A Reinvigorated Mentoring Program at USAID/RDMA is Creating a Stronger Team

Bari Rabin and Iffat Nawaz contritubed to this blog. 

One of the common issues we hear about from USAID missions is the lost opportunity to share knowledge and experience as staff rotate in and out of assignments as well as tapping into local knowledge of  Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs), many of whom have worked for years at a single USAID mission. The USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA) has addressed this opportunity by reinvigorating its staff mentoring program. Recently, the program’s innovator and lead, Nipattra Sanguannuan (known by her colleagues as May), Training Program Coordinator for RDMA’s Asia Regional Training Center, was in Washington and sat down to talk with us about the program and the impact it’s had. 

Thank you for speaking with us about RDMA’s mentoring program.  How did the idea first come up?

I work at the most dynamic mission in Asia, RDMA.  We help the other missions in the region and we also have new personnel—Foreign Service Officers (FSOs), Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs), and staff from other hiring mechanisms—coming in all the time. So a peer-to-peer learning experience is really important for us to keep our office moving forward and to help other missions.  There was some mentoring already going on, but we didn’t have a formal process for mentors to find mentees, to track their progress, to check in with them, or to give them a pat on the back. It was during the time of the USAID Forward Experience Summit, in January 2014, that I heard about two or three missions running mentoring programs, so I started to look into what we needed to do to create a more intuitive, user-friendly process in our mission.

How did you change RDMA’s mentoring program?

We realized we needed a match-up committee and an easy way for people to sign up, instead of just sending an email.  We created a Google form where, with a few clicks, staff could request to be a mentor or mentee, list their strengths, the type of mentorship they’re looking for, and if they have a preferred person in mind.  Once the data is received, the match-up committee identifies a match and approaches the two people.

Can you describe RDMA’s mentoring program now?

There are three types of mentoring: one-on-one (the most common), group mentoring, and situational mentoring.  

Group mentoring, for example, is used when the agency rolls out a new IT program and you have five or six people who want to learn about it.  I think over the past year we’ve had around ten group mentorings, such as on the AEF season, on myUSAID, and on how to create an Excel pivot table.

Situational mentoring, which we love, is a signature of our mission.  This is when a team needs an interpreter, a coordinator in the field, or even a photographer in the field, and you invite an FSN or two who’ve never had a chance to see a program, to provide that support.  The FSN volunteers and they go with a participant and a trainer, and learn how to become an interpreter.  Then when they get back, they provide a write-up, captioned photos, or a video testimonial about what they learned.  Our former mission director actually set up the mission notice for the Program Office to announce these types of opportunities when there is space in the vehicle or a bit of funding to take additional staff.  One example is with MTV Exit, an annual concert the mission holds to raise awareness about human trafficking.  Our volunteer, an FSN, actually become an interpreter.  She got up on stage with thousands of people and interpreted English into Thai, right then and there, in front of everyone.  It was being recorded, and we all felt like, ‘Who would have thought?’.  She didn’t think that one day she would be standing in front of that big crowd, waiting for a big concert, and doing this just because of a small mentoring program.  So those are the kind of things (that) when I get feedback from people, it gives me the drive to push people to do more.

What makes someone want to become a mentor?

I’m going to give you a simple example, like me. This is my tenth year with USAID and I’ve learned a lot about organization—how to get around, what the acronyms are—and I can see the struggle of the newer generation because I struggled when I started.  For me, it was a willingness to share that experience.  I thought back to my first year and how nice it would have been to have someone I could go to for advice or guidance.

Are there any incentives to becoming a mentor?

There is no tangible incentive per se. But after a mentorship is completed we do highlights of the mentoring program stories. We include photos and testimonials. These are showcased on the website and they serve as a  reference for others who want to work with the mentoring program. 

And that’s the incentive, I think, that the mentors and mentees are appreciated and there is a sense of accomplishment and growth that comes with it.

How has the mentoring program impacted the mission?

It depends on the person.  Culture still plays a big part, but as far as I can see, once you (establish) your common objective or goal upfront, then all of these cultural barriers diminish.  I have one of the FSOs paired up with a senior FSN. So it’s kind of like oh, I’m an FSO and why is an FSN teaching me these things?

