1. Professional Development Case Study: 30-Minute Mentoring
Providing professional development opportunities and mentoring for our employees is the
responsibility of every IBM manager. We recently hosted a three-day strategy meeting in the IBM
Learning Center, in Armonk, for all S&D Americas Communications team members. The team
handles internal and external communications for IBM in Canada, Latin America countries, U.S.
regional offices and Americas Group headquarters. Communications staff from IGS Americas
and BCS Americas also joined. To maximize professional development and facilitate networking
between our communications team and New York-based Communications leaders, we used an
innovative approach that we called "30-minute mentoring."
Most of the 64 Americas Communications team members do not have any exposure to the
company's senior communications executives because they work well outside the New York area.
We knew it would be valuable for the team to meet IBM's communications leaders -- and for the
leadership team to get to know and appreciate the talented communications staff in the Americas.
To facilitate that, we pioneered a one-hour module called "30-minute mentoring." This approach
called for each meeting attendee to be paired with two different communications executives for 30
minutes apiece to discuss career paths, their aspirations and development needs, and ask
questions.
Our team represents 21 countries in which four languages are spoken. Matching 64 diverse team
members with 64 New York-based communications leaders twice in one hour seemed like a
daunting task. So we created the following process for a highly-successful mentoring experience
for all the members of the S&D Americas Communications staff.
Enticing mentors to attend
After the number of meeting attendees was determined, the challenge was to line up enough
mentors to meet one-on-one with each participant.
We invited all communications executives and some communications managers residing in the
New York area. To reduce the administrative burden of keeping track of who could attend and
who could not, the following e-mail served as the invitation and created a calendar entry at the
same time. (When the RSVP button was clicked, the recipient of the note had the option of
choosing "Yes, will attend" or "No, sorry." A "Yes" response automatically created the calendar
entry.)
I'm bringing my team from the U.S., Canada and Latin America to the IBM Learning Center for a
three-day communications strategy session on May 25-27.
I'd like to invite you to participate in an important part of our gathering called 30-Minute
Mentoring, where you will have two, one-on-one mentoring sessions with members of my
team over the course of an hour on Wednesday, May 26. The purpose is to discuss their
careers, aspirations, development needs, big ideas, or whatever else is on your minds.
This is a great opportunity for you to get to know some of the talent in the Americas Group and for
each of them to develop connections with a couple of the communications leaders based in
Westchester County. Our goal is to build new relationships, extend old ones, and create a buzz
by discussing mutual interests, common goals and ideas for professional development. We
hope it will be a morale booster for all involved.
The time commitment is noon to 1 p.m. for the mentoring, followed by lunch for everyone in the
Learning Center dining room from 1-2 p.m, on May 26th.

2. If you can join us, please click on the button below to RSVP and hold the date/time on your Notes
calendar. If you have a calendar conflict and can't attend, please click on this button to send
your regrets.
We'll send more details closer to the event, including the names of your two 30-minute mentoring
partners. Until then, we look forward to your participation and appreciate your support.
Jeff Cross
VP Communications, IBM Americas
590 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-745-4081; Fax: 212-745-2031
e-mail: jrcross@us.ibm.com
We knew we were on to something when nearly 100% of the New York-based team responded
and 97% of them said yes, they would attend.
Determining optimal pairings
One week before the meeting, attendees (or proteges) had to be paired with the communications
executives, or mentors, and assigned a meeting room at the IBM Learning Center to hold their
one-on-one discussions. With help from a contract IT specialist, a database was created to keep
track of the mentoring assignments. The pairings were randomly assigned, with the only criterion
being that each protege should be paired with one executive responsible for external
communications (PR or analyst relations) and one responsible for internal communications
(employee, executive, intranet or field communications).
To our delight, our numbers matched almost perfectly -- with the same number of
communications leaders accepting the invitation as the number of participants attending the
meeting -- providing testament to the high degree of interest on the part of the IBM
communications leaders in getting to know the Americas Communications staff!
Communicating to mentors
Once the pairings were established with the time-saving help of the database, each mentor
received a note five days before the event, confirming their participation as well as a hotlink to the
Bluepages record of the two proteges they would meet.
Dear XXXX,
Thank you again for participating in our 30-Minute Mentoring sessions at the IBM Learning Center
from 12 - 1 p.m., on Wednesday, May 26. With just a few days before the event, I want to share
some details with you.
Please plan to arrive outside conference room 206N/208N about 10 minutes prior to noon. We
will assign a meeting location to you at that time where you will be seated during both mentor
sessions.
Your two mentor partners are:
12-12:30 p.m.
Collieth C Clarke/White Plains/IBM

