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Mentoring Master Class: Peer Mentoring Groups

Part 1: What is a Peer Mentoring Group?

00:00:00:16 Welcome everyone, I'm very delighted to be here today,
00:00:03:05 kicking off the first iBiology Mentoring Masterclass.
00:00:11:04 I'm gonna talk today about one of my very favorite subtopics
00:00:14:15 of mentoring which is peer mentoring groups.
00:00:17:00 This is the first of a three part series.
00:00:19:25 The first part is going to be
00:00:21:10 about what is a peer mentoring group
00:00:23:09 and a little bit about why mentoring is fantastic
00:00:26:11 even if you don't think that yet.
00:00:28:19 The second part will be more about the logistics
00:00:30:27 of forming an actual peer mentoring group,
00:00:33:00 and finally some mentoring general best practices
00:00:35:23 that will help you
00:00:36:18 in all of your mentoring relationships,
00:00:38:09 groups or one-on-one mentoring.
00:00:43:13 What is mentoring?
00:00:44:24 Really people think about this
00:00:46:05 as some sort of loaded relationship,
00:00:49:12 comes from Greek mythology, a lifelong teacher.
00:00:52:19 In fact, I saw a Nobel Prize winner say
00:00:54:27 that a mentor was always someone
00:00:56:11 who was in your life forever.
00:00:58:10 (thunder rumbling) Forever
00:01:01:06 And that's just really not the case.
00:01:03:12 You can have a mentor for a minute.
00:01:04:23 You can have a mentor for a week
00:01:06:04 and you can have a mentor for a really long time,
00:01:08:15 but it's not even always a formal relationship.
00:01:11:01 Anyone who's teaching you
00:01:12:28 perhaps a long-term technical skill or shares advice
00:01:16:07 or even inspires you could be a mentor.
00:01:18:14 Mentors are not there to solve specific problems.
00:01:21:24 They're really there to help ask questions
00:01:23:16 and to help you work through making difficult decisions.
00:01:27:09 It doesn't have to be something big and loaded
00:01:29:10 and mentors may come in and out of your life.
00:01:31:17 And you may be lucky enough to find a mentor
00:01:33:24 that does stay with you for a long time
00:01:36:10 and serves as a mentor.
00:01:37:13 And that's great.
00:01:38:16 That should happen naturally though.
00:01:39:29 It's not the kind of thing
00:01:41:01 that you should expect or push for
00:01:43:22 if it doesn't come naturally.
00:01:45:20 So, mentoring really solves the purpose
00:01:48:20 of helping you navigate change.
00:01:50:24 And we have so much change in our lives.
00:01:53:02 If you look at your career path,
00:01:54:14 every time you make a transition,
00:01:56:01 every time you're promoted,
00:01:57:13 every time you wanna be promoted,
00:01:59:10 every time your life situation changes,
00:02:01:15 maybe you have to change your geography.
00:02:04:00 All those changes are really stressful.
00:02:06:26 And so mentors really help you work through that stress,
00:02:10:13 think about the choices that you make,
00:02:12:25 not that any choices necessarily right or wrong,
00:02:15:14 but maybe make the right choice at the time
00:02:18:04 and help you work through all those different changes.
00:02:20:27 So the more mentors you have in your life, the better,
00:02:24:00 because change is gonna happen
00:02:26:11 and different types of change
00:02:27:17 will need different types of support.
00:02:32:15 Organizations that have a lot of mentoring and teaching
00:02:35:07 also really benefit from it.
00:02:36:26 And I mentioned this because I'd like you
00:02:38:15 to think about your own organization
00:02:40:15 and perhaps how you can bring more of a mentoring culture
00:02:43:28 to your group, your department, your lab,
00:02:47:01 wherever it is that you are working.
00:02:49:24 One thing that's really been shown
00:02:51:10 is that mentoring cultures improve communication.
00:02:54:06 Communication is so hard.
00:02:55:25 When people have a culture of mentoring,
00:02:57:25 that is people are mentoring one another,
00:02:59:29 formally and informally, communication is just better.
00:03:04:04 People are learning and sharing and teaching
00:03:06:23 in a just more lifely, more beneficial fashion.
00:03:10:22 And so communication is the number one problem
00:03:13:22 as companies grow, as organizations grow, even among labs,
00:03:18:02 almost every thing that goes wrong
00:03:20:14 at my job has to do with a miscommunication every time.
00:03:23:23 So strengthening mentoring ties,
00:03:25:19 having everybody teaching all the time
00:03:27:18 is gonna make communication better across the board.
00:03:31:11 In addition, people like to learn and grow,
00:03:34:00 scientists by their very nature in particular,
00:03:36:09 that's kind of my definition of a scientist,
00:03:38:11 it's people who are learning stuff all the time.
00:03:40:10 That's what we learn how to do.
00:03:41:20 We learn how to learn stuff.
00:03:43:11 And so when we're learning and we're changing and growing,
00:03:46:01 that's when we're happy.
00:03:47:17 And mentoring cultures are always
00:03:49:21 about learning and changing and growing and developing.
00:03:52:29 And so if you wanna be in an organization
00:03:55:08 that really retains its employees
00:03:57:03 and that has great innovation and productivity,
00:04:00:17 look for cultures where mentoring is strong,
00:04:02:21 where people are teaching one another
00:04:04:14 and there are many mentoring relationships.
00:04:06:25 And finally, this talk is not about diversity,
00:04:09:26 but anyone who's ever seen me speak
00:04:11:12 knows that that's another topic
00:04:12:22 that's very important to me.
00:04:14:07 And the reason I got started working on mentoring programs
00:04:17:16 way back when with the MASS Association for Women in Science
00:04:21:04 is that mentoring was shown to be the one thing
00:04:24:12 that could actually move the needle for inclusion,
00:04:27:03 that having strong mentoring networks
00:04:29:00 within an organization helped underrepresented groups
$VertAlign
00:04:32:04 and women move more smoothly
00:04:34:11 into leadership roles and advance in their careers.
$VertAlign
00:04:37:01 So there aren't that many tactics
00:04:38:29 that actually do increase inclusion.
00:04:41:09 So this is a really important one to look for
00:04:43:24 in your organization and in the organizations
00:04:46:02 that you choose.
00:04:47:23 So, as I mentioned, you don't just have one mentor.
00:04:51:18 When I was applying for my job at Addgene,
00:04:53:20 I had to review the balance sheet
00:04:55:15 with the founding CFO of the company.
00:04:58:04 And I had never looked at a balance sheet in my life.
00:05:01:10 And I called out to all of my mentors in particular,
00:05:04:18 my fantastic sister-in-law who sat me down
00:05:07:16 and walked me through that thing line by line
00:05:10:02 and made sure that I understood what every line meant.
00:05:12:27 That was an important mentoring experience in my life.
00:05:16:05 And she is just one of the many mentors
00:05:18:08 that I call on when I need to learn something new
00:05:21:02 or perhaps even just need a pep talk.
00:05:23:27 Mentors also serve as cheerleaders
00:05:26:00 and they can help you get through a really rough time.
00:05:29:07 So you are forming your posse now.
00:05:31:18 And one of the great reasons to think about peer mentors
00:05:34:10 is that these people can be your mentors
00:05:36:29 for a long time and they know you well
00:05:39:15 and they're going to be able to provide
00:05:41:09 really good mentoring for you as you go
00:05:43:12 through your lives in your careers together.
00:05:49:13 As much as I love one-on-one mentoring when it works,