But you want to learn and he is willing to learn. So it happens. You know, it doesn’t matter if he is an FSO or not.  They both want to learn, so that’s how you make it organic and that’s how it’s happened.  You only have to have the mutual goal objective together.

What do you find to be the key factors that have made this program a success?

For one thing, it’s easy and approachable. The process is easily accessed and user-friendly. And the people who run the program are readily available.

We don’t have any protocol, you know. You don’t have to do anything in terms of a formal request with us. You can just come to my desk and say, “Hey, I want to be a mentor, I want to be a mentee.”

I think the key message for our program—and granted we have a long way to go—has been the willingness of wanting to make it happen. 

What about any challenges developed in the mentoring program? Especially with the idea in mind that other missions may want to start? How did you confront these challenges?

The first and biggest challenge for us is participation. With staff transitioning in and out of the mission all the time, we are always thinking about how we can get them to become mentoring champions, despite the fact that there is always other work to be done.

Second is raising awareness among staff so they view the mentoring program as a part of their daily work...it’s at the back of your mind, mentoring is what you do with your colleagues almost every day. Once you think about that, the mentoring program will find its place easily.

The third one is totally my personal challenge: How can I maximize my time to get higher participation?

• How can I keep people feeling that mentoring matters? 
• How can I sell this program? 
• How can I promote this?
• How can I find the right way to sell and advocate this service and keep up with the lack of demand?

These are important questions to ask during the planning stages for this program. 

And what do you recommend to other missions? 

You have to be flexible and ready to change. The implementation of a new program may not always go according to plan, so you have to be ready and willing to adapt it to address the needs and concerns of your staff. 

You also have to find your champions; champions are really important. They are the staff who are not only willing to work with you on the program, but are also acting as your advocate on the ground, when they return to their office or department.

How do you define success for the mentoring program?

It’s easy to get bogged down by quantitative success, such as how many mentors we have, how many trainings took place, etc. But  to me, this program is successful if, by the end of the year, I have people to talk about their experience with the program and how it has positively influenced or improved their work. 

I would also measure success by how comfortable they are participating, how much they know about the program, if they know where to find the resources they need if they have a problem with their mentorship or if they have suggestions for how to improve it.

What are the biggest differences you’ve seen with the team dynamic and office environment?

In the past, staff were often seen as only FSOs and FSNs, which created a culture of “us” and “them,” when really, it’s nothing more than a hiring mechanism. We are all USAID staff working toward a common goal.

One of the changes I’ve seen is  from the FSN side and how they seek out support. Before the mentoring program, many were apprehensive to seek out assistance, but when you have a mediator in the middle to help them find a mentor, it eliminates that barrier. The mentor program has changed that dynamic and made collaboration and learning from each other easier. 

And the side effect, the indirect benefit from the mentoring program is that it’s like a rolling ball. You know, if my friend has a mentor in another office, they might go and have lunch together or they might drop by and say hi. So my other friends feel more comfortable when you see those kind of scene at the office and it’s more of the pleasant environment, enabling environment for everyone to learn and work together.

I think that’s what I see the different in terms of creating the space for both FSOs and FSNs. This program has helped reinforce the fact that we’re a part of one mission and when you create an environment where people want to work, you have happy employees and happy employees lead to a happy agency.

When we interviewed May, it was almost the end of the work day. It was a full day for her, in fact, a full work week. It was a cold day in Washington, DC—very different from the weather of Thailand which May is probably most used to. Despite jet lag or letting the long day getting on her way, May’s enthusiasm remained high and contagious through the interview. Her love for the mentoring program and its growing success showed the abundant inspiration collaborating and learning can bring forth within an organization. And sometimes it takes individuals like May to think of ideas that work, those which may require thinking just a little out of the box to make the content of the box more substantive. We are sure the mentoring program which May created will be replicated (she is already in touch with other missions, including, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Jordan). We look forward seeing the success of one mission’s CLA efforts traveling to many others bringing forth positive changes and good development practices.