3. Bluepage Link
12:30 - 1:00 p.m.
Mary Rose Greenough/Cambridge/IBM
Bluepage Link
The mentoring sessions will be informal -- the goal is for you to meet members of our Americas
Communications extended team and to build new relationships, extend old ones and help the
participants in any way you can by discussing mutual interests, common goals or ideas for
professional development. Participating in these sessions does not imply you are forging a
permanent mentor relationship -- although it might lead to one if you desire.
Following the two mentoring sessions, you are invited to join our whole group for lunch in the IBM
Learning Center Dining Room from 1 - 2 p.m. I hope you will stay and further our networking
opportunities.
If for any reason your plans have changed and you cannot attend the mentoring sessions, please
let me know as soon as possible. We've matched every attendee (over 60!) with two mentors --
and our success is dependent on every mentor and mentee participating as planned.
Thank you -- look forward to seeing you Wednesday.
Jeff Cross
VP Communications, IBM Americas
590 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-745-4081; Fax: 212-745-2031
e-mail: jrcross@us.ibm.com
By the way, telling our staff well in advance that their Bluepages entry would be the only
biographical information their two mentors would receive served to motivate each participant to
update his or her Bluepages record with complete biographical information and a picture.
Enthusiastic response
On the appointed day, the meeting room doors opened wide at noon, and the audience was
amazed to discover the leadership of the IBM Communications function anxiously awaiting the
start of the 30-minute mentoring. To accommodate all 64 pairings, those who were not assigned
to meet in a breakout room at the Learning Center used the lounges or other public areas for their
discussions.
The pace at which the 30-minute mentoring program ran added to the success of the program
because mentors and proteges had to focus their attention and get right to the point because of
the compressed timeframe. Suggestions were made about potential content of their discussions
but it really was up to both the mentors and the proteges to cover the topics important to them.
We also thought it was important for both sides to understand that the sessions would not commit
anybody to formal mentoring relationships and we stressed that this was intended to be
innovative and FUN -- to take the pressure off everyone, especially those team members who
don't speak English as their first language.
The enthusiasm was so high that mentors and proteges alike were disappointed to be told after
30 minutes to move on to their second pairing. Luckily, lunch was available afterwards for the
entire group in the cafeteria, where networking conversations continued into the afternoon.

4. Positive feedback
A survey conducted at the end of the S&D Americas Communications strategy meeting showed
the 30-minute mentoring program was the highlight of the three-day meeting for attendees.
Feedback from the mentors was equally positive, with the following verbatim comments
representative of the overwhelmingly positive reaction:
• "Just wanted to let you know that I thought the mentoring session today was really
worthwhile. I'll be honest and tell you that last night at 9:30 I was thinking this was the last
thing I had time to do. It's probably the best thing I've done in weeks. Thanks for setting it
up. I've made a commitment to myself to do more of these. It's a great reminder of what's
going on outside of headquarters. I'm sure I got more out of these discussions than the
people I spoke with. I will follow-up up with them. Also, overall feedback I was hearing
about your meeting was very, very positive."
• "I just had to write you all to tell you how much I enjoyed the 30-minute mentoring session
today. It was a very cool idea....but actually doing it was even better. There was quite a buzz
at lunch about how the session was so worthwhile for mentors and mentees alike. Your
attendees also seemed very pleased with the overall meeting and its content too. Kudos to
all of you!"
• "Just a quick note to say thanks for including me in today's mentoring and lunch at your
meeting! I really enjoyed the experience and got to meet two wonderful, talented people. I
hope to keep in touch with both of them and share and learn from them, as well as help them
in any way I can. It was also great to see so many familiar faces and old friends on the
communications team, and get to meet some colleagues I'd never before met in person.
What a fantastic opportunity! Thanks so much for organizing it and inviting me."
• "Thank you for inviting me to participate during the two-hour mentoring exercise with your
Americas-wide team. I found the conversations both engaging and informative. I hope I can
continue to help and share thoughts with them in the near term. Overall, your program
yesterday is just another strong example of the innovative leadership we have within our
function, and what the power of networking holds for each of us as practitioners. Again, I am
flattered that you asked me along for the ride. Take care and good luck with the remainder of
your program."
We had anticipated that the 30-minute mentoring sessions would be popular but the
overwhelmingly positive response from all participants was heartwarming for our management
team and energizing for the participants. Many said they had never felt as much pride in being a
member of the IBM team as they did after this session and they felt motivated to do their jobs
better.
An interesting observation from several was why their own morale had improved -- the mass turn-
out of New York leadership validated for them that their work is visible and valued. We couldn't
have asked for more.
Jeff Cross
VP Communications
IBM Global Technology Services
294 Route 100, Building 4, Somers, NY 10589
914.766.4833
jrcross@us.ibm.com