[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

What part of getting people to join you in a laugh at someone that you are making fun of has anything to do with mentoring or with the purpose of Chief Delphi?

A person, anonymous or not, may or may not realize how stupid it is not to do some simple thinking about a design, whether sarcasm is used or not.

So you admit it is stupid

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

That's what is so special about the mentoring process - is being a part of the development of thinking and decision-making of a team and encouraging team members to pay attention to those areas of the process.

Isn't that exactly what this thread is doing? While the methods are not conventional whose to say they are not effective.

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Mentors gather and collect mentoring tools during their time as FIRST mentors. The toolbox where they keep their mentoring tools varies in size, shape, and depth. The condition the tools are in varies depending on the mentor. The tools can be somewhat rusty or can be very clean and prepared for immediate use, as needed. The tools can be in need of some polishing or refurbishing, depending on where the mentor is on the journey of mentoring. In toolboxes, there can be a lot of organization and order or there can be a messy collection/mix of different tools all thrown together. In a mentoring toolbox, sometimes the search for the right set of tools for the job takes a while to sort out when making the wisest selection. The wisdom of continuing to keep the mentoring toolbox updated and organized allows for all of the different possibilities and opportunities of achieving the goal. If a mentor only makes use of one skill that he or she perceives to be a mentoring tool, such as sarcasm, then the possibilities and opportunities become limited and the tool loses its proper use.

.02,
Jane

Sarcasm CAN be a great mentoring skill if applied to the right students who have self confidence and can take a joke. No one is using ONLY sarcasm. It was used in this case because that's what was believed to be the most effective. Yes, not every mentoring technique works on every student and I don't believe anyone would disagree with that. I prefer an organized toolbox where I can find what I'm looking for quickly and use the correct tool for the job.