Kinder Institute of Life Planning

Summary of Mentorship Structure and Process

FEBRUARY, 2016

Overview

We are embarking on what promises to be a wonderful journey, a continuation of the great experiences in our five-day EVOKE training. We Mentors view the Mentorship as a four-month conversation. During the five-day training, “The Container” was often stressed as a vital element of the training experience and the process taking place between you and your clients. Applying this concept to the Mentorship journey:

  • we Mentors will create the container
  • all of us -- Mentees and Mentors alike -- will co-create the conversation. We are all enormously interdependent in this journey and are all co-learners on this path.

The Mentorship is a continuation of the five-day experience, applying what you learned there to your “real-life, back-home” client situations and practice challenges and opportunities. As we say at the end of this document, the five-day was like a sprint; the Mentorship is more like a half-marathon. This document lays out some expectations and markers for “the long run” on which we’re embarking.

We first emphasize that the Mentorship is an adult learning enterprise in which each person is responsible for the quality and depth of their own learning and has responsibilities to the entire group to “show up” for each other in a major way. You did so at the five-day EVOKE training. We are confident that you will continue that amazingly generous and fertile process during the Mentorship.

  • “Showing up” includes (a) establishing and maintaining an expectation that all of us will uphold our ‘tent pegs’ of the Container by participating full-heartedly and fulfilling the Mentorship requirements, and (b) approaching those who do not appear to be doing so, to express your concern.
  • “Showing up” also means making a good faith effort to master the EVOKE process and the principles of the Seven Stages as developed by the Kinder Institute. This is your one chance to attain mastery with the help of mentors and peers, so it is crucial to follow the process diligently every step of the way.

The Backbone

The backbone of the Mentorship is client case presentation and commentary. These are discussed in Guidelines documentsin the materials you download from the KI website. Please follow the Guidelines. They have been designed to enhance your learning and make your life easier. The aim of this presentation-and-commentary process is to deepen your insight, knowledge, zest for, and skill in applying EVOKE and the Seven Stages framework to your Life Planning clients. There will also be numerous opportunities for you--during case feedback, 1:1 coaching conversations, peer conversations, conference calls and the Come-back Day--to discuss and receive feedback on practice management issues related to Financial Life Planning.

Mentorship Program Components

Duration of the Mentorship is four months. The key Mentorship components are described in the remainder of this document. They include:

  • Case Presentations and Commentaries
  • Group Conference Calls
  • Individual Mentee-Mentor Conferences
  • Peer 1:1 Support
  • Come-back Day

Case Presentations:Mentorship group members will each present a case in turn, with a new one coming every two weeks. We will ask for volunteerson our first conference call to (a) ensure that the most ‘ready’ group members are up first, and (b) give participants sufficient time to select Life Planning clients and prepare case presentations. After those who wish have volunteered, we will use alphabetical order to schedule cases, with the aid of the Mentorship Calendar that we will provide.

Process for case presentation:

  1. Presenter prepares the case, in draft, and submits via email to Mentor one week in advance of the posting date (as specified in the Mentorship Calendar).
  1. Mentor emails back his/her comments (within 48 hours), which are intended to focus and clarify the write-up for group members’ consideration and comment.
  1. Within 72 hours, Presenter (a) finalizes presentation and posts it on website, and (b) emails participants to notify them of the posting.
  1. Mentees post their comments within five calendar daysof receiving notification that the case has been posted on the website.
  1. Mentor then postshis/her comments after all group members have submitted their comments.
  1. “Case Closing:” Within one week of Mentor’s posted comments, Presenter posts her/his ”Case Closing” by summarizing the comments and what presenter has learned from them. This provides closure to us all and is great feedback to the commentators. This is where major learning and integration can take place, both for the Presenter and for all group members.
  1. Follow-up: 4-6 weeks after Case Closing, Presenter posts a brief update, including subsequent actions taken, client progress, client and planner response to these subsequent contacts.

