Over the past 25 years, we have become acutely aware of the need to attend to cultural aspects of learning, and not just the informational. There are many subtleties involved in working with culture, and it is worth the effort. We call this aspect of our work "Cultural Mentoring".

What is Cultural Mentoring?

Whereas mentoring can be a conscious choice by an individual facilitating another's learning journey, cultural mentoring is learning as a side-effect or unintended consequence of exposure to culture. The inherent, powerful effects of culture are often unnoticed or even invisible to most. Thus we also refer to cultural mentoring as "the invisible school".

We have learned over the last 25 years the powerful effects of cultural elements. The "greeting custom" element really attracted our team's curiosity when we saw that so many cultures, from all races, and all walks of life, had greeting customs. We thought, "How does a cultural element like a greeting custom influence learning?" We found the answer through interviewing lots of people we were mentoring and facilitating in groups on long-term learning journeys, and by observing the overall morale and efficiency of the learning. The obvious response was very simple and yet profound in its impact:

People feel better when they are greeted, welcomed and included in a group. They can concentrate more clearly. The morale increases on a group and individual level, and people are much more engaged.

That's the effect of one cultural mentoring element. We count thousands in our 25 years of experience that have been applied and tested, and we are making this information and skill-set available to those with shared values and philosophy.

Learn about our other two root pathways: Nature Connection and Beyond Sustainability.