How can mentoring help your team finish work started on a Right of Way course?
Training builds knowledge and gives your team a starting point. Some outputs need an experienced practitioner alongside the team while it finishes the work.
By Mark Davies
Managing Partner, Intelligent Transport Advisory
Related topics
- transport mentoring
- bus franchising mentoring
- local authority mentoring
- knowledge transfer transport authority
- bus reform capability
- in-house transport capability
Why some work needs more than a course
Some outputs begun on a Right of Way course take weeks to complete. A target operating model, procurement strategy or ticketing specification can involve several teams and decisions.
Your staff can complete the work themselves. An experienced practitioner can guide and challenge the team as it does so. Mentoring offers that support while the work and knowledge remain within your Authority.
A course gives your delegate group shared knowledge and a first version of an output. Turning it into a finished document often takes further research, decisions and agreement from colleagues who were not in the room.
That stage can dent confidence. Your team may know what good looks like, but still wonder whether its draft is ready.
How mentoring differs from consultancy
Both bring in outside experience. The difference is who does the work and who keeps the knowledge.
- —Who produces the work: In consultancy, the adviser produces it. In mentoring, staff from your Authority do.
- —Who retains the knowledge: With consultancy, it may largely stay with the adviser. With mentoring, it remains with your Authority.
- —Best suited to: Consultancy can help with urgent specialist tasks and peak workload. Mentoring suits work your Authority needs to own, explain and repeat.
How mentoring works
Consultancy has its place, and some tasks will always need it. Mentoring suits work the Authority will need to defend at a board, carry into procurement and manage for years.
We draw mentors from the wider Intelligent Transport Advisory team. We match each mentor to the course where the work began and to your Authority’s request.
The scope, length and price are agreed for each piece of work. A typical arrangement might include reviewing drafts, challenging assumptions, sharing lessons from other programmes and helping staff prepare for key decisions.
Why we offer it
Right of Way grew from Intelligent Transport Advisory’s bus franchising work. We repeatedly saw capable staff making decisions on strategy, procurement, customer services, ticketing and operating models without training to support those decisions. We created Right of Way to help Authorities lead their own reform.
We make the courses practical and relevant to the work your Authority actually does. They draw on lessons from live franchising programmes.
The same applies to mentoring. Your staff produce and own every output. We keep any wider advice or product discussion separate, and it is always your choice.
Choosing the right support
After a course, an Authority can choose the support that fits the work:
- —After-Course Support answers specific questions while staff draft their work. It is offered through a six-month retainer and priced per response.
- —Mentoring places an experienced practitioner alongside named staff on a defined piece of work.
- —Advisory work remains separate, and the adviser produces that work. None of these options is a condition of booking a course.
Useful questions
Before agreeing mentoring, an Authority should ask:
- —Which piece of work do we want to finish, and by when?
- —Who in our team will produce it and own it afterwards?
- —Where do we most need challenge or experience?
- —Will we need to explain and defend this work later?
- —How will we know the work is complete?
Talk to us about mentoring
To discuss mentoring for a piece of work started on a Right of Way course, email contact@intelligenttransportadvisory.co.uk.