Mentoring the workshop team

Since October 2025, I have focused on developing the methodological core of the workshop team. I run regular (roughly once or twice a month) internal mentoring for four members, with the goal of teaching them to design educational programmes professionally.

The mentoring deliberately runs along two lines: a skills line, focused on the methodology of learning design itself, and a psychological line, building confidence and countering impostor syndrome.

Over the course of our collaboration we have so far explored more than ten key topics in depth. We focused on target-group needs analysis, persona creation, Bloom’s taxonomy, and defining learning objectives using the NAOMIE model. The aim is for the team to be able to independently build programmes with clear, verifiable objectives, and to understand group dynamics as well as the link to formal curricula (RVP/ŠVP).

An internal impact study confirmed that this approach pays off significantly for the organisation and is cheaper and faster than recruiting outside experts. The team has already gained the courage to iterate and test imperfect prototypes in the field, its interchangeability has increased, and the organisation is therefore far less fragile. The new generation of workshops is rated as noticeably higher quality. What’s more, the team didn’t keep the methodological know-how to itself, and it has begun to seep into other roles in the organisation, which saves work and increases success rates when writing grant applications in fundraising.