Becoming a mentor: Part 5, graduating and reflecting

Last week marked the official end of my Creative Mentor Network journey. The folks at CMN put on a fantastic celebration for mentors, mentees, friends and supporters of the programme to mark the occasion, the highlight of which really was the young people. It was a privilege to hear from such a diverse range of perspectives as our mentees showcased their work, reflected on their emotional journey, championed for an inclusive industry and made music for us. It was a fitting and touching end to the experience.

William and I watched the performances together and it wont be the end for our relationship just yet. CMN encourages mentors to set their own terms of continuing on after the programme and William and I still have some work to do together. However, the official end to the programme has left me reflecting on the experience, especially ahead of sharing my learnings back with Snook.

There are many facets to CMN, which is what makes it such a rich experience. Some of which I feel I’ve gained benefit from more than others. The main thing for me has been how personally rewarding it’s been to help someone just starting out in their career. The journey I went on from worrying that I wouldn’t have enough to give, or that I couldn’t help — to understanding how much difference my contribution can make has been really important. Seeing the range of experiences our cohort of mentees had, also really highlighted the far reaching and varied support offered through this programme and the strength of the person centred approach.

One of the reasons I signed up for the programme was that I wanted ‘non-wanky’ management training (you know what I mean). I’m not sure how much I’ve gained in this space. I’ve certainly been exposed to new approaches and methods, many of which I’d be keen to try out in different situations, however I’m yet to see it really impact on my day-to-day work.

The other aspect I was looking for from the programme which I felt could have been stronger was the peer support from the mentor cohort. Maybe this is because I didn’t engage enough, maybe it’s because my particular corner of the creative industries was pretty under-represented and I felt a little bit uneasy around all the cool media and film sorts. Or maybe next year CMN could look to build a few more opportunities into the programme for mentors to really dig into each others approaches and learn from each other. However I also know, as a designer of programmes myself, there is never enough time in the sessions to do everything.

My personal experience aside, I think the biggest thing I will take away from this experience is the need for our industry as a whole to wake up to it’s diversity crisis. As Diamond so articulately put it at graduation (although she may have borrowed the quote), ‘diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance.’ I’d argue with 60% of jobs still being recruited through networks we’re still waiting for the invite to arrive to be honest.

Following this experience I’m making a few commitments:

1. To help shift Snook’s recruitment processes away from opportunistic hiring to a more open and accessible approach for all, continuing the great work started by Essi Mikkola before she left us
2. To champion others to consider their processes by ensuring we run an ‘Inclusive Recruitment’ event
3. Take CMN up on their offer of diversity and inclusion training for our company
4. Take every opportunity to talk about this as an issue in day-to-day conversation. Last week I met with a recruiter to see if they could help Snook — I shared my thoughts in our meeting.

Ultimately this is a systemic issue and things wont change over night or with a few grand sweeping acts. Last week I attended the DotEveryone Responsible Tech conference and I heard a story about how small interventions can make a difference. This is the approach I’ll be advocating for from here.

If you’re interested in CMN or would like to understand more about my experiences please feel free to reach out on Twitter: @worddoodles_ep