Mentorship, or How to rebuild civilisation from scratch

A presentation at DevOpsDays Buffalo 2022 in September 2022 in Buffalo, NY, USA by Jeremy Meiss

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MENTORSHIP, AND RESTARTING CIVILIZATION FROM SCRATCH If we lost everything, and had to restart civilization from scratch, could we do it?

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Text

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REVOLUTION 2 seasons, 2012-14, NBC

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What if everything as we know it stopped working, and we had to make do with what was left - or recreate everything from scratch?

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Jeremy Meiss Director, DevRel & Community

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How did the ancients pass on what they knew to the next generation?

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Orality - thought and verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population. - Wikipedia

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Orality gave us the stepping stones that allowed us to get where we are today, it was a necessity for the growth of civilization. - Couch, Carl J., Information Technologies and Social Orders

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Storytelling and the Lakota People from the Luritja people from the Chickasaw Nation

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Oral tradition is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. - Wikipedia

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ancient Egyptian apprenticeship source unknown apprenticeship in England

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Apprenticeship

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“ After the fall of the great Egyptian, Mayan, and Roman empires we had evidence and examples of their engineering achievements all around us. But aqueducts or senate buildings are worthless without a society around them to maintain, contextualize, and protect them. - Alexander Rose Executive Director, Long Now

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Coaching vs. Mentoring

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Image credit quiettenacity

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Mentoring ⬆ :⬇

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Practical steps to mentoring / being mentored

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For the mentor…

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Understand why you are / want to be a mentor

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Hard to identify mentee’s ways of learning, but essential

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Set a timeline and an outcome you both want to see

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When setting up meetings with your mentee…

  1. Set focused topics for when you meet with mentee towards that desired outcome

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When setting up meetings with your mentee… 2. Recap what was discussed / learned after each

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When setting up meetings with your mentee… 3. Keep a shared doc of meetings notes and progress

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It’s OK to not know

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Normalize “I have no idea WTF I am doing”

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Use questions to shape decision-making, not robots 1. 1. Get around biases for assumed knowledge 2. 2. Understand their thought process 3. 3. Identify gaps

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Can’t save someone from stupid mistakes, but can tell them how you fixed them

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Pair with mentee, think out loud, try wild ideas, fail together, and debug together

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Model how to get others promoted

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Show you aren’t finished learning

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Help them share to a broader audience if they desire

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As a mentee…

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It’s OK to not know

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Come prepared with what you want to learn, questions you want answered

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Specific takeaways… for white males

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Specific takeaways… for non-white males

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A bit on mentorship wins and failures

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You can’t mentor someone to success

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The good and the bad, together

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Remember people are humans with feelings and personal lives

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So what are some of the takeaways from all this?

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Always be learning

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Mentorship isn’t always from older to younger

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Make yourself available - people are looking

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Recognize as a Mentor when it’s time to pass the baton - make a connection for the Mentee

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A quick note on sponsorship

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MENTORS SPONSORS people who can give us people who help us find helpful advice new opportunities and improve the visibility of our work Lara Hogan, Tech Management Coach and Trainer

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Illustration by Catt Small

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Scott Hanselman at RenderATL 2022

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Mature teammates list the skills and expertise AND NAMES of those around them. - Lara Hogan, What does sponsorship look like?

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Marginalized people are over-mentored, and under-sponsored. - Lara Hogan, What does sponsorship look like?

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Thank you to…. Rachel - @sundyclan Beth - @bethqiang Cecilia - @ceceliacreates Heidi - @wiredferret Erin - @erinmikail Jason - @StCyrThoughts Dan - @mooreds Tamimi - @TweetTamimi Gareth - @garethgreenaway David - @davidgsIoT Ben - @RabbiGreenberg Jason - @2jase Ross - @datahowler

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Thank You. timeline.jerdog.me IAmJerdog jerdog /in/jeremymeiss For feedback and swag: circle.ci/jeremy