Will her death be in vain ?

Will her death be in vain ?

Well she has died. Died in pain, murdered in body and spirit.  The big question today is : Will we, the citizens of India , let her death be in Vain ? Or will we treat this not as an incident , but as a turning point in each of our own lives and together in the lives of the citizens ? Or will we continue our apathy towards numerous  incidents like this, big or small, thinking “ thank God it was not me “ ?

For many the Case of Sanjay and Geeta Chopra may be unheard of . In 1978 a young brother and sister were kidnapped, the sister raped , brutally, and then both murdered .

Some details of the case (ref Wikipedia) are as under :

The Ranga Billa Kidnapping Case was a notorious crime in New Delhi in 1978. Two children, Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, were kidnapped by two young men, Ranga Khus (Kuljeet Singh) and Billa (Jasbir Singh), who planned to demand ransom from their parents. Their plans went awry when their car was involved in a traffic accident with a public bus. They subsequently raped Geeta, murdered the children and fled the city.^[1] They were arrested on a train a few months later, tried and hanged for the crime in 1982.^[2]

The kidnapping

The children were reported missing on 26 August 1978 and their bodies discovered on 29 August 1978.^[3] Medical examination confirmed that Geeta was raped. It later transpired that they had been kidnapped while hitching a ride from outside Gol Dak Khana near Connaught Place.

The trial

Both culprits were found guilty and sentenced to death. Both were then hanged.

Aftermath

In 1978, the Indian Council for Child Welfare instituted two bravery awards for children under the age of 16, the Sanjay Chopra Award and the Geeta Chopra Award, given each year along with the National Bravery Award.^[4][5]

 The incident shook the country. The perpetrators – Billa and Ranga were hung until death in 1982. Today, 35 years later, we have SIX Billa’s and Ranga’s . How many more are we going to allow to breed and flourish in our society ?

The answer to these questions lies in the hearts of each citizen of this country. We can keep blaming the Government for crimes, but think about this…. We are a population of nearly 1.2 Billion. Being governed by a Government of app. 5000 politicians, including corrupt ones. My point is that the main responsibility of Governance lies with US – the people of this country ! Are we , as we usually do, forget the ultimate sacrifice this girl has made and continue to turn a blind eye to molesters ( who could be future rapists) , eve teasers, grapplers and sexual predators ?

So I come back to my original question : Is her death going to be in vain ? How many more Daminis do we need before we realize we are fast becoming a culture of Vultures and Hawks ? 

Looking beyond E-Governence

Looking Beyond E- Governance…….

When we talk of E-Governance, what is it we are looking to achieve? A sound e-governance initiative should trigger tangible improvements in the social and economic conditions of citizens. This absolute focus on achieving desired outcomes can help administrators see beyond the razzle-dazzle of 21st century technology to its true potential to create value.

Second, the long term effort and focus will be to establish strong relationships with the citizens and deliver him services to ease his life.

While as an industry we are all strongly focused on providing e-Governance applications and infrastructure, we rarely think about the adoption of the services planned to be produced by this same expensive deployment. The question is very simple and basic. When the applications and services are finally rolled out, what will be the usage ?

A successful e- program has three phases –

My observation of the evolution of e-Government worldwide suggests that it has followed three e- waves of development so far and is on the threshold of a fourth:

Wave 1 - Promote access and connectivity: New technology (ICT) introduces newcapabilities, and the opportunity of e-Government. The focus was on developing infrastructureand adapting the legislative framework in order to encourage adoption. Within government, thefocus was on building the infrastructure that would enable future cooperation.

Wave 2 - Provide services online: e-Government was viewed as an ‘add on’, that is, anadditional communication channel, and the primary emphasis was on developing customerinterfaces to make existing services available online (for example, paying road tax). Withingovernment, common portals were established as signposts to largely autonomous PublicServices.