NOTE:

These steps constitute an integrated process, and each step makes an important contribution to the learning. Though it may go without saying, part of the container we wish to create includesa shared expectation that all of us will adhere to the timelines associated with case presentations. We understand very well how busy you are; we urge you to treat the Mentorship experience as a deep commitment, not as the proverbial “extra course” that you’re auditing. It is very important that we not fall behind on the schedule so that we can complete the mentorship on time.

Group Telephone Conferences: there will be three group telephone conferences (not including the kickoff conference) during the Mentorship. Each will be 1.5 hours in length. They will be times to reconnect, offer mutual support andaddress questions on EVOKE technique, specific cases and practice management issues.

Please view these Group Conference Calls as core learning opportunities, whose topic content you have the opportunity and responsibility to create. We do not have a topical ‘curriculum’ which we cover in Call One, Call Two, etc. We find that group members give the highest ratings to these conference calls when the group has been active in creating agenda items – and most active and participatory during the call. This is a seminar format with group discussion, all of us offering our perspective, wisdom and experience, rather than a Q&A with the mentors simply providing all the answers. As you work on your cases and face challenges you would like the group to ponder with you, and as practice management questions arise, please send them in to the lead mentor to be added to the next agenda.

Template for Phone Conference Agenda:

  1. Two minutes of inner listening
  2. Quick check-ins
  3. Agenda building and prioritization
  4. Discussion

4. Wrap-up

“Ground Rules” for Group Calls

Our intention in the phone conferences is to establish a clear and detailed agenda and a tight container, to ensure that group members derive maximum learning value from them. Therefore, we hope to develop consensus on, and commitment to, ground rules such as:

  • Offering agenda items -- whenever possible, in advance of the call
  • Starting and ending on time
  • Keeping comments on-point
  • Being mindful of the remaining agenda items and time.

Peer Support (1:1):We offer a 1:1 peer support structure within your Mentorship group. Whenever possible, members of the Planner-Client pairs from the five-day EVOKE training will constitute the pairings (to build on the connection, chemistry, and mutual familiarity). Purposes of the peer support pairs include:

  • serving as a place to check in, share experiences, insights, concerns, questions etc.
  • providing each other with Mentorship-related coaching when requested
  • forging a strong connection that will increase your commitment to the Mentorship experience
  • monitoring and discussing progress on each other’s life plan.

The Mentorship Calendar has four weeks scheduledto hold Peer Support conversations. They are roughly a month apart. You can work out the exact dates and length and agenda with your partner, and you can decide to have those conversations more frequently. Four is our recommended minimum. These are entirely for you and up to you. The Mentors will not be supervising or monitoring this activity.

Individual Mentee-Mentor Conferences:We have created a “bank” of two hours per Mentee of individual time with the Mentors during the four-month period. We anticipate that this will entail monthly half-hour phone calls. The topic of these calls can include client cases, practice management issues, professional development or the Mentee’s own Life Plan. As with the group calls, these coaching calls work splendidly when Mentees have thought about how they want to make highest and best use of the time. As KI Trainer and Mentor Ed Jacobson is famous for saying at the beginning of his coaching calls, “It’s your time.” The Mentors rarely have an agenda item for these calls. They are entirely up to you to get what you want and need.

Come-Back Day:We will gather toward the end of the Mentorship for a one day intensive session going over aspects of EVOKE and practice management that have surfaced as needing extra attention.

Closing Comment: We had an incredibly rich learning experience in the five-day EVOKE training, akin to a sprint. The Mentorship is, by contrast, more like a half-marathon; equally rich, but with different pacing, preparation, and performance. Working together, we will all make the Mentorship experience remarkably enriching, and you will learn an enormous amount about being the Life Planner you aspire to become. You will be well on your way to mastery of the EVOKE process and the applied principles of the Seven Stages.

Summary of Mentorship Structure and Process Revised February, 2016 1 of 3