take the Pew Research Center’s Millennial Quiz and my Millennial score was 69: exactly where I expected to be, as an older Millennial.