How to Create and Run a Peer Mentoring Group
Following the Institute for Academic Feminist Psychology, I wanted to stay in touch with a group of colleagues with whom I connected. The goal was to create a space where we could share the challenges, experiences, and questions we had with people we trust and could get and give feedback. Here are the steps I followed and some considerations if you’re planning to put together your own group.
Consider who to invite into the group. This may require thinking about factors such as career stage (e.g., having people who were at roughly the same stage was helpful, as we were all grappling with a similar constellation of academic issues), and group dynamics (do the people you’re inviting know each other? Do they get along well? Is there a common thread or experience that ties you together?).
Reach out and gather a group of 4-6 people. You’ll want enough people that can sustain the group, even if some are unable to make a meeting, but not too many so that everyone has time to share and weigh in during meetings.
Connect the group via a welcome message, and either lay out the relevant details or ask for input from group members on the details, such as how often you’ll meet, how long your meetings will be, what sort of structure the meetings will have, and issues of confidentiality in the meetings. You may want to determine some or all of these factors ahead of time, or you may want to have the group create the structure. Either way, you’ll want to clearly define this so that everyone knows what to expect and is on the same page.
Follow up with a message to the group laying out the group details and schedule the first meeting. When thinking about meeting length and structure, it can work well to have each person allocated a set amount of time (depending on group size and meeting length, anywhere from 10-20 minutes) to hold the floor and to lay out the issues, recent experiences, challenges, or wins that they’d like to discuss.
Because academic’s schedules can be very full, it may help to meet monthly or just a couple of times a semester, depending on everyone’s availability. Getting these meetings on the calendar early (e.g., at the beginning of each semester) can help protect this time and can increase the likelihood that members can make it to the meetings. Keeping meeting days/times consistent can also help. One way to do this would be to have everyone share their availability for the semester, and identify days and times that everyone is free so that these can be held for the meetings.
As the convener of the group, it helps to send reminder messages about meetings, and to keep track of time on the calls to ensure that everyone has a chance to share and to receive feedback. Issues that come up during the meetings can range from needing input on how to proceed with a project to dealing with a student or colleague issue to managing health issues.
I recommend explicitly acknowledging that the group is a confidential space, and that what people share in the group stays in the group unless otherwise agreed upon by group members.
Sharing resources and ideas, and having a trusted group of peers to help brainstorm can make some of the bigger academic challenges more manageable.
Over time, members may decide to leave the group for personal and professional reasons, and periodically evaluating whether the group is working for people and if you want to invite in new members can help sustain the group.
How to Create and Run a Peer Writing Group
Academic work— and writing in particular— can be incredibly isolating. Creating a standing group of your peers to check in on writing goals and to cheer each other on can be a great approach to making steady progress on writing goals and connecting with others on the challenges and successes in this practice.
Early in my tenure-track job, I created an asynchronous writing group that allowed members to check in and track their progress, and to leave comments for each other. I wanted a long-term, sustainable group— one that didn’t require funds or a big commitment, and that had the flexibility to adapt for each member.
Below is a slide deck walking through how to create this group using a shared google spreadsheet. In addition, below that is an overview of the group. These materials are shared with the intent to model for other academics how to create and run your own group.
How to Create an Online Writing Support Group
Writing Group Overview
This group is structured using the basic approach laid out by Robert Boice in his books recommending advice for faculty to remain productive in setting and meeting writing goals. The idea is to write for relatively short periods of time most week days. Boice recommends writing for no more than 45 minutes at a time. It is ok to do multiple sessions in one day as long as you don’t work to the point of fatigue. One thing to note is that over doing writing sessions can result in burn-out, and can cause writing avoidance for the next day or longer.
The key elements are to:
• Write daily for moderate amounts of time
• Set manageable goals and track your progress
• Report your writing progress to others
• Do this within a supportive environment.
Below is important information to help you understand the basics of how to create a productive writing habit, and a detailed guide to the system. You might want to print out this page, so you can read these instructions as you look at the site.
Some helpful tips
It helps to set a timer for your writing sessions. It’s important to do this specifically when writing and not reading or researching. That is one reason a timer helps – it emphasizes that this is the time where you will write and do nothing else. The timer also helps you stop and take a break.
Do your writing first. Don’t “warm up" by checking email or doing something fun. Whatever activity you would rather be doing, use that as a reward for after your writing session.
If you are really stuck with your writing, start with a short period of time, say 10 or 15 minutes. You can build up your writing time from there, but it’s important that you create consistency, and actually sit down and do some writing daily. Begin with free writing to get yourself started. Be very gentle with yourself – set a small goal for each day, just to create a new habit. Don’t worry about the quality of your writing. You just want to ease into it by not pushing too hard, and not self-editing as you go.
If you want to write more than one session in a day, still think of your writing time in small segments. Decide what length of time works for you (10, 15, or more minutes, but not more than 45). Set a timer, and don’t allow any distractions during that time. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t check email, don’t answer the phone. When the timer goes off, take a break – stretch, take a walk, make a cup of tea, or go outside and putter in your garden for up to 15 minutes. If you have time, and you really want to, do another short work session.
Each day after you write, log into the shared spreadsheet and answer the questions regarding your progress during that writing session in your writing log. You can change or restructure your sheet to address the questions that are useful for you. The exercise of writing these answers can really help you to make even greater progress. It helps with your sense of accountability to know that you need to log in, and it provides a sense of community to know that others can see and comment on your progress. It is also helpful to check in, even if you haven’t written. It’s helpful to think about what got in the way of your writing, and you can get yourself back on track by specifying your goals for the next day.
Possible Questions to address in your daily tracking sheet:
1. What are your goals for today?
2. How many minutes did you write?
3. How many pages/paragraphs/words did you write?
4. Time spent reading/researching?
5. What do you feel good about?
6. How will you reward yourself?
7. What challenges and problems did you have?
8. Did you notice any negative self-statements?
9. Any positive statements to replace them?
10. What are your specific goals for tomorrow?
11. Any additional comments?
It is suggested that you take a few minutes to read the progress of the other members, and make comments on their progress. Just a few comments can make a big difference to one of your colleagues. And when you participate and support others, they will usually do the same for you.
It helps to set specific goals, either for the semester or on a monthly or weekly basis. It helps for these goals to be as specific and focused as possible. Feel free to update these as often as is helpful for you, or to add them to your daily tracking sheet (I like to add my monthly goals there to keep those fresh when I check in).
