Like soil to a plant – exploring the digital space for mentoring: E-Mentors

#Warrior’s Path Research Bits – No. 2/2

Tanja Matheis, our researcher on the Warrior‘s Path team, documents the implementation of Syngrity’s exciting new experiential intervention. Rumor has it that she is intertwined with her laptop, but she actually loves spending time walking and trekking, in good company, with cheese snacks and a camera. In this series, she talks about her research on the Warrior’s Path strategy of adopting e-mentors to fuel the RIGHT consumption for the participants. Stay tuned for more tidbits.

In September 2018, eight people set out to Annapurna Basecamp (ABC), an arduous trek which most of them had never done before: the Warrior’s Path. A 10-day-trek like this one requires physical training, but the preparation inevitably also leads to deep reflections and emotions about one’s own decisions.

How do you prepare for this adventure, and how can mentors be of help?

The Warrior’s Path doesn’t start with the actual trek, but three to five months before, when participants sign up. The purpose is to create a space of inclusion, exchange and learning early on, that is, a space of mentoring. Soon after participants committed to the program, they have the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the team online, over the phone and on WhatsApp.

However, the idea of mentoring goes far beyond team-participant interactions, making the Warrior’s Path a unique approach in the outbound education space.

A mentor is a person who supports you by sharing her or his rich expertise and wisdom. A mentor creates an environment for the learner to think, question and grow, very much like healthy soil nurturing a plant.

Syngrity realised that a person’s consumption, while training for an arduous task, will determine their readiness for it. Different forms of consumption could be classified as Physical, Emotional and Mental. Syngrity envisaged the thought process and skills required for this trek, and chose experts and teachers from their network to create an inclusive, circular way of sharing experience. Each of these experts mainly focused on either physical, mental or emotional consumption. This information, passed on from the experts to the participants, would help them streamline their focus towards their training. Syngrity reached out to different experts in their respective fields, as diverse as sports physiotherapy, stand-up comedy and martial arts.

The beauty of accessing many minds to share experience.

Experts prepared short talks or practice videos, which were shared with the Warrior Path’s participants during the trek preparation between June and September 2018. The group subsequently watched and discussed the experts’ contributions on a private youtube channel. Participants reflected on how the insights could become part of their individual preparation for the trek. Since all of this happened online, bridging geographies and time zones, the experts are referred to as e-mentors.

One of the e-mentors was a teacher of Tai Chi, Pak Wa Chuan and Praying Mantis in Dubai. He talked about “second wind”, the moment in which an exhausted athlete regains breath and strength to reach her full potential with less exertion. Then he shared an exercise from the Praying Mantis which helps activate the second wind.

A sports physiotherapist gave us tips on the muscles and joints that we needed to keep exercising and relaxing before, during and after the trek. The physical aspects were complemented by a senior theatre and dance performer, a head of a learning and development organization and a renowned stand-up comedian and motivational speaker. These mentors emphasized the emotional challenges involved in conquering one’s internal mountain, and the importance of joy and humor throughout the process.

An internationally renowned spiritual teacher shared practical wisdom for happiness and enlightenment in a joyful and transformational way. He showed us how to get past the inner noise and eventually achieve a space of stillness and silence.

These diverse insights have given participants food for thought and leverage points to deepen their knowledge and practice of awareness. Participants found it easier to tackle steep inclines, merciless weather and mental exhaustion on the trek, because they had already heard of different practices from the mentors. The leverage points that the mentors provided through their talks also serve as an inspiration beyond the trek, e.g. for previously unresolved issues at work or in relationships.

While the network of e-mentors cannot replace intimate and face-to-face relationships with friends, family, colleagues, supervisors or teachers, they do represent a resource to keep in mind and to draw on. For the new rounds of the Warrior’s Path in 2019 and beyond, Syngrity is working towards a broader network, with more opportunities to engage for participants. Stay tuned!

Tanja is a research consultant and holds a master’s degree in development economics, focusing on quantitative and qualitative research techniques. She has documented the work of development professionals and small-scale entrepreneurs in West Africa and India. Her field visit insights became part of a publication series by the German Development Cooperation Agency GIZ based in New-Delhi, which she conceptualized and edited.