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Mentoring Pods: Rethinking the One-To-One Mentoring Paradigm (305336)

*Jesse A Canchola, Roche Diagnostics 
*Roomi Banerjee Dua, Roche Diagnostics 
*Caroline M Sobek, Roche Diagnostics 

Keywords: mentoring pod, mentorship, mentoring, professional development, career advancement

One-to-one and one-to-many relationships can expand beyond data models into the mentoring realm. The mentoring pod (MP) is a flexible, novel framework that addresses the challenges of conventional mentoring by establishing pods with one or more mentors for multiple mentees. Mentees desire quality mentoring from a seasoned mentor in their organization, whether it be in their direct management upline or from a mentor that best provides the direction where the mentee may want to proceed. Like all other things in life, conventional one-to-one mentorship comes with its own set of challenges. More often than not, there are usually more mentees than mentors, thus reducing the probability of a successful match. Moreover, mentors are time-constrained so can only take on a few mentees at a time. Having multiple mentors in the same pod reduces pressure on any individual mentor and vastly expands the experience sphere available to the mentees. Mentees are then able to use the experience to make more informed career decisions. We share the performance of a MP pilot program in our organization and encourage you to rethink mentoring programs in today’s dynamic work environment.