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Melbourne Fringe - Mentorship Guide.pdf
Melbourne Fringe has an extensive history of development programs …
A mentorship is an ancient, foundational practice in the arts. It is one of the crucial ways we learn, by sharing and continuing culture and ideas. Like Mr Miyagi and the Karate Kid, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Margaret Cho and Joan Rivers, Oprah Winfrey and her 4th grade teacher Mrs Duncan, you are now part of this timeless tradition. At the heart of every mentorship is an agreed relationship between two people: a mentor and a mentee who are committed to learn together. This Guide is written for both mentors and mentees and offers you some insight and ideas on what a mentorship can be and how to make the most of it. The Guide includes a Mentorship Agreement which, as mentor and mentee, will help you discuss how to learn together. Use what’s relevant for you. Every mentorship is unique, potentially powerful and maybe, deadly. The only rule in a mentorship is to commit to an informal learning relationship. We hope that the experience will be insightful, a bit challenging and wonderous! cue training montage to Eye of the Tiger. - Melbourne Fringe
CONGRATULATIONS! IT’S A … MENTORSHIP!
Simply, a mentorship is an informal learning relationship between two peers.
In the olden days, mentorship was considered a one-way exchange between a more experienced, skilful or knowledgeable mentor and a junior mentee. But today – in the arts in the 21st century – we know that learning is a two-way process of exchange and collaboration.
Mentorships are classified as informal workplace learning. It is an informal relationship because you aren’t in a formal employer > employee or a teacher > student relationship. Mentorships sparkle when they impart new ideas, behaviours, motivations, performance, confidence, career trajectories and ambitions.
Mentorships are less about WHAT to do and more about HOW to do it.
There are a lot of types of mentorship. You can be creative, yeah? The key ingredient is the connection between people with similar experience. For example, mentorships might be between people who may have (or have had) similar roles, jobs, backgrounds, skills, knowledges, networks, and who might experience similar challenges, history, lifestyles and opportunities.
These types of mentorship are common because they are excellent ways to exchange information and thinking between people who have done something similar — a shared experience.
Mentorships extend best practice because they connect those who may have ‘done it all before’, with those who are doing it now. By sharing experiences, we try to learn from our histories and discover new futures together.