Mentoring Business Analysis Profession | Why Everyone Should Have A Mentor

Mentee – Scenario

My story, regarding mentoring business analysts, is about a business analyst who had the sole responsibility for running a series of workshops for the first time.

He’d done all the preparation he could:

• He had completed the process models he wanted to review;

• The participants had confirmed their attendance along with a few who had been forwarded the invite;

• He had the whiteboard, projector, flip-charts and pens.

He ran the workshop and felt that it was acceptable but there was definitely room for improvement.

Mentee – Areas for Improvement 

There seemed to be a lot of people in the room with opinions about what was wrong or what needed to be considered.

However, when he asked for a definitive answer to a question there was silence. Or someone would refer to another person who needed to be consulted who was not at the workshop.

Some of the attendees liked to talk at length about the issues but didn’t have any useful input on how to resolve them.

He came away with a lot of issues that needed to be resolved. He had to speak to a lot of people and set up smaller meetings to resolve the issues that had been raised.

Often he would have to return with decisions that were proposed and agree it in the workshop environment.

So what had he done wrong? How could he could improve his results in the workshop?

Many of you will have some ideas about what could have been done differently.

Perhaps he should have reviewed the list of participants to make sure all required subject matter experts (SME) were required.

Maybe he wasn’t controlling the attendees. No one should be allowed to attend who doesn’t have a clear role in the workshop – don’t allow any passengers!

If he had access to a business analyst, experienced in running workshops, a discussion of only a few minutes could have saved him hours of follow-up meetings.

More importantly, he would have started the workshop with confidence, managed it effectively and would have earned the respect of the attendees.

If you haven’t guessed already – that business analyst was me!

It was ten years ago and I like to think I run better workshops these days (!) but I still benefit from experienced guidance now as much as I would have done then.