Bespoke and Different:
the MDS Made-to-Measure
Mentoring approach

SUMMARY OF THIS PAGE KEY POINTS:

On this page we will:

* explain how and why our bespoke and different Made-to-Measure Mentoring approach differs from most other consultants / providers, e.g. complex adaptive systems and HBDI

* outline why and how we keep it BESPOKE and DIFFERENT, especially the benefits to you when we work together, e.g. removing interference: p=p-i

* describe how our experience of mentorship has enabled us to train mentors, mentees and leaders together and / or, depending on your needs, enable culture change in your business using mentoring as an outstanding entry-point

* communicate our values and how they benefit you.

The MDS referred to in the headline above stands for Motivational Development Services, our company's trading name since our business was founded by Dennis Martin in 1978.

With 30+ years experience, our approach to Mentoring and culture change would best be described as

BESPOKE and DIFFERENT

That is, it is  Made-to-Measure Mentoring with you for your specific needs.

We have worked with large organisations such as Pfizer, Polaroid, Merck and Cargill; with SMEs such as Lubrizol and numerous individual mentees from M.D.s / CEOs, senior and middle managers and operators, technicians etc.

We don’t have one-size-fits-all, off the shelf packages, checklists or software or AI dominated techniques. 

In all cases, however big or small, we work interactively with you and your colleagues. 

WHY DO WE DO THAT?

Because it's your business, not ours, and, most of the time, you know it best, warts and all, . 

When we have finished helping you, you will be working with and improving whatever changes, new ideas, systems etc. that we jointly created, not us.

And, our experience has been that building mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual learning and motivation must be collaborative and interactive.

We know we will be dealing with a human complex adaptive system and to do that effectively we have to build the 'right' relationships with you and your colleagues.

And we will, if we communicate honestly and transparently together.

How would we describe what we do?

In essence, our bespoke and different Made-to-Measure Mentoring approach means that we’ll work together through a four stage process we call the Four D.s:

• Diagnosis – e.g. joint assessment of your needs and priorities; on both content and process; including scope - is it a mentoring programme you need or, for example, an organisational development project (e.g. culture change)?

• Design – e.g. based on the diagnosis outcomes, clarification of success criteria and planning an approach and programme that will satisfy your specific needs and be flexible as those needs change or new needs emerge

• Delivery of the designed plan – e.g. use of a wide range of creative approaches that will match and stretch people’s thinking and learning preferences and comfort zones; provision of real close-up help, guidance and Made-to-Measure Mentoring for success.
• This stage includes the Herrmann thinking preferences profile for participants.   
• Click here to see a copy of my profile

• Development – e.g. evaluation of results; trouble shooting, where necessary; assessment of return on investment; learnings and recommendations for next actions

Our training of mentors, mentees and leaders together in a group includes the Four D.s model above as a useful tool for mentoring effectively whatever the context.

What is a mentor?

Is that all bespoke and different does?

NO, not quite,

that's the overview essence of our bespoke and different Made-to-Measure Mentoring approach, but the process above creates many options for consideration as you will see described below.  

Our approach's diagnosis of your needs is key in preventing the 'project drift' that can happen otherwise. 

We do what will help you to help yourself and that could run into a very long list.

I have identified *12* activities and processes below that are most usually helpful in some form or other and frequently used by our clients in some form or other. 

Let's look further at what else we do in our bespoke and different Made-to-Measure Mentoring that differentiates our approach from the 'traditional' one most often used by other providers.

Is that ok for you?

*1* we know every one manages their own lives so they already have the life-skills to 'manage' a job (i.e. their livelihood) and to SELF-MANAGE their own mentorship programme.

And we will train your mentors, mentees and leaders in mixed groups how to become self-managing (and have fun doing it).

We will also train your colleagues how to fulfil their part in running a business, where we have agreed that need with you, and so we will encourage self-management in all aspects: as an individual; in teams; in sections; organisationally.

This Self-management aspect of our approach is one of the most productive of the benefits of mentoring and may often make Made-to-Measure Mentoring self-financing.

*2* we use the Ned Herrmann whole brain thinking model and the HBDI to create participants' thinking preferences profiles.

Click the link above to see my thinking preferences profile.   

Click the link to see more of Dennis' background.

We will train your mentors, mentee(s) and their leaders in whole brain thinking techniques that are transferable to all parts of their jobs and lives.

The image below is of Ned Herrmann's 4 quadrant whole brain model.

*3* We work with you, and your people, to bring about beneficial owned and accountable change.

Depending on your mentorship needs, or other OD needs, we will work holistically, seeing all elements of your business as connected and, with you, assessing which of the elements below are valid for your business:

• at an individual (‘cellular’) level by helping everyone, through Made-to-Measure Mentoring, to think differently; to manage their resources more effectively; to learn continuously; to create useful connections and relationships with others; and to release and realise more of their potential (and that of others' and your business)

• at a team level by helping teams to be clear about, and be committed to, their common purpose; to learn how to manage team processes; to achieve synergy; to interact effectively with other teams; and to build trust, motivation and commitment to continuously improve everything they do

• at a leadership level by helping formal leaders to facilitate high performance and job satisfaction; and by helping informal leaders – i.e. everyone – to practice personal leadership that contributes to business goals and a 'survive and thrive' culture

• at the organisational level by helping to define and clarify and communicate a coherent vision, organisation design and culture; and by helping to modify or eliminate any aspects of the organisation that may be preventing people delivering their best performance and potential

*4* we know that mentorship is a complex adaptive system.

We also know that if it is managed as if it was a linear system, driven top-down and 'controlled', it is very likely that the amazing benefits of Made-to-Measure Mentoring, to both people and the business, will at best be sub-optimised and returns on mentoring investment will be minimal.

The essential difference between a complex adaptive system and a linear system is that a linear system is knowable and predictable in advance.

A complex adaptive system is not.

What emerges from a complex adaptive system is unknowable and unpredictable until it happens.

For a more detailed description please go to our Complex Adaptive Systems page by clicking the link.

The image above represents a complex adaptive system

Our bespoke and different Made-to-Measure Mentoring approach will help you learn how to turn complex adaptive systems to your advantage and realise outstanding performance results from your mentoring and / or Organisational Development investments. 

*5* depending on the size of your business and mentoring investment, we would encourage a two-tier mentor structure.

In our Organisational Development work with Pfizer and our award winning partnership with Lubrizol, we had mentors, mentees and leaders as usual.

But in addition, we had 2 or 3 FULL-TIME Facilitators who acted as the mentors' mentors.

As well as mentoring mentors, the Facilitators mentored members of management when needed; aided the giving and receiving of feedback in all directions; were available to all mentees and leaders; encouraged mentees to have more than one mentor; and were an active, positive role model for Made-to-Measure Mentoring and culture change. 

They also greatly supported self-managed teams at all levels and in both of the companies mentioned any team member would and could beneficially mentor anyone else.

This led to a high standard of informal mentoring, often opportunistic, meaning that self-managed mentoring was deeply integrated into the culture in a way that formal mentorship only couldn't achieve.

This was a powerful example of Made-to-Measure Mentoring in practice, with outstanding results and returns on investment.

*6* Our experience with our bespoke and different approach has taught us that 'the best laid plans of mice and men' don't always work out as expected.

AND WHY IS THAT?, YOU MAY WELL ASK

Mentoring being a complex adaptive system, there could be many reasons but one of the main ones we have seen many times is a too narrow boundary around the planning design stage.

Our response is to diagnose factors that may hinder and /or help the mentoring process that are either in the external environment of the mentee's and mentor(s)  and / or is in the internal environment of either or both.

Often these inhibitors would be a combination of mental and emotional past conditioning or stress situations.

In particular, the simple equation springs to mind:

p = p - i 

which means what?

PERFORMANCE = POTENTIAL - INTERFERENCE

So, if we can help people release and realise more of their potential through Made-to-Measure Mentoring, we must improve performance?

Hmm, maybe, but complex adaptive systems are unknowable and unpredictable, so maybe not, especially if the interference remains unchanged or gets worse.

The mentoring may be great but may still be sub-optimised by unchanged interference.

Click the link to see how in Lubrizol part 2 a new interference reality emerged that changed everything.

Our experience coincides with what Deming reportedly once said: 'our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people'.

Interference, often introduced to control people's behaviour, may include, for example:

* hourly pay and overtime (we helped the individual Pfizer and Lubrizol plants we worked with to move everyone to salary and to abandon overtime)

* job descriptions (except where mandatory for regulatory reasons) which are, of course, static documents trying to describe an un-static situation and, in so doing, legitimise what isn't on the job description - ever heard someone say, 'it's not my job. It isn't in my job description'?

* unnecessary rules, often based on the 2.5% 'idiots' you may have which insults the 97.5% of 'good' people. It's better to base your rules on your 'good' folks and deal with the 'idiots' on a case-by-case basis.

WHY?
Because if you base your rules on the 'idiots', you may inadvertently communicate the message to your 'good' people that you think they are also 'potential idiots' and that you don't trust them either.

