Transitioning with Grace (and Structure)
Transitioning with grace (and structure)
BY: JEROME SMITH, MIT VMS
MIT VMS, like all of our sister programs around the world, has dealt with the need for transition during the past one and a half years.
We found that having a disciplined and structured process in place made those transitions easier, although great effort was still needed. MIT VMS was founded in 2000 and from it's beginning was based on a concept of continuous improvement/transition. With the Guiding Principles as our foundation and strong operational support to Mentors and mentees, we have worked hard to make transition part of our ongoing efforts.
Transitions during COVID have occurred with regard to internal operations at MIT, supporting sister programs and training of new organizations.
Internal at MIT:
MIT VMS made the shift from in person to virtual operations as did all of our sister programs. This transition required extensive work by our strong Operations Team and was built on the existing processes around scheduling and support of both Mentors and mentees. We learned and moved to a remote world at the same time. We added extra Office Hours and Bootcamps to provide specific guidance on new government assistance programs and increased the level of check-ins with mentees both by Mentors and MIT VMS.
Established Sister Programs:
As the hub of the MIT VMS global network, we increased our outreach to all sister programs to offer support and learn their specific challenges and best practices. We utilized the existing Office Hour platform, quarterly Newsletters and many individual email contacts.
As we learned of specific challenges/issues, we offered guidance based on both our internal experience and best practices from other VMS programs. We have also seen many creative/innovative transition examples from various sister programs.
We launched a new program, Idea Exchange, to help sister programs share experiences. We have held two sessions to date with panels of program leaders in different areas of expertise. One session focused on mentoring during COVID.
New Sister Programs:
While we recognize the great benefit of in person Outreach Training Programs on campus at MIT, we transitioned to an online version within several months of MIT shutting down in March of 2020. We have been conducting training programs for Immersion, Mentor Training and Executive Immersion on a regular basis with very positive feedback. At the same time, there is a backlog of organizations waiting for their training when MIT resumes hosting external guests on campus.
We are very proud of our ongoing relationship with ThresholdImpact VMS and recognize their very positive impact on their entrepreneurial ecosystem. They are a great example of how a formal business mentoring program with unbiased, objective Mentors working in a confidential Team Mentoring format can increase the probability of success of an entrepreneur or business founder.
