Brave New World
My journey from Navision to NAV to Business Central has been a long and interesting one. There have been many changes minor and major along the way and yet underneath very little has changed. The biggest changes that we face now are visibility and selling. From the partner perspective, almost nothing has changed from the time Navision introduced the Object designer in Navision 3.0x (DOS or OS/2 version) till Business Central 2018. That is a twenty-seven-year period from 1991 through 2018. In those 27 years nothing really changed, we all followed the typical Navision journey.
Company purchases Navision; someone technically oriented (often the IT manager or Finance director) get assigned to implement the system and train users; that person is forced to cross train, so if they are the IT manager, they are forced to learn accounting, if they are the Finance Director, they are forced to learn about IT. Soon that person is labeled at the Navision Super User and soon anyone in the company with any Navision related issue, be it printer connections, AR posting, Backups, Physical Inventory counts, slow hard drives, NetBIOS errors person realizes that since the Computer part and the Finance parts of Navision are very simple, they realize that the core issue is visibility in understanding what Navison is and how to sell this to the customer. Where selling of course includes all the steps needed to bring that customer live on the product.
As one step in all this I would like to build a mentoring program to create a way of not losing all those accumulated decades of Navision knowledge and passing them onto the next generation. The mentoring program that I am working on building would be something like this.
If you are interested, please contact me at david@dynamicsmentor.com
· Significant Navision experience
o Say. 10-15 years minimum with Navision
o Hands on implementation experience, (e.g. 20-50 implementations)
· Worked in at least one execution role Front end / user facing.
o Navision user – day to day data entry
o Training
o Sales
o Business Analyst
· Worked in at least one technical role Back end / implementation.
o C/SIDE Developer
o Functional Consultant
o Data Conversion
o Project manager
· Commitment
o 4 hours per month minimum face to face time (2x 2 hours per month)
o Assign time to answering off-line questions 8-10.
o Must commit to at least one year.
· No Navision
o Close as possible to zero prior Navision experience
· Formal Training in one or more of
o Software development
o ERP Implementation
o A core business area of Business Central
· Enthusiasm and commitment
o Must be able and willing to put in at least double then number of hours as their mentor.
o Must commit to at least one year.
o Readiness to ask questions.
o Mentee should try to work to mentor timetable.
· Financial aspect
o There is no direct cost or fee to either party, the time is purely voluntary.
o There is no direct revenue generated.
o There is no direct financial link (e.g. employer/Employee) relationship between mentor and mentee.
· Honesty and Openness
o The mