{"id":1642,"date":"2013-02-01T06:30:50","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T12:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jmcampbell.com\/tip-of-the-month\/?p=1642"},"modified":"2013-02-04T09:48:25","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T15:48:25","slug":"what-is-mentoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jmcampbell.com\/tip-of-the-month\/2013\/02\/what-is-mentoring\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Mentoring?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Mentoring?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this Tip of the Month, we explore how process safety competency can be enhanced through mentoring programs.<\/p>\n

This TOTM is the paper that was developed by JMC Instructor\/Consultants Clyde Young and Keith Hodges presentation at the Center for Chemical Process Safety<\/a> (CCPS) 8th<\/sup> Global Conference on Process Safety in April, 2012.\u00a0 The paper will also be published in the AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineering) publication, \u201cProcess Safety Progress.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Commit to Process Safety<\/span> is the first pillar mentioned in \u201cGuidelines for Risk Based Process Safety Management\u201d, published by CCPS.\u00a0 This pillar is supported by five elements.\u00a0 One of the elements is Process Safety Competency, which is associated with efforts to maintain, improve and broaden knowledge and expertise.<\/p>\n

In Greek mythology, Odysseus, King of Ithaca went to fight in the Trojan Wars. Before he left, he entrusted his son Telemachus to the care of his old and trusted friend MENTOR. It was some ten years before father and son were reunited and during this time the development and care of his son was with Mentor.<\/p>\n

What is often missing from historical accounts is that it is Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom, who appears to Telemachus in the likeness of Mentor and gives advice, encouragement and spiritual insight.<\/p>\n

Since then, the word Mentor has become synonymous with trusted advisor, friend and teacher, a wise person.<\/p>\n

Demographic studies of the oil and gas processing industry indicate that a large number of people are retiring and being replaced by younger, less experienced personnel.\u00a0 This presents a challenge to the industry.\u00a0 A wise mountaineer once stated, \u201cGood judgment comes from bad experiences.\u201d With the influx of less experienced personnel, it would be shameful to have their good judgment developed from their bad experiences.\u00a0 Especially since these bad experiences can be catastrophic.<\/p>\n

Organizations in the industry have spent considerable resources recruiting the best talent available and most have a competency development program that these new workers enter.\u00a0 The program will generally include a step to have a more experienced person provide feedback on the worker to assess competency in the job. Well-developed and resourced competency development programs will have a Mentor assigned to the worker.<\/p>\n

What does this really mean and how can an organization insure that process safety competency is developed in all personnel, even if process safety activities are not the primary role?<\/p>\n

This TOTM will provide some guidance and best practices for establishing Mentoring programs with an emphasis on developing process safety competency in the younger, less experienced workforce.<\/p>\n

The role of Mentor involves teaching, helping, protecting, challenging, motivating, guiding, coaching, listening, and providing career guidance; it falls short of counseling.\u00a0 Counseling is the provision of professional psychological help and advice and chosen Mentors would be foolhardy to attempt such a role without extensive training.<\/p>\n

Mentoring is usually a formal or informal relationship between two people, a Mentor (usually and preferably outside the Mentee\u2019s area of supervision) and a Mentee.\u00a0 The Mentor can also be provided from an external organization. This can be preferable especially if there is any hint of competition between the Mentors and Mentees (e.g. working in the same department as peers).\u00a0 There are different rules of engagement if the external option is taken and this is outside the scope of this paper.\u00a0 Peer Mentoring can be a useful option, especially if a peer Mentor has specific skills and qualifications.<\/p>\n

Using a Mentee\u2019s supervisor within a discipline should be avoided as there could be a conflict of interest.\u00a0 The Mentor may be Mentoring one day and disciplining the next, This is not conducive to building trust, which is an important ingredient in the Mentoring process.<\/p>\n

Mentoring should not be substituted for conventional classroom or computer-moderated training. It enhances traditional training by allowing the Mentee to learn from experienced colleagues within the working environment.<\/p>\n

Choosing a Mentor<\/strong><\/p>\n

The choice of Mentors is an important aspect of a program and managers should first be satisfied that a Mentor not only has the required technical skills, but also has the ability to convey those to others in an efficient and effective way. Competency associated with Mentoring skills does not necessarily come naturally to everyone with highly competent technical skills.\u00a0 A key skill to insure effective process safety is communication with all disciplines that could have an impact on the process.<\/p>\n

Mentor Program<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is foolhardy to think that just putting together a pool of people as Mentors and pairing them with Mentees is going to be an effective way to put a Mentor program together.\u00a0 It takes planning and needs structure.\u00a0 There has to be an organizational aim for the program with measurable objectives.\u00a0 The Mentor should be provided with these and a list of roles and responsibilities, which they should fully comprehend.<\/p>\n

There should be a selection process for Mentors and organizations must recognize that a training program may have to be created for selected Mentors.<\/p>\n

Ideally the Mentee should be able to select the Mentor from a pool of people in the organization; management, the training department or HR should not pair them.\u00a0 Mentors should have the option to refuse the role should they feel that it would not be appropriate.<\/p>\n

Mentoring and Process Safety<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Mentoring program is not to be approached in a haphazard fashion if the goal is to develop competent personnel.\u00a0 A Mentoring program is much like a process safety management system.\u00a0 The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety Management (RBPSM) defines a management system as, \u201cA formally established and documented set of activities designed to produce specific results in a consistent manner on a sustainable basis.\u201d\u00a0 The Mentoring program should be formalized, documented and designed to produce specific results.\u00a0 The specific results are competent personnel associated with process safety.<\/p>\n

Mentees within a program may have been chosen because they are targeted to fill a key role within the organization.\u00a0 This role could be a technical position that requires narrow skills in a field or a supervisory position of either engineering personnel or operations personnel.\u00a0 The competency levels associated with process safety that are required will be highly dependent on the role in the organization.\u00a0 The Mentor\/Mentee relationship should keep this in mind as the process progresses.<\/p>\n

An effective Mentoring program that includes process safety as a key component will yield numerous benefits to the organization.\u00a0 A Mentor with wide professional and technical expertise should have considerable experience in areas that involve process safety.\u00a0 A Mentor that truly understands the concepts of risk based process safety will be invaluable to a Mentee with less experience.\u00a0 Consider the pillars of RBPSM and some of the elements within each pillar.<\/p>\n

Commit to Process Safety <\/strong><\/p>\n

Elements of this pillar include:<\/p>\n