* a deep hierarchical organisation structure which makes all middle managers 'messengers' who fear 'letting go' and / or making decisions and this can lead to a limiting culture of 'yes men and women' and / or group think

* I had thought this was declining after the UK's 'sick man of Europe' period,,,,but some of it is still around I think: 'them and us' attitudes, especially troublesome when coming from 'management'

* lack of trust anywhere but especially problematic if evident from the top down.

We define trust as: 'I know you would not take unfair advantage of me'

Now, if we can remove the above interference AND mentor people to release and realise more of their potential, as we've experienced with our clients Lubrizol and Pfizer, record breaking performance can become the norm.

IMPOSSIBLE!!!

NO, not at all. 

We've done it to varying degrees with many of our clients. 

And, our bespoke and different Made-to-Measure Mentoring approach will help you to do it too, if you wish?

(please use the Contact Help Form below if you wish to have a free, no obligation discussion of 'how?' we may help you)

Interference factors that may be in the mentee's mind is a major 'target' that Made-to-Measure Mentoring will address as a priority.

Our mentor. mentee and leader group training sessions is tailor-made to help with this and the skills involved, if needed and effectively applied, become another 'secret of success'.

*7* when working with a client on culture change, we help to create a culture where everyone is a leader (formal or informal) and where everyone is a mentor and a mentee so that leadership and mentoring come ’naturally’ from anyone in the situation who can best relate to it contextually.

Our definition of a leader is: someone to whom others turn for help advice and guidance.

That's very similar to the definition of a mentor, isn't it?

*8* we use extensively SELF-MANAGED ‘giving and receiving’ feedback processes through Made-to-Measure Mentoring and the golden triangle of communications by everyone in all directions (see image below).

This creates high levels of intrinsic motivation; continuous life-long learning; and effective releasing and realising of more potential for everyone involved.

*9* we encourage creativity; synergy; initiative; innovation all with a self-managing, longer-term focus on the business (we), others (you) and self (I) in a balanced, prioritised and sustainable way.

That is, we help people to help themselves to use their hands, hearts and minds to make work a self-enhancing experience that's fun.

*10* we integrate continuous improvement into our approach with two major benefits:

* this often creates cost savings / profit improvements that exceed the costs of mentoring, in effect making mentoring self-financing, a major benefit of mentoring

* this often creates a need for self-managing high performing formal leader less teams which, if needed, will be included in the training and learning experiences we share with you mentors, mentees and leaders

*11* we often use mentorship as an entry-point for culture change (and vice versa) because the mentoring roles and processes are a microcosm of a culture we often recommend (e.g. become a learning organisation)

*12* we trust the process (and you and your people and ourselves), we live our 7 VALUES (see below), AND YOU WILL SUCCEED AND ACHIEVE HIGH SUSTAINABLE RETURNS ON INVESTMENT as a result.

Your business and its people will survive and thrive.

When we are asked if our bespoke and different Made-to-Measure Mentoring approach works and is successful, we smile and say:

YES INDEED, VERY.

We are proud of the fact that with many of our clients we have worked with them for a long time. 

For example, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, we have worked with them for over 20 years;

over 7 years with Polaroid Scotland;

over 8 years with government agencies in Hull and Rotherham;

and with Lubrizol for over five years (see photo below).

We regard repeat business as the ultimate feedback (of 'champions' as we would say in Yorkshire),

Our valued clients have included:

Along with our amazing client Lubrizol, we won a UK National Training Award for a culture change process that the judges described as, 'revolutionary and inspiring'.

Click The Lubrizol Story to read why? and how? we did it.

Click here to read PART TWO of the  Lubrizol Story when we faced a different reality altogether.

The photo below shows us receiving our Award

What are our bespoke and different values?

We have Seven Key Values that are intended to benefit you and us.

To see these values click on the link to go to Our Seven Values page.

go back to our HOME PAGE                                go to our PRIVACY POLICY

SO, PAGE SUMMARY

On this page we have:

* explained how and why our bespoke and different  Made-to-Measure Mentoring approach differs from most other consultants / providers, e.g. complex adaptive systems

* outlined why and how we keep it BESPOKE and DIFFERENT, especially the benefits to you when we work together, e.g. removing interference: p=p-i

* described how our experience of mentorship has enabled us to train mentors, mentees and leaders together and / or, depending on your needs, enabled culture change in your business using Made-to-Measure Mentoring as an outstanding entry-point

* communicated our values and how they benefit you

You may have some questions or feedback regarding this page and our bespoke and different approach. If so, please contact me via the Contact Help Form for Dennis below.  I will be delighted to discuss them with you: zero cost and obligation.

We've covered a lot of ground on this page and I just want to THANK YOU for visiting my web site and reading this page.  Your attention is much appreciated.

I hope you found the page as worthwhile and interesting reading it as I did writing it.

Kindest regards,

Dennis