Wave 3 - Transform the enterprise: the current phase has in part been driven by efficiency agendas, and the focus has changed from basic provision of services to impact, in terms ofbenefit to end users and government. There has been an increasing emphasis on theautomation of back office processes (for example, claim processing) and integration (both withinand between services). The measurement emphasis has been on efficiency and effectiveness.This is where most governments currently are, and in our view, will be for a few more years.

Within this third wave we discern two sub-stages:

– Wave 3a: The focus is on the automation of existing processes: claim processing,appointment booking and other basic transactions.

– Wave 3b: Governments fundamentally re-engineer their business, implementing smarter,quicker processes which are enabled by ICT. Capitalising on these leaner processes, theyalso restructure the organisation itself - creating leaner organisations or moving staff tomore value added roles to improve service effectiveness.

The fourth wave

Wave 4 will move beyond the re-engineering of existing services to radically newways of realizing policy objectives enabled by ICT and which we have seen are improvements in the social and economic conditions of citizens.

Wave 4 - Next generation government: ICT becomes so ingrained that defining e-Government as a separate entity ceases to be helpful. Traditional channels are ICT-enabled inthe back office and offered alongside electronic channels in a seamlessly integrated fashion.Merging of channels, for example, Internet telephony, allows governments to offer blendedchannel solutions as part of their channel management strategies such that electronic channelsbecome mainstream.

Wave 4 will ultimately be  theadoption of the service and usage. If the citizens are not enabled or see value to using the services provided, then all the efforts and the expense of the initiatives are wasted.

So in essence, what do we see beyond e-Governance ?

I  call it “p-Governance”, where p stands for personal. Why? Because unless the services are not  personalized to the citizen, they will never be valued and never be used.

What does personalization really mean and involve? With the availability of great supporting technologies, personalization can not only be done in an effective manner but also can become a great accelerator of the adoption of such services.

We are very sure that the next wave (wave 4)  of investments will be in the area of adoption of services by a variety of agencies because the mass of usage in India is at the bottom of the pyramid. A potential base of 1.2 B users cannot be ignored by any agency.

Furthermore, personalization will involve multiple technologies being integrated and working together, across disparate databases, sharing information and continuously processing information for my personal needs. It will involve solutions and technologies in

A.   Mobility

B.   Languages

C.   Diction and Dictionaries

D.   Localization of content

E.    Personalization of user interfaces

F.    Personalization of data

G.   Convergence between Mobile, Televisions and computers

H.   Cloud computing

I.       Call centers

J.      BPOs

K.   E-Learning technologies

The list is NOT exhaustive. The point is that technology will no longer be the end ( as it is today) but a means to the end. And the end being the adoption of the plethora of services which can be availed.

Collaboration Management, Collabzo, Simple Web-Based Project Management, Collaboration Tool

Collaboration Management, Collabzo, Simple Web-Based Project Management, Collaboration Tool

Creating a learning environment

How Collaboration  works

Introduction

In this fast moving, ever changing and dynamic world of the global economy, “knowledge” building within an organization and its subsequent application is gaining critical importance. Today, knowledge is driving business and creating the key differentiators. The application of knowledge is allowing organizations to create “knowledge added products” there by gaining premiums. It is therefore critical and crucial that organizations create engines within their systems to identify, assimilate and manage knowledge and use “learning” as a management tool rather than just as part of skill development. And it is equally essential that individuals participate in such engines. These “knowledge engines” must be capable of -

Assimilating and distributing tacit knowledge (knowledge based on the experiences and ideas of their own employees. In every organization there exists a huge base of this kind of knowledge, which is actually its Intellectual Capital,  and which is  wasted due to non sharing, non collaboration and finally erodes due to attrition and “retirals”.

Continuous dissemination of Explicit knowledge (Knowledge imparted through Training  and skill development programs. The key operative word is “continuous”. Training programs, once completed, have a habit of fading out from memory. The efficacy of such periodic programs with respect  to productivity and outcomes is low. Training and skill development is a continuous process, with the base training being followed with updates, tutorials, experience sharing and most importantly, the application of that training into real life scenarios.

