Quote:
Originally Posted by 11robo11
Hey CD,
Our team has been facing many problems with inter-personal relations between mentors and students. A majority of students feel that mentors have been making contradictory/confusing statements, getting too involved in the design process, a general lack of respect, and even been making hostile remarks and accusations.
How do other teams manage the balance between mentors and students? For example, how are decisions made when a majority of students disagree with a mentor? or how do students make mentors aware of issues that they are facing?
Thanks
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I don't think you're asking the right question for your problem. While the question you asked has a variety of "correct" answers, these are highly dependent on the team culture, resources, people, etc. involved and don't necessarily transfer well from team to team. What works for my team doesn't work for your team, which doesn't work for Big Famous Team X, etc.
It's also kind of clear what you're looking to find, from the tone of your posts - you would like responses which disagree with what the mentors are doing, asking of them to behave differently, etc. so you can cite these posts as examples in debate or discussion. I'm not pointing this out to say you are necessarily in the wrong, just that we're only getting your side of the story here, and an abridged one at that. (This isn't meant to be an invitation to share more specific details)
I think the right question to ask is how your group of concerned students can set up a respectful dialogue with the team leadership where you all discuss the way in which you would like the team to run, the problems each of you have with the status quo, and what the over-arching philosophy of the team is. If you give both students and mentors a chance to share their perspectives on this, neither group will end up with exactly what they want, but you may be able to find common ground and to establish some fundamental principles of which your team's operation is based on.
Definitely do this before the season if you can. Find someone who can moderate discussion without a strong stake in one "side", and give individuals the chance to speak and share without interruption or accusation. Try and hash this out.