00:05:52:04 it pretty much is very hard to do it in an unnatural way.
00:05:55:23 So formal mentoring programs are often ask you
00:05:58:19 to be matched one-on-one with a mentor.
00:06:01:05 And unfortunately, this process is a lot like dating
00:06:04:25 which has a lot of mismatch failure.
00:06:07:14 So if you've ever been set up on a date by an aunt
00:06:10:14 or a relative, or even a friend, it doesn't hit that often,
00:06:14:15 same thing with one-on-one mentoring.
00:06:16:20 It is almost impossible to match two people
00:06:19:09 and get that spark that makes them wanna work together
00:06:22:09 for a long time.
00:06:23:08 It's a two-way thing.
00:06:24:11 It's not anybody's fault.
00:06:26:16 What happens in the group is somehow
$VertAlign
00:06:28:24 the group works together and in 95% of the groups
00:06:32:01 that I've been involved in and that is hundreds,
00:06:35:02 somehow the group manages to find a way to work together
00:06:38:10 and be a positive experience for one another.
$VertAlign
00:06:41:18 There's a dynamic change there
00:06:43:06 in a group mentoring situation.
00:06:45:05 So, if you're looking for a situation
00:06:46:26 that's going to have a positive outcome,
00:06:49:00 seeking group mentoring is a fantastic way to get started.
00:06:52:21 There are a lot of other reasons
00:06:53:28 why group mentoring is great.
00:06:55:09 You get to be a mentor and a mentee at the same time.
00:06:58:03 It's great leadership training.
00:06:59:17 It's great management training
00:07:01:02 and you get a lot more advice.
00:07:02:20 There's nothing like brainstorming with six or seven people
00:07:05:21 about what your next step should be in a development plan
00:07:08:27 as opposed to one person, you're just going
00:07:11:00 to get more ideas and more perspectives.
00:07:13:15 So group mentoring really works.
00:07:15:05 I'm an enormous proponent
00:07:16:20 for formal and informal group mentoring.
00:07:21:26 So one of the best ways to learn to be a good mentee,
00:07:24:21 and we'll talk about what that is, is to be a mentor.
00:07:27:25 And so in a peer mentoring group or a mentoring group,
00:07:30:18 you also get to sometimes mentor
00:07:32:15 when one of the other people needs
00:07:34:01 that cheerleading support, advice, those great questions,
00:07:38:00 you can do that and practice doing that.
00:07:40:10 It's gonna make you a better manager.
00:07:42:02 It's gonna better make you a better person working
00:07:44:20 with your colleagues for the future.
00:07:46:26 So, there are so many benefits to group mentoring
00:07:49:12 that really it stands far and above as a model
00:07:52:26 for what you wanna do in seeking mentors.
00:07:55:20 So what do I mean by being a good mentee?
00:07:58:19 I think the important thing
00:07:59:23 about being a good mentee is being willing to take advice.
00:08:03:14 It's pretty simple.
00:08:06:01 If you're not willing to hear the advice
00:08:08:00 and the feedback and the suggestions from the people
00:08:10:11 in your group, then you're really not ready to be mentored.
00:08:13:20 And so they're not gonna be satisfied
00:08:16:10 and you're not gonna be satisfied by that experience.
00:08:19:06 So the bottom line of being a good mentee
00:08:21:05 is being ready to take suggestions
00:08:24:12 and at least think about
00:08:27:14 if those suggestions are worth implementing
00:08:30:04 in your experience and in your next practice.
00:08:33:07 And that's really all it takes to be a good mentee.
00:08:36:04 When it comes to a mentoring group,
00:08:37:19 the other part needs to be
00:08:39:02 that you are engaged in the group.
00:08:41:05 So, if six people are being mentored together,
00:08:43:26 then you all need to be engaged
00:08:45:20 and make a commitment to the group to be involved.
00:08:48:16 So, two things to being a good mentee in a group,
00:08:51:24 listening and being ready to consider the advice
00:08:55:03 that is offered and engage because the more you engage
00:08:58:27 the more you're going to get out of the experience.
00:09:03:10 You know can be the really awesome mentors,
00:09:05:27 is your peers, not someone older than you
00:09:08:17 not someone more experienced, not someone more important,
00:09:11:29 whatever that means, but just the people around you,
00:09:15:18 they get you, they know what you're going through.
00:09:18:07 They know the stress that you're having
00:09:19:28 and they completely understand the situations
00:09:23:10 that you're going to be describing to the team.
00:09:25:20 So, if your first group mentoring experience
00:09:28:05 is with your peers and there isn't even a senior mentor
00:09:31:14 in that group, it doesn't matter.
00:09:33:26 There is plenty of content
00:09:35:04 and knowledge that you guys can work on
00:09:37:05 as a group together, and the group
00:09:40:04 can bond over their learning and teach one another.
00:09:43:08 So, if you don't have a great mentor as a lab head,
00:09:47:27 as a lifelong mentor that you've found in your networking,
00:09:51:00 if you don't have one of those,
00:09:52:24 it's a great time for you to think
00:09:54:10 about forming your first peer mentoring circle.
00:09:57:11 And in addition, speaking from the iBiology platform,
00:10:02:10 there's a newly launched program through iBiology
00:10:05:04 of these courses and forming a peer mentoring group
00:10:09:06 to take these courses together is going
00:10:11:22 to add enormous value to the experience.
00:10:14:16 And later on, in some of the other talks,
00:10:16:19 we'll talk more about how using content
00:10:19:01 can make a peer mentoring group
00:10:20:18 really successful and sore
00:10:22:24 and get the most of the experience.
00:10:24:27 So, really consider this,
00:10:26:19 it's a pretty easy thing to set up,
00:10:28:15 and I'm sure that you will find other people
00:10:30:23 who are wanting to go on this trip journey with you.
00:10:35:26 So why does peer mentoring work so well?
00:10:38:11 Well, the secret sauce of mentoring
00:10:40:01 is not even so much the advice and you know,
00:10:42:28 a little bit it's the questions, and a little bit
00:10:45:03 it's the discussion
00:10:46:12 but the secret sauce of mentoring is the accountability.
00:10:49:10 If you have a few other people are saying to you,
00:10:51:25 hey, Joanne, you said you were gonna
00:10:53:22 do three informational interviews last month,
00:10:56:00 how come that didn't happen?
00:10:57:19 Well, you're gonna get that thing done.
00:11:00:02 Having accountability for our personal goals,
00:11:02:26 not just our technical goals and writing papers
00:11:06:20 and the things that were in academia
00:11:08:22 perhaps that we are being forced to do,
00:11:10:14 or our deliverables in our job, those things we have to do
00:11:13:29 and people are making us do them for our jobs.
00:11:17:19 What mentoring brings is the accountability
00:11:19:18 for our own personal growth and development
00:11:22:07 and peers are great at helping with that.
00:11:24:26 If I did not have in the before times, before COVID,
00:11:29:11 four women at the gym who would text me
00:11:31:17 if I didn't show up every morning at 5:30,
00:11:35:10 there are a lot of days I would have rolled over
00:11:37:08 and turned off the alarm.
00:11:38:25 But knowing that those texts were gonna come
00:11:41:03 really brought me the accountability
00:11:42:21 to be a much more regular person at the gym exercising.
00:11:46:14 And so look for that accountability,
00:11:49:28 it's going to help you be more accomplished.
00:11:52:10 So thanks for joining us for this first part
00:11:54:17 of the Peer Mentoring Masterclass.
00:11:56:22 I hope you will join us for the rest of the series.

Part 2: How to Start a Peer Mentoring Group

00:00:00:10 Welcome everyone, I'm Joanne Kamens,
00:00:02:07 Executive Director of Addgene.
00:00:04:05 And today I'm going to be presenting
00:00:06:14 the Mentoring Master Class Part 2,
00:00:08:18 the Logistics of Forming your Own
00:00:10:06 Peer Mentoring Group.
00:00:12:19 I'm hoping that in part one
00:00:13:19 of this series,
00:00:15:06 I convinced you how great
00:00:16:01 and important it will
00:00:17:15 be for you to form
00:00:18:16 your first peer mentoring group,
00:00:20:03 or maybe it's not your first.
00:00:21:24 And now I'm gonna talk
00:00:22:26 about some of the best practices
00:00:24:16 and logistics for doing
00:00:25:11 that so that you have
00:00:26:06 a successful experience.
00:00:31:06 So the first step to getting
00:00:32:04 a peer mentoring group
00:00:33:13 is just assembling one.
00:00:34:24 Remember you wanna all
00:00:35:28 be getting together regularly.
00:00:37:13 So I recommend five or six
00:00:39:12 people is kind of the max
00:00:40:27 to make this work.
00:00:42:15 Could be a little smaller, little bigger.
00:00:44:25 The group can be all the same.
00:00:46:27 You could be all from one department
00:00:48:18 or all the same career stage,
00:00:50:21 maybe you're all third year scientists
00:00:52:25 or first-year postdocs
00:00:54:07 or just at your first new job.
00:00:57:04 Or it can be a difference of perspectives.
00:00:59:17 Some people who are in certain
00:01:01:18 types of roles
00:01:02:13 and some in others at different
00:01:03:18 stages of their careers.
00:01:05:25 There are different advantages
00:01:07:00 to each of those.
00:01:07:28 It's worth thinking about a little
00:01:09:08 bit what you want your group
00:01:10:25 to be based on the things
00:01:12:03 that you wanna accomplish.
00:01:13:18 Sometimes it's good to find
00:01:14:26 peers that share a similar
00:01:17:01 problem that they're trying to solve.
00:01:18:24 So the very first
00:01:19:22 Massachusetts Association for Women
00:01:22:08 in Science Mentoring Group
00:01:23:28 was as I recall,
00:01:26:10 five women who wanted to transition
00:01:28:21 from academia to industry
00:01:30:19 and their advisors were blocking them.
00:01:33:05 So they had a very,
00:01:34:06 very similar barrier,
00:01:35:24 advisors that wouldn't write
00:01:37:13 them recommendations or refuse
00:01:39:00 to support their exploration.
00:01:41:09 And all five of them ended
00:01:42:20 up with jobs in industry
00:01:43:26 and are now wildly successful
00:01:45:07 some 15 years later.
00:01:46:16 So that very first group
00:01:49:23 was a group formed to solve
00:01:51:10 a specific problem.
00:01:53:04 So assemble your list
00:01:54:20 and start making the asks,
00:01:56:06 be prepared to explain
00:01:57:17 the things I'm going to tell
00:01:58:21 you about logistics,
00:01:59:23 because people will wanna
00:02:00:24 know how much time
00:02:02:03 is it gonna be?
00:02:02:28 What are you asking of me?
00:02:05:17 And one thing I will mention
00:02:08:10 is that if you choose people
00:02:09:14 within your department
00:02:10:20 or your lab to do this,
00:02:12:20 confidentiality will be a little
00:02:14:11 bit different because
00:02:15:20 there will be, you might
00:02:17:14 not wanna cry in front
00:02:18:13 of those people.
00:02:19:25 You might not wanna
00:02:21:16 admit that you're struggling
00:02:22:28 with some thing.
00:02:24:15 Whereas if you have a group
00:02:25:28 of people who are perhaps distant,
00:02:28:02 we're really good
00:02:28:27 at zoom meetings now
00:02:29:28 you can have people
00:02:30:26 in other cities,
00:02:31:27 you can have people
00:02:32:24 in other countries.
00:02:34:13 If you wanna form a virtual group
00:02:36:21 video wise and do it through
00:02:39:04 a virtual peer mentoring,
00:02:40:26 then you may be able
00:02:41:21 to get people from very,
00:02:42:22 very different places,
00:02:43:21 which will allow you an added
00:02:45:10 level of confidentiality
00:02:47:02 to your discussions.
00:02:48:16 There are benefits
00:02:49:11 to both approaches.
00:02:53:00 So okay. You have your committed people,
00:02:55:14 maybe you have at least
00:02:56:10 four to get started
00:02:57:16 and you can add a few
00:02:58:14 as you're going along the way
00:03:00:17 get yourselves organized.
00:03:01:27 How are you going to meet?
00:03:03:06 I look forward to the day
00:03:04:16 when I meet in person
00:03:05:17 with my mentoring groups,
00:03:06:21 but I will tell
00:03:07:16 you that I'm mentoring a MASS
00:03:09:14 AWIS group this year.
00:03:10:25 I am working on their Healthcare
00:03:12:13 Business Women's Association Program.
00:03:14:20 They are entirely virtual
00:03:16:14 and they have been very successful.
00:03:18:18 It's actually something that seems
00:03:20:00 to work on video
00:03:21:04 with the same people
00:03:22:11 over and over again.
00:03:23:10 You get used to each other's
00:03:24:13 video quirks and the longer
00:03:27:23 the group meets the better
00:03:29:10 the meetings get even virtually.
00:03:31:04 So, oh we all look forward
00:03:32:23 to having a martini someday
00:03:34:10 together in a bar.
00:03:35:19 But my groups that are meeting
00:03:37:06 virtually are actually
00:03:38:06 doing quite well so, okay.
00:03:39:28 Decide what your rules
00:03:41:01 are gonna be about meeting.
00:03:42:27 You wanna commit
00:03:43:22 to a meeting schedule.
00:03:45:13 Most of the groups
00:03:46:08 I'm involved in meet monthly.
00:03:47:28 That may be not enough for you.
00:03:49:07 If you're meeting virtually
00:03:50:10 for an hour, you might
00:03:51:05 be able to do it twice
00:03:52:06 a month at lunch,
00:03:53:19 or when is that gonna be?
00:03:55:10 What is it gonna look like?
00:03:57:16 Most groups, most programs
00:03:59:20 have a scheduled eight months
00:04:01:16 or a year that you're committing
00:04:03:04 kind of committing to the group.
00:04:05:14 I will tell you that about
00:04:06:15 half of the groups
00:04:07:14 that I'm involved in continue
00:04:08:26 to meet indefinitely,
00:04:10:12 maybe not every month,
00:04:11:20 but irregularly because
00:04:13:01 they just want to.
00:04:14:11 Actually, one of the first places
00:04:15:22 I heard about peer mentoring
00:04:16:29 was in a book called
00:04:17:29 Every Other Thursday
00:04:19:22 by Ellen Daniell.
00:04:21:07 Which is a group
00:04:22:04 of women in California,
00:04:23:22 group of women scientists
00:04:24:23 who met every other Thursday
00:04:26:13 for 18 years or more,
00:04:28:18 probably more at this point
00:04:29:27 when the book was written
00:04:31:05 just to support one another
00:04:32:17 through all of their career changes.
00:04:35:10 And there are huge benefits
00:04:36:24 that I read about in that book
00:04:38:00 is one of the things that really
00:04:39:08 turned me on to this model.
00:04:41:07 So okay. But that's a lifelong commitment.
00:04:43:25 That sounds a little scary.
00:04:44:27 So stick with the eight months
00:04:46:14 and get people interested enough
00:04:48:06 to that one part of the commitment.
00:04:50:15 So you really wanna talk
00:04:51:17 with the group about really
00:04:52:19 committing to making the meetings.
00:04:55:10 It's the success of mentoring groups
00:04:58:14 is directly correlated
00:05:00:02 and I mean scientifically
00:05:01:10 because we have a lot
00:05:02:05 of data on this, directly
00:05:04:02 correlated to actually meeting.
00:05:05:27 Almost no other criteria is important.
00:05:08:08 Who's in the group,
00:05:09:04 what they talk about,
00:05:10:06 none of those things matter,
00:05:11:18 what matters is that they actually
00:05:13:03 get together every month,
00:05:14:10 so that by month four,
00:05:15:25 they know one another
00:05:16:26 and they can start even
00:05:17:27 doing better work
00:05:18:26 and supporting one another even better.
00:05:21:04 So I'm not talking about
00:05:22:20 if you have a health emergency,
00:05:24:20 or I actually had one mentoring
00:05:26:10 group where our second meeting
00:05:27:17 was disrupted because one
00:05:28:28 woman had an early delivery
00:05:29:29 of her baby.
00:05:31:15 Okay. We don't kick people
00:05:32:27 out of the group for those things.
00:05:35:20 We adjust but we try really
00:05:38:08 hard to have the meetings
00:05:39:18 on the schedule day.
00:05:40:25 If one person can't make
00:05:41:21 it meet anyway.
00:05:43:12 Power through, keep going.
00:05:45:25 So you also wanna decide
00:05:46:28 how you wanna communicate
00:05:48:08 again, we've gotten so good
00:05:49:20 at remote communication.
00:05:50:27 There's so many great tools.
00:05:53:02 I have a WhatsApp group
00:05:54:04 with my current group.
00:05:55:20 We have Google docs that we share,
00:05:57:13 and we'll talk more
00:05:58:08 about content later.
00:05:59:25 We put our agendas
00:06:00:26 and we have folders of content
00:06:02:15 and things to read.
00:06:04:14 All of those things can help
00:06:05:23 you just have to decide
00:06:06:22 what the rules are.
00:06:08:05 If we email one another,
00:06:09:14 how long should
00:06:10:11 it take before we respond?
00:06:12:04 It's really important
00:06:13:05 that you kind of set
00:06:14:01 these ground rules,
00:06:15:02 write them down,
00:06:15:29 put them in that Google doc.
00:06:17:22 And so that everybody knows
00:06:19:13 what they're committing
00:06:20:09 to and you can pressure
00:06:21:24 one another to do it well.
00:06:23:26 Some groups actually
00:06:24:25 have a signed commitment
00:06:26:09 in some programs I've been in.
00:06:27:27 They make a document
00:06:29:03 where they actually create
00:06:30:12 a mentoring contract
00:06:32:17 if you will.
00:06:33:13 If that seems like
00:06:34:10 it's gonna work
00:06:35:05 for you I can provide
00:06:36:14 you a template
00:06:37:09 that's a great idea,
00:06:38:11 but even just saying
00:06:39:22 it out loud,
00:06:40:17 what you all agree
00:06:41:12 to is probably enough
00:06:42:11 and recording the rules
00:06:43:24 and the norms of the group.
00:06:48:15 So then you wanna plan
00:06:49:15 for success because as I mentioned,
00:06:51:19 chances are, this is gonna be successful,
00:06:53:20 is a very high rate of success
00:06:55:05 if everyone meets those
00:06:56:12 first two criteria,
00:06:57:25 they're interested and they're willing
00:06:59:08 to commit some time.
00:07:01:00 So what I think really works
00:07:02:10 best is that each meeting
00:07:03:18 has one leader and maybe
00:07:05:23 not the first meeting
00:07:06:28 or the second,
00:07:07:23 but then you assign a leader
00:07:08:26 for each meeting
00:07:09:21 who's responsible for the topic
00:07:11:23 for the discussion,
00:07:12:25 maybe provides reading material
00:07:14:20 or other exercises to be done.
00:07:16:24 And kind of not just everyone
00:07:18:10 to remember them to show
00:07:19:11 up and prepare.
00:07:20:10 Rotating that responsibility,
00:07:22:06 it's a leadership management
00:07:23:21 type role, it's practice
00:07:25:03 in that job
00:07:27:07 is another benefit
00:07:28:08 of the mentoring team.
00:07:30:11 Usually in the first meeting
00:07:31:22 or pre meeting the group
00:07:33:23 will discuss their general
00:07:34:29 areas of interest and figure
00:07:36:10 out what they wanna cover.
00:07:37:25 One way to do that is to have everyone
00:07:39:16 bring three topics
00:07:40:20 that they're interested in.
00:07:41:18 And you can see
00:07:42:13 if there's commonality
00:07:43:18 or you can have a vote
00:07:45:17 or some topics are so popular
00:07:48:00 that there's clearly
00:07:48:25 the first ones to start with.
00:07:50:03 And some topics may take
00:07:51:13 more than one meeting.
00:07:53:24 It's your journey to design,
00:07:56:22 but I definitely recommend
00:07:58:08 that you design it with some
00:07:59:13 structure as opposed to just
00:08:01:22 getting together and having beers
00:08:03:20 even virtually, you can do
00:08:04:28 that with your anybody.
00:08:06:26 That's not what the peer
00:08:07:23 mentoring group is for.
00:08:08:25 You really wanna use
00:08:09:26 the group to drive change.
00:08:11:15 I always recommend that mentoring
00:08:13:01 groups work with agendas,
00:08:14:14 a little bit of a structure
00:08:15:20 maybe they start every meeting
00:08:17:03 with a half an hour
00:08:17:29 of catch-up get that out
00:08:19:07 of the way over the first drink.
00:08:21:16 But then dive into content
00:08:22:29 that's been prearranged
00:08:24:04 and even curricula.
00:08:25:16 So I actually have a associated
00:08:27:27 with my LinkedIn profile.
00:08:29:20 I can also send you example
00:08:31:26 curricula that you can use
00:08:33:26 for your group that choose
00:08:35:26 your topics and set that up
00:08:37:13 so that you have it really
00:08:39:18 kind of hardwired.
00:08:40:14 Of course, you can change
00:08:41:11 it as you go along
00:08:42:08 if things come up
00:08:43:04 and things happen,
00:08:44:04 but setting a planned agenda
00:08:46:15 for your meetings can really
00:08:47:23 help drive learning
00:08:49:01 and knowledge and just,
00:08:51:09 doing things more productively
00:08:53:21 as it were.
00:08:54:16 Maybe you wanna write development
00:08:56:03 plans together over many months
00:08:58:13 setting concrete goals
00:08:59:21 and tracking each other's progress.
00:09:02:16 Maybe you wanna practice speaking,
00:09:04:17 scientists very rarely
00:09:06:05 get enough practice speaking.
00:09:07:13 I do this once
00:09:08:08 or twice a week.
00:09:09:03 So I get a lot of practice.
00:09:10:27 It makes it much easier
00:09:11:23 for me to speak.
00:09:12:18 If you are doing a job talk,
00:09:14:00 that's the first time
00:09:14:26 you've ever given that talk
00:09:16:08 I guarantee you it's going
00:09:17:10 to be much harder
00:09:18:29 than if you've had at least
00:09:20:07 even a few run throughs
00:09:21:07 with your mentoring group.
00:09:22:20 Maybe you wanna go to a seminar
00:09:24:13 together virtually or in real life,
00:09:26:08 someday, debrief on the topic
00:09:28:16 or watch a scientific talk
00:09:30:22 and debrief on what went well
00:09:32:07 and what didn't go well,
00:09:33:08 maybe why it was such
00:09:34:02 a bad talk.
00:09:36:00 That can be fun as well.
00:09:38:01 Maybe you wanna invite guests.
00:09:40:02 People have more experience
00:09:41:12 in a topic that you're interested in.
00:09:42:26 They can be mentors
00:09:43:24 for a minute or for an hour
00:09:45:19 and enjoying your group
00:09:47:29 in that way
00:09:48:24 and change things
00:09:49:23 up a little bit.
00:09:50:26 Go to a networking event together,
00:09:52:08 have a competition.
00:09:53:08 Who's the fastest person
00:09:54:02 who can get a new
00:09:55:16 acquaintance that they wanna
00:09:56:26 have coffee with at that meeting.
00:09:58:27 Whatever I'm sure you can think
00:10:00:00 of many fun things to do.
00:10:01:15 So consider this especially
00:10:04:03 after yours group has met
00:10:05:08 for a few times
00:10:06:04 and is well-formed
00:10:07:07 and well on its path.
00:10:08:23 In the third part
00:10:09:19 of this series,
00:10:10:14 I'll talk a lot
00:10:11:10 about how to use content,
00:10:12:29 to set goals and reach goals.
00:10:15:05 And that's really
00:10:16:06 what you wanna do.
00:10:17:01 You wanna change something
00:10:18:02 during this year.
00:10:18:26 You wanna make a move.
00:10:20:00 And so just sitting around
00:10:21:19 complaining about how bad
00:10:22:22 things are today
00:10:23:17 is not gonna get you there.
00:10:24:23 You wanna do some learning
00:10:26:01 and teaching of one another
00:10:27:16 and experiment with the process
00:10:28:29 have fun with it.
00:10:29:28 This really can be
00:10:30:28 a really fun experience.
00:10:35:06 The last step
00:10:36:01 is really to celebrate.
00:10:37:03 So hopefully during your journey
00:10:39:10 in a year,
00:10:40:05 you will have many successes along,
00:10:41:18 I'm sure with struggles
00:10:43:04 and you wanna celebrate
00:10:44:20 those things together
00:10:45:16 and whatever works
00:10:46:11 for your group chocolate, wine
00:10:48:12 I don't know
00:10:49:07 what it is, but there will
00:10:50:02 be something that you will all
00:10:51:02 be excited about maybe virtually,
00:10:53:00 or maybe in person.
00:10:54:04 And stay in touch
00:10:55:09 because whether or not you keep
00:10:57:00 meeting regularly as a mentoring group,
00:10:59:20 these certainly will be part
00:11:00:20 of your network for years to come.
00:11:02:26 And the peers that you have now
00:11:04:04 will be your boss,
00:11:05:13 or you will be their boss someday.
00:11:07:02 I can tell you that's actually
00:11:08:05 happened to me.
00:11:09:00 So stay in touch with people
00:11:11:08 and use these relationships
00:11:12:27 for people that know
00:11:13:22 you and that now you can trust
00:11:16:04 in the way that they're meant
00:11:17:06 to enrich your career
00:11:18:23 and your journey
00:11:19:18 and your learning.
00:11:20:19 So thank you so much
00:11:21:25 for joining us for part two
00:11:23:08 of the Peer Mentoring Master Class.
00:11:25:08 And I look forward
00:11:26:07 to having you join
00:11:27:02 me for part three,
00:11:27:28 where we talk about
00:11:28:23 more mentoring best practices.

Part 3: Mentoring Best Practices

00:00:00:22 Welcome everyone.
00:00:01:19 I'm Joanne Kamens, executive director of Addgene
00:00:04:16 and I'm here today to bring you part three
00:00:06:26 of our Peer Mentoring Masterclass, Mentoring Best Practices.
00:00:13:13 The mentoring practices that I'm going to talk about today
00:00:15:26 will apply both to your peer mentoring groups
00:00:18:01 and to any other sort of regular mentoring relationships
00:00:21:16 that you have in your life, in your workplace,
00:00:24:06 wherever that you are working with a mentor.
00:00:27:08 So hopefully, you have formed a peer mentoring group
00:00:30:03 based on parts one and two of this series
00:00:32:22 or at least you're thinking about it.
00:00:34:10 Now what?
00:00:35:05 We have a group, we have a topic, how do we go forward?
00:00:38:17 So I'm just going today to present a few
00:00:40:28 of the best practices that you can use over a long time,
00:00:43:26 whenever you're involved in a mentoring experience.
00:00:48:01 We're gonna talk about four best practices.
00:00:50:09 The first is about asking questions.
00:00:52:10 The second is about looking for opportunities for growth,
00:00:56:06 setting concrete goals and finally,
00:00:58:07 how to use content in your groups
00:01:00:00 and why do you use content to help steer your discussions
00:01:02:24 and focus your learning.
00:01:04:22 My first monitoring best practices
00:01:06:10 is a little counterintuitive.
00:01:07:22 People think that mentors are there to give advice
00:01:09:25 and answer your questions but really,
00:01:11:29 the best mentors actually ask good questions.
00:01:15:16 And if you think about it,
00:01:17:09 the mentors that have been the best ones in your life
00:01:19:16 and gotten the most development of you
00:01:22:03 and thinking about yourself
00:01:23:22 are the ones that have asked you really good
00:01:25:26 and deep questions that made you think
00:01:28:00 and that's true of your friends,
00:01:29:00 of your peers and other senior people to you as well.
00:01:32:08 So mentors should be disciplining themselves
00:01:34:13 not to jump in with answers.
00:01:36:00 In the talking out of their problems and their dilemmas,
00:01:38:28 it's how they're gonna come to the best solutions.
00:01:41:17 So one fun thing to think about
00:01:43:10 is not to ask yes or no questions.
00:01:45:21 High gain questions are questions
00:01:47:11 that do not have a yes or no answer.
00:01:49:21 As opposed to saying how did your talk go today?
00:01:52:10 You might say, what went well about your talk
00:01:55:10 and what could have been better about your talk?
00:01:58:05 What would you do differently next time?
00:02:00:17 And actually one of the best things you can say is,
00:02:03:05 tell me more about that.
00:02:04:24 So actually I talk too much
00:02:06:14 so I'm a very bad phone interviewer
00:02:09:01 because when you interview people on the phone,
00:02:10:18 you really need to make space for them to speak.
00:02:13:06 And I actually had a mentor teach me
00:02:15:26 how to do better phone interviews.
00:02:17:17 And he told me the only thing I was allowed to say
00:02:20:10 after a few introductory questions was, ah,
00:02:23:05 tell me more about that
00:02:24:16 and this actually works like a charm.
00:02:27:05 So think about asking those high gain questions,
00:02:29:22 those statements that elicit thinking
00:02:32:07 from the person that is struggling with the dilemma.
00:02:35:05 And in fact, you can spend a whole mentoring group
00:02:37:11 and make it a rule that no one asks a yes or no question.
00:02:40:05 We only ask high gain questions here,
00:02:42:17 which would be a fun exercise
00:02:44:10 and a great management and leadership tool as well.
00:02:47:24 Another really important thing that happens
00:02:49:18 in a mentoring setting is feedback.
00:02:52:26 How something was, how it went, what went well.
00:02:55:18 And I actually just heard a really great speaker
00:02:58:13 talking about how she coaches Olympic athletes
00:03:02:12 and they're so good that every little bit of advice
00:03:06:08 that can shave a minute, a second off their time
00:03:09:15 or make them go one inch higher, they appreciate it.
00:03:13:04 And they see feedback as an opportunity, not as feedback.
00:03:16:28 And so I'm really trying to replace feedback
00:03:19:08 with opportunities in all of my coaching and mentoring
00:03:22:23 and in any of my management
00:03:24:08 because that's really how a great way to see it.
00:03:26:10 And I'm actually even trying to see it that way for myself.
00:03:28:28 When someone makes a suggestion, I'm like,
00:03:30:28 it's an opportunity to do something differently or better.
00:03:34:15 So thinking about feedback in that way
00:03:36:12 and doing it regularly, practicing feedback,
00:03:40:07 a great thing for a mentoring group to do
00:03:42:02 is to practice giving one another
00:03:44:12 opportunities for improvement.
00:03:46:25 And that is authentic assistance for growth.
00:03:49:11 And if you can hear that and internalize it,
00:03:51:18 it doesn't mean you have to do everything
00:03:53:15 that people suggest or you have to agree with it
00:03:56:08 but at least showing that you hear it,
00:03:58:19 that's gonna make you a better mentee
00:04:00:16 and help you get more from the relationship.
00:04:03:17 You really wanna focus on specific issues
00:04:06:01 and not the person themselves.
00:04:07:19 It's not like you're a bad speaker.
00:04:10:04 It's like, hey, I think this talk might've gone better
00:04:13:03 if it had a section before section two
00:04:15:10 that introduced to the topic.
00:04:17:13 And then everyone can think
00:04:19:02 about that without feeling personally threatened.
00:04:22:13 You also wanna praise people when something goes well,
00:04:26:25 a positive reinforcement is a huge part
00:04:29:14 of realizing a task and successfully completing it.
00:04:34:05 Avoid assumptions, so asking those high gain questions
00:04:37:08 is another good part of pointing out things
00:04:40:22 that can be done differently
00:04:42:01 or changing because questions can lead the person
00:04:45:12 to come to their own conclusions
00:04:47:14 about what might need to be changed or improved.
00:04:51:01 And as far as being a good mentee,
00:04:53:01 you have to be ready for that feedback.
00:04:55:20 I once had coffee with someone who was connected to me
00:04:59:01 and after 15 minutes, I had made four suggestions
00:05:02:04 and that person had actually,
00:05:03:26 to all of my suggestions had said,
00:05:06:07 "Yeah, networking, I don't really have time for that.
00:05:09:09 Improve my LinkedIn profile?
00:05:11:00 I don't like social media.
00:05:13:20 I wanna be a project manager.
00:05:15:05 Oh, that needs a special certification.
00:05:16:28 That's not what I think it is.
00:05:18:22 That's what I'm good at, that's what I'm gonna do."
00:05:20:24 So after 15 minutes, we were pretty done.
00:05:22:28 I had given her all my best advice
00:05:24:28 for what to do next and these ideas had been rejected.
00:05:29:20 So frankly, even if you don't agree with all of the advice,
00:05:32:15 you're gonna get a lot more good advice
00:05:34:00 if you at least say, I will consider that.
00:05:36:28 Now, I'm a much better talking to than I am a listener
00:05:39:09 so I really admire people who are good listeners
00:05:42:08 and take to heart the suggestions that people make.
00:05:45:22 This is a great thing to work on
00:05:47:06 with your groups as a skill.
00:05:49:03 Mentoring groups, I find if they just sit around and talk
00:05:52:16 and really, as you get to know each other,
00:05:54:03 you could sit around for two, three hours and just talk
00:05:56:22 and that could be fun,
00:05:58:02 especially if you often do your group over drinks
00:06:00:16 and by the third drink,
00:06:01:13 everyone is really just like ready to chat
00:06:03:24 and the better you get to know each other
00:06:06:13 the easier that's gonna be
00:06:07:14 but that's really not gonna drive the change
00:06:09:10 that you're looking to see.
00:06:10:20 So the first part of your meeting
00:06:12:08 can be about catching up and how everyone's doing
00:06:14:21 but then bring content into your groups.
00:06:17:28 For most of my mentoring groups,
00:06:19:06 I really demand homework.
00:06:20:22 So right now, the mentoring group I'm involved in
00:06:23:12 are writing their own recommendation letters.
00:06:26:08 And we are gonna read each other's recommendation letters
00:06:29:18 in advance and make sure that they are praiseworthy enough
00:06:32:22 and show the right amount of self-confidence
00:06:35:00 and self-definition that a recommendation letter
00:06:37:22 would need to have.
00:06:38:22 So we want people to really own their success
00:06:41:03 and their strengths.
00:06:42:04 So that's an activity that we're doing now
00:06:44:12 to spur our development, our discussion
00:06:47:10 and our honest evaluation of our own skills.
00:06:51:27 So you may wanna use resources like that
00:06:54:25 and tools and tricks and other ways
00:06:57:07 of bringing content and enrichment to your meetings.
00:07:01:21 So here's one of my favorite ones
00:07:03:23 that I thought I would just give as an example.
00:07:06:00 So people are very good at making binary decisions.
00:07:09:13 If I say to you, chocolate or vanilla,
00:07:11:08 you know right away which one is your favorite.
00:07:13:15 But if I ask you what your favorite meal is,
00:07:15:11 it might take you a little while to kind of narrow it down.
00:07:19:04 Even if I said to you,
00:07:20:01 what's the most important thing you have to do today?
00:07:22:15 You might have trouble with that.
00:07:24:07 But if I said, is it make dinner
00:07:26:18 or finish this talk that I have to give tonight?
00:07:29:25 For sure, the latter one would win
00:07:32:03 and we would have fish sticks from the freezer again, right?
00:07:35:01 So binary decisions are easy, ranking things is difficult.
00:07:38:28 So I love to use forced-choice analysis,
00:07:41:10 which involves binary decisions
00:07:43:28 to help reveal things about people's really strengths,
00:07:48:16 weaknesses, thoughts and goals and desires
00:07:50:24 in my mentoring groups.
00:07:52:16 So here's how forced-choice analysis works.
00:07:55:20 Let's say you wrote down five things
00:07:57:04 you needed to get done this week
00:07:58:15 and you number them one to five
00:08:00:01 and then you compare each item pairwise
00:08:02:14 to every other item in the list.
00:08:04:22 I think you can figure this out.
00:08:05:29 You're a bunch of technical people, one to two
00:08:08:10 one to three, one to four, one to five.
00:08:10:03 You start over two to three, two to four, two to five
00:08:12:16 and so everything has been pairwise compared.
00:08:15:06 And then each time you compare them,
00:08:17:07 you say which one is more important,
00:08:19:06 preparing my talk or arranging the booth
00:08:21:24 for World CRISPR Day.
00:08:23:03 Which one is more time sensitive
00:08:24:27 and the one that wins gets a mark.
00:08:27:04 And then when you add up the marks,
00:08:29:11 the ones with more marks are more important.
00:08:32:00 So here's one that I did on a real day in my life,
00:08:34:29 probably about 10 years ago and you can see how it fell out.
00:08:39:17 Again, fish sticks for dinner,
00:08:40:28 my kids had those fairly often
00:08:42:23 when I was really busy with work.
00:08:44:13 My parents probably did not get a phone call
00:08:46:17 until the weekend.
00:08:47:22 I did get my talk ready.
00:08:49:10 I did talk to the collaborator
00:08:50:28 because when someone else is waiting,
00:08:53:05 that's often the most important task.
00:08:55:10 I did get back to the lawyer
00:08:56:28 so when you're working at a biotech,
00:08:58:17 if the legal team wants something,
00:09:00:05 you have to hop to it.
00:09:01:09 So those are the things that got done first,
00:09:03:19 they were more important on this particular day
00:09:06:16 but what if I ranked them a different way?
00:09:08:10 And what if your people in your mentoring circle
00:09:10:09 ranked them a different way?
00:09:11:09 What was more fun?
00:09:12:18 Because wouldn't you like to have a job
00:09:14:06 10 years from now that's more fun?
00:09:16:18 And so, oh, I like public speaking,
00:09:18:27 that super works for me, right?
00:09:20:23 And so I'm in a job now where I get to do a lot of that.
00:09:23:16 I really like collaborating on projects.
00:09:26:22 Still did not call my parents,
00:09:28:15 still did not make dinner
00:09:30:02 but I definitely did not call a lawyer.
00:09:32:13 So legal documents are not my thing.
00:09:34:26 I am not bound to be in tech transfer or an IP lawyer,
00:09:37:27 thank goodness I have other people to do that at ADGIN.
00:09:40:24 And they were super important before
00:09:42:20 but they weren't the things that rose to the top
00:09:44:12 because they're not the most fun things for me.
00:09:46:18 In fact, I tried to take Legal Studies 1
00:09:48:18 as an undergraduate and fell asleep
00:09:50:10 and had to drop the class so that I didn't fail.
00:09:52:22 So this can really uncover what it is that you like.
00:09:56:15 But what if you did this again and what were you great at?
00:09:59:27 So combining the things that you like and you're great at
00:10:03:09 can be a fantastic place to think about the skills
00:10:05:23 you wanna be using in your next position
00:10:08:09 or in your career or in your job in the future
00:10:11:12 because that's a really fun place to be.
00:10:13:12 I get to do a lot of public speaking.
00:10:15:10 I'm pretty good at it.
00:10:16:16 That really goes well for my career now
00:10:18:19 because I get to do that a lot.
00:10:20:11 So forced-choice analysis can be done in many, many ways
00:10:24:05 and we'll provide the content for that
00:10:26:20 and links from the video
00:10:27:27 so that you'll be able to do it yourself.
00:10:30:12 Another mentoring best practices is setting actual goals.
00:10:33:09 I know this sometimes seems hokey and it's hard to do
00:10:36:09 but there's nothing to make you learn something
00:10:38:10 and bring that accountability
00:10:39:22 than setting actual SMART goals, specific, time-bound goals.
00:10:44:16 And some groups do this early in their experience
00:10:47:06 and then work every month at checking in
00:10:49:12 on how people are doing on their goals.
00:10:51:13 You can do development plans
00:10:52:25 by breaking goals down into their steps
00:10:55:13 and so you can try and do one step along the way.
00:10:59:06 Every two months, every three months.
00:11:01:04 It's great to share these publicly.
00:11:02:26 By telling someone your goals,
00:11:04:14 you help them hold you accountable
00:11:06:04 and help them give you advice and suggestions
00:11:08:20 for how you might execute on those goals.
00:11:10:19 So some groups do that on paper, in a notebook,
00:11:14:03 shared Google Docs, maybe Evernote,
00:11:16:01 whatever it is that you're using to share your content.
00:11:20:04 Using goal setting as part of your mentoring experience
00:11:22:24 can be extremely productive and beneficial.
00:11:25:25 A mentoring group or a formal mentoring relationship.
00:11:28:13 It's not meant to be a replacement for a management issue
00:11:31:08 or good dialogue between your supervisor or your PI.
00:11:35:10 Those are problems you have to kind of solve with them.
00:11:37:28 You certainly can discuss with your mentoring group
00:11:40:13 some of those struggles and some tactics for addressing them
00:11:44:14 but it's not a replacement
00:11:46:04 for those important conversations in your work life.
00:11:49:09 It's never a guarantee of a promise or a favor.
00:11:51:26 So no one in your group is owing you anything
00:11:54:02 except committing to the group
00:11:55:12 to showing up and being honest
00:11:57:03 and kind and working as a group together.
00:12:00:20 It doesn't mean that anyone
00:12:01:18 on the group is gonna get you a job
00:12:03:06 or do you a favor or any mentor will do that.
00:12:06:07 So you can't guarantee.
00:12:07:27 So don't take a mentoring relationship
00:12:09:23 and assume that the mentor
00:12:11:08 is going to do those favors for you.
00:12:13:00 It's not for that.
00:12:15:08 You can join or create a peer mentoring group.
00:12:17:28 Setting up formal mentoring group programs
00:12:20:22 within your organization can be an enormous favor
00:12:23:22 that you give to your colleagues.
00:12:25:22 Many of the postdoc associations
00:12:27:27 and even graduate organizations here in Boston
00:12:31:18 now have peer mentoring programs that they help organize.
00:12:36:12 And I'm always happy to consult and help you do this.
00:12:40:04 There are a lot of things that you can do
00:12:41:21 to make a program successful
00:12:43:09 and I urge you to look into what makes programs successful
00:12:46:29 before you try and launch your own.
00:12:48:16 So to get the most possible benefit
00:12:50:25 so that everyone in the program benefits.
00:12:52:28 It's an enormous leadership opportunity as well
00:12:56:05 and a great way to meet people.
00:12:58:13 So there are all kinds of good things
00:12:59:29 about being on the organizing end
00:13:01:18 of a peer mentoring program.
00:13:04:15 So thank you for joining us
00:13:05:25 for the Peer Mentoring Masterclass
00:13:08:16 and we look forward to seeing
00:13:10:20 how you use this tactic in your learning,
00:13:12:26 going forward into the future.

Videos in this Talk
  • Part 1: What is a Peer Mentoring Group?
    Part 1: What is a Peer Mentoring Group?
    Audience:
    • Student
    • Researcher
    • Educators
    • Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
    • Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
  • Part 2: How to Start a Peer Mentoring Group
    Part 2: How to Start a Peer Mentoring Group
    Audience:
    • Student
    • Researcher
    • Educators
    • Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
    • Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
  • Part 3: Mentoring Best Practices
    Part 3: Mentoring Best Practices
    Audience:
    • Student
    • Researcher
    • Educators
    • Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
    • Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Speaker: Joanne Kamens
Total Duration: 0:37:18
Recorded: February 2021
All Talks in Careers

Talk Overview

Mentors shape our careers by guiding us through difficult decisions. But, how do you find a good mentor? In this series, Dr. Joanne Kamens advocates for the use of Peer Mentoring Groups as a method to provide and receive valuable mentoring opportunities. While working towards a common goal, group mentorship allows for an organic development of valuable experiences and accountability for your personal growth as you create a circle of mentors that will help throughout your career.

How do you go about forming a Peer Mentoring Group? In her second video, Kamens explains the logistics of forming a Peer Mentoring Group. First, you need to find 5-6 peers that share a similar problem. As you prepare to meet, you need to set the ground rules and provide structure to your meetings (e.g., provide agenda, assign a leader per meeting, decide on topics of interest, and provide curricula). As Kamens explains, the commitment of the members is crucial for the success of the Peer Mentoring Group. In her third talk, Kamens overviews what are mentorship best practices while running a Peer Mentorship Group. From setting concrete content and activities to setting up goals, these best practices will allow you to create an environment that will help you get feedback and find opportunities to grow.

See below for additional resources as you start to form your own Peer Mentoring Group.

Speaker Bio

Joanne Kamens

Joanne Kamens

Dr. Joanne Kamens received her PhD in genetics from Harvard Medical School and has had a varied career with positions in academia, pharma, biotech and nonprofit. Most recently she served as the executive director of Addgene. She has been advancing diversity and inclusion in science for decades including as founder of the Boston chapter of… Continue Reading

Playlist: Mentoring Science Trainees

Related Resources

Credits

Shannon Behrman (iBIology): Executive Producer
Alexandra Schnoes (iBiology): Producer
Quintin Marcelino (Addgene): Videographer
Eric Kornblum (iBiology): Assistant videographer
Rebecca Ellsworth (iBiology): Editor, Design & Graphics
Elie Maksoud (iBIology): Assistant Producer
Rosa Veguilla (iBiology): Assistant Producer

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