Core Engines

1.    Training and Learning Management Engine (for Explicit Knowledge)

The training and Learning Management engine is a web based delivery of training content, tutorials, white papers, presentations etc which can be accessed by the employee anytime and anywhere. It is designed to generate interest and retention. With a powerful collaboration tool integrated into the engine, it encourages mentee cooperation instead of competition.

The course delivery system provides for independent or tutor driven courses, as well as multiple formats for supporting documentation and tutorials. It also provides a forum for every employee, mentee or student  to share experiences, observations, and feedback (this information is rarely captured anywhere , thereby losing out on collaboration opportunities and intellectual property).

2.    Mentoring and Knowledge Base and Knowledge Management (Tacit Knowledge)

Collaboration is integrated with a mentoring engine which allows mentors and mentees  to share their experiences, knowledge as well as  problems. Mentors guide mentees without the effort of setting up meetings or reviews. Retired industry specialists share their knowledge built up over the past several years. All this happens online, anytime and anywhere, thereby allowing effective utilization of time. In addition, all specific information can be captured and classified in the Knowledge Base for reference and use by others, or can also be used to create specific, situation based training modules. This information is searchable based on relevancy which then allows the user to save time and effort of searching huge data bases.

Over time, this knowledge base will hold the highest levels of Intellectual Property and Intelligence which can then be mined by organizations and or individuals  to help them make better and informed decisions.

Mentoring

Mentoring techniques

Accompaniment

This means making a commitment in a caring way. Accompanying involves taking part in the learning process by taking the path with the learner.

Seeding

Mentors are often confronted with the difficulty of preparing the learner before he or she is ready to change. Sowing is necessary when you know that what you say may not be understood or even acceptable to learners at first but will make sense and have value to the mentee when the situation requires it.

Accelerating

When change reaches a critical level of pressure, learning can jump. Here the mentor can choose to plunge the learner right into change, provoking a different way of thinking, a change in identity or a re-ordering of values.

Demonstration

This is making something understandable, or using self example to demonstrate a skill or activity. You show what you are talking about, you show by your own behavior.

Harvesting

Here the mentor focuses on “picking the ripe fruit”: it is usually learned to create awareness of what was learned by experience and to draw conclusions. The key questions here are: "What have you learned?" "How useful is it?"

Different techniques are allowed and may be used by mentors according to the situation and the psychological mindset of the mentee. These Techniques can be found in ancient education systems, from the Socratic technique of harvesting to the accompaniment method of learning used in the apprenticeship of itinerant cathedral builders during the middle Ages. Leadership authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner advise mentors to look for "teachable moments" in order to "expand or realize the potentialities of the people in the organizations they lead" and underline that personal credibility is as essential to quality mentoring as skill.

Collaboration should  allow for these techniques and that critical identification of a “Learning  Moment” making it a most effective tool for mentored learning.

Knowledge Management 

Knowledge Management (CKM) comprises a range of practices to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice.

CKM efforts typically focus on organizational/ individual learning objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement. CKM efforts overlap with the Learning Process , and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. CKM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organizational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees turnover in an organization, and to adapt to changing environments and markets.

Strategies for  Knowledge Management

Knowledge may be accessed at three stages: before, during, or after CKM-related activities. One strategy to KM involves actively managing knowledge (push strategy). In such an instance, individuals strive to explicitly encode their knowledge into a shared knowledge repository, such as a database, as well as retrieving knowledge they need that other individuals have provided to the repository.

Another strategy to KM involves individuals making knowledge requests of experts associated with a particular subject on an ad hoc basis (pull strategy). In such an instance, expert individual(s) can provide their insights to the particular person or people needing this.

knowledge management strategies include:

• rewards (as a means of motivating for knowledge sharing)
• storytelling (as a means of transferring tacit knowledge)
• cross-project learning
• after action reviews
• knowledge mapping (a map of knowledge repositories within a company accessible by all)
• communities of practice
• best practice transfer
• competence management (systematic evaluation and planning of competences of individual organization members)
• proximity & architecture (the physical situation of employees can be either conducive or obstructive to knowledge sharing)
• master-apprentice relationship
• collaborative technologies
• knowledge repositories)
• measuring and reporting intellectual capital (a way of making explicit knowledge for companies)
• knowledge brokers (some organizational members take on responsibility for a specific "field" and act as first reference on whom to talk about a specific subject)
• social software (wikis, social bookmarking, blogs, etc)

Motivations

Motivation is a critical factor in Knowledge Management. Collaboration enables

• Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services
• Achieving shorter new product development cycles
• Facilitating and managing innovation and individual / organizational learning
• Leveraging the expertise of people across the Portal
• Increasing network connectivity between internal and external individuals
• Managing environments and allowing individuals to obtain relevant insights and ideas appropriate to their work
• Solving intractable or wicked problems
• Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals)

Task Management and Human Resource development

One of the most popular methodologies for measuring training effectiveness was developed by Donald Kirkpatrick. This model articulates a four-step process. Simply put it measures and assures efficacy through measurement of reactions , participant learning through demonstrable changes in knowledge application, skill and attitude , transfer of learning (application of the knowledge gained in the job performance) and finally Results – measuring the changes in the achievement of business objectives.

Collaboration  uses the Kirkpatrick Model integrated into a Task Manager, where the mentor can assign tasks (at the Objective level) and the mentee can break down that task into transactions (Transaction level) enabling :

·       A completely transparent model of task assignation and management demonstrating Business Managerial skill as well as mentee knowledge.

·       The quantity and quality of the task assignation and completion clearly showing the strengths and weaknesses of the mentees and areas of further development.

• A direct measure of training and development programs and the mentees response. 

Creating an online skill development program for India

Background

Today’s world e-governance plays an important role. The nature and scale of e-governance initiatives planned within the domain of the State Governments, present a considerable enhancement in the aspiration level of government. Major managerial and technological challenges are one consequence of this, particularly in the context of the need for implementation of these projects in a "mission mode" with clearly defined goals, timelines and responsibilities by concerned departments of the State Governments. Now a day’s government is spending money to improve skills development and Capacity Building, where e-governance have ideas to implement all the schemes.

Capacity Building Scheme for all the States/UTs for taking National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) forward across the country has been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affaires (CCEA), the scheme is mainly for providing technical & professional support to State level policy & decision-making bodies and to develop specialized skills for e-governance.

Government of India recognizes “Capacity Building”  as the key for the success of e-Governance projects and has made “Capacity Building” a integral part of all Mission Mode Projects (MMP). It has recognized the importance of Building Human Resource Capacities in terms of Necessary Knowledge, Skills to Conceptualize, Implement and Sustain e-Governance initiatives.

Capacity Building being the key pillar and to serve this need, a system of continued learning is inevitable. Learning Management System (LMS), a program for continuous development of the employee, is an excellent tool for training, evaluating, and tracking results.

The Ever-improving technology, new laws and regulations, increased job requirements, and a changing workforce are all factors that create an environment where employers must efficiently and effectively deliver learning experiences. These experiences must be easily accessible and tracked.

It is also necessary to upgrade the quality of skills to match international standards through significant industry involvement and to develop the necessary frameworks to address the development and sustainability of a dynamic management system regarding relevant curriculum, content, pedagogy, assessment and evaluation, quality assurance process and standards. Enhance, support and coordinate private sector initiatives for skill development strive for significant operational and financial involvement from the private sector.

Benefits of online learning

Focus on the underprivileged sections of society and the backward regions of the country, thereby enabling their move out of poverty; similarly focus on the workforce from the unorganized or the informal sector. A Learning Management System (LMS) is an excellent tool for training, evaluating, and tracking results. Major benefits of LMS system can be viewed as follows:

·         Centralized Learning: Centralized Learning Environment ensures consistency. By its nature, an LMS makes all types of training content, developmental content, and performance content available to individuals through DVD or web access. Multiple users can access the LMS at any given point in time. The LMS ensures consistency in delivery and evaluation since each user sees the exact same material in the same manner and can be evaluated through common pre-testing and/or post testing methods. An LMS allows users to easily design and deploy customized training modules. This feature is especially important when new module is introduced, existing module is updated, or standard operating procedures are significantly modified.

·         Tracking and Reporting: The LMS allows users to view a required learning path, track progress against the learning path, review records of success, and register for additional courses. Employers can offer these courses through various media including instructor led training, web-based training, or webinars. Management can access the same records of success and can also analyze the records data to determine areas of success and areas that needs improvement.

·         Capabilities Evaluation: The LMS allows users to be evaluated prior to taking a course, while participating in the course, and upon course completion. Employers can evaluate retention by periodically administering scheduled assessments via the LMS. They can review the records of results to determine success levels and actual time taken to complete each course and its components.

·         Cost Effectiveness: LMS allows multiple people to be trained at same time, thus reducing reliance on trainers and reducing cost of training.

LMS Deliverables 

1.      Develop some online courses with text and 2D pictures and animation

2.      Self assessment questions at end of each section

3.      The developed content should be uploaded to the LMS through content management system

4.      The developed content should be available in form of DVD

LMS Features

Web-based solution for Capacity Building is a Learning Management System for employees of Government departments to acquire Knowledge and enhance their skill sets in a quick, user friendly and cost effective manner. Some salient feature of this solution is listed as below:

·         Manage Employee Development

·         Create continued learning Environment

·         Manage Training Initiatives

·         Skill Development

Work is an important part of every person’s life; it defines who we are and without work we often feel socially excluded. For young people, finding a stable job position is also a symbol that marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. In finding employment, young people find independence and a freedom of choice about their lives. It gives them a certain degree of economic security that is often a prerequisite for partnership formation and parenthood.

The creation of sustainable livelihoods has become an important factor in this era  of
globalization to understand the progress of a state or a nation, especially in developing countries and among disadvantaged populations. Sustaining the progress calls for an explicit consideration of future generations. Youth will inherit many of the environmental, economic and social problems created over the past decades and incorporating their opinions and concerns into policies at all levels is critical for a country’s progress.


The essentials for generating sustainable livelihoods are ‘adaptability’ and ‘dynamic livelihood capability’. It is thus desired to improve the effectiveness of the non-formal training system in order to mediate the lateral potential of young people into productive social and economic activity, while sensitizing itself to their current livelihood conditions and capabilities.

Self-employment, entrepreneurship, school to work programs and work-based training should be promoted. Partnerships with the private sector need to be strengthened and the use of new ICTs to support youth employment and training must be encouraged

Innovation for the common man

“In a free society, the enterprise cannot own, but only rent its human capital.”

The simple wheel! A key invention which fathered many more innovations and inventions through the ages. Who invented it and why?

No one knows how, when and who invented the wheel. It will always remain a mystery. Maybe it was invented around 8,000 B.C. in Asia,even though , the oldest wheel known, however, was discovered in Mesopotamia and probably dates back to 3,500 B.C. While the west knew not much about the wheel, it was during the industrial revolution that different ideas and innovations were thought which were based on the wheel. Today, the wheel has become the central component of technology, and used in thousands of ways in countless different mechanisms.

If I ask the question “ how many wheels does a car have “ many people will come with what they consider an obvious answer. So for a 4 wheel drive car, they will say “four”. Wrong. A car is designed and made with many more number of wheels than 4 or 8. The engine uses countless wheels and discs, the brakes use discs, the crank uses a disc etc.

Thus the wheel has become an invaluable component of our day to day life, while we still don’t know how or who invented it.

My own theory is that eons ago, a weary walker, tired from his journey, dreamed of a tool which could take him or his load from point A to B. That’s a theory, I don’t know. But what I do know is that the wheel, like countless successful innovations after it, was born out of a necessity or a need.

Innovation is therefore born out of a need, felt, stated or observed and its popularity or success is driven by the perceived demand for fulfillment of that need.

So, what fuels innovations and inventions ?

A.    A Need

B.     A idea for fulfillment of that need

C.     A demand for the fulfillment of that need.

Having said that let me go a step further. Who creates the idea for the fulfillment of a need? We humans, ordinary people, special people, great people, not so great people, in short EVERY ONE of us.

In a paper in 1997, WIPO stated “Inventiveness and creativity are features which have favored the differentiation of mankind in the course of evolution, from all other living species.” 

Following from the above, our belief is that when ordinary people become aware of the needs of the society in general or a group within that society, by applying their conscious mind, can conceive a solution to fulfill those needs, either by creating an invention or by an creating an innovative use of available technology.

The problem we are faced with in this world today is NOT the availability of people who can think and create, but of people who don’t want to or have lost the will and the intent to create. This loss of will or intent is mostly driven by the inability of the common man to appreciate his / her societal ecosystem as well as technology that may surround them.

Consider the computer. “The United States is the birthplace of both the personal computer and the Internet. It has written the rules for using business technology to deliver staggering increases in worker productivity. It has given the world major innovations in the microprocessors that power computing and electronics devices of all sizes and functions.

The U.S. has quite simply served as the undisputed leader and catalyst of the global IT industry for the past 40 years. Yet the landscape has changed rapidly over the past decade, and especially in the past five years, as the U.S. is now facing challenges across the board from nimble innovators in Europe and Asia”

“The United States has fallen to seventh place among 122 economies in its network readiness, or ability to leverage the opportunities of IT”, according to a report … by the World Economic Forum

Consider another report from American.com ( authorVivekWadhwa) , “America makes and designs less and less, and has become a soft-bellied country of marketers, PR people, and lawyers—make-nothings, in other words”.

Even President Barack Obama has called  for more engineers and a return to a country of people who make things.

But the era of evaluating technological growth or wellbeing by quantifying the number of inventions a country makes is long gone and fast becoming history. The new way will be a shift from creating inventions to using them innovatively. Today’s economics are more to do with how effectively we use and deploy an invention, rather than creating that invention.  If inventions were the driving force, Israel would be no. 1 . With 3% of the World Population accounting for 25% of the Worlds patents, they really had no competition. But the game has changed. It is not the wheel which is important today, it’s the new and innovative uses of the wheel  which have become importance.  We don’t even bother too much about the fact that we don’t even know who invented the wheel.

The Innovation chain

Per above diagram,  the inventor is mostly confined to step 1. The innovator on the other hand can be involved in Steps 2,3,4, and 6. The manufacturer or producer is in step 6 while the marketer addresses step 7. Thus is the importance of the innovator and his potential to build wealth.

The need to innovate

Why is the understanding of modern innovation phenomenon important to us as current world citizens ? Because

1.     each and every one of us are “Potential innovators.”  Because today, innovation includes ideas, as intellectual property, and not necessarily need be a physical or tangible product.  And

2.     Our innovations have the potential to become our wealth. They are a great tool of wealth creation – even for the most common or lowly citizen of this World.

Can innovation be taught ?

Fortunately, NOT.  Innovation can only be encouraged and guided. It can never be taught, it is inherent.

How can we innovate to create wealth .

As potential innovators, we need to develop in us an awareness of the world around us, the needs of that world and the availability / non availability of tools or technology which can be combined to fulfill that need or utilized in a specific manner for the same. The figure below captures the stages of common innovation development and the required action and skills for that stage.

Creating a Organizational learning environment

In this fast moving, ever changing and dynamic world of the global economy, “knowledge” building within an organization and its subsequent application is gaining critical importance. Today, knowledge is driving business and creating the key differentiators. The application of knowledge is allowing organizations to create “ knowledge added products” there by gaining  premiums. It is therefore critical and crucial that organizations create engines within their systems to identify, assimilate and manage knowledge and use “learning” as a management tool rather than just as part of skill development. And it is equally essential that individuals participate in such engines. These “knowledge engines” must be capable of

(a) Assimilating and distributing tacit knowledge (knowledge based on the experiences and ideas of their own employees. In every organization there exists a huge base of this kind of knowledge, which is actually its Intellectual Capital,  and which is  wasted due to non sharing, non collaboration and finally erodes due to attrition and “retirals”.

B)    Continuous dissemination of Explicit knowledge (Knowledge imparted through Training and skill development programs. The key operative word is “continuous”. Training programs, once completed, have a habit of fading out from memory. The efficacy of such periodic programs with respect to productivity and outcomes is low. Training and skill development is a continuous process, with the base training being followed with updates, tutorials, experience sharing and most importantly, the application of that training into real life scenarios.

C)   Analytical tools for strengths, weaknesses as well as development needs.

D)    Mentoring and  management of outcomes

Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The receiver of mentorship was traditionally referred to as a protégé, or apprentice but with the institutionalization of mentoring the more neutral word "mentee" was invented and is widely used today.

The mentoring process :

·         Individuals  can depend on mentors to keep them apprised of changes and advances in their field. Mentors can also show them how the curriculums / programs  can benefit their career and can recommend elective courses. The objective will be to help the mentee become a business leader

·         Mentors can help mentees develop resumes or select a project or campus / employment  club that may further their careers.

·         Mentors can help mentees accomplish career goals, as well as personal goals. They give advice on resume-enhancing activities or recommend ways to balance career and family.

·         Mentees can and  should talk to their mentors about what they hope to gain from the experience. They should also learn about their mentors' experiences and how they acquired their current positions.

·         Relationships are not one-sided. Mentees  are encouraged to enter the process with thoughts about how they can help mentors give them the best advice.

·         Mentees need to know themselves. Feedback helps mentees identify strengths and weaknesses which help the mentor and mentee address areas for improvement.

·         Mentors encourage mentees to develop to their fullest potential and to create their own vision for the future.

Mentoring techniques

1.    Accompaniment

 This means making a commitment in a caring way. Accompanying involves taking part in the learning process by taking the path with the learner.

2.    Seeding

Mentors are often confronted with the difficulty of preparing the learner before he or she is ready to change. Sowing is necessary when you know that what you say may not be understood or even acceptable to learners at first but will make sense and have value to the mentee when the situation requires it.

3.    Accelerating

When change reaches a critical level of pressure, learning can jump. Here the mentor can choose to plunge the learner right into change, provoking a different way of thinking, a change in identity or a re-ordering of values.

4.    Demonstration

This is making something understandable, or using self example to demonstrate a skill or activity. You show what you are talking about, you show by your own behavior.

5.    Harvesting

Here the mentor focuses on “picking the ripe fruit”: it is usually learned to create awareness of what was learned by experience and to draw conclusions. The key questions here are: "What have you learned?" "How useful is it?"

Different techniques are allowed and  may be used by mentors according to the situation and the psychological mindset of the mentee. These Techniques  can be found in ancient education systems, from the Socratic technique of harvesting to the accompaniment method of learning used in the apprenticeship of itinerant cathedral builders during the Middle Ages. Leadership authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner advise mentors to look for "teachable moments" in order to "expand or realize the potentialities of the people in the organizations they lead" and underline that personal credibility is as essential to quality mentoring as skill.