Using a Mentor Selection Process With Staged Criteria and Safety Checks

The very desirable use of an "inclusive" approach to selection and matching of mentors and proteges has been advocated elsewhere by this author to eliminate the many pitfalls that happen within a more "exclusive" approach to selecting mentors. This author suggests the use of "Staged Criteria and Safety Checks" to make such an inclusive selection process work effectively.

This paper presents an EXAMPLE of a Selection Process With Staged Criteria and Safety Checks. That means that there are other possible ways to structure such a process and still use "staged criteria" and "safety checks". This approach to structuring the process is the one the author has developed across twenty years of practice in many, many mentoring programs in many types of organizations. That's why it is shared here.

Could it be further improved? The author continues to do that in every application where he uses it.

Invariably, the approach of using "staged criteria" and "safety checks" does not change. It is Best Practice.
HOW it is structured can vary to fit diverse organizational and program needs.

Do NOT let the educational terms used in this diagram keep you from understanding it's potential. This is merely an example of one application of this crucial strategy. To adapt this process to your setting, simple change "teacher" to "employee", and "principal" to "manager" or "supervisor". If your program is not focused on "novice" employees, shift the language to "protege".

Start reading this diagram in the upper left corner and follow the arrows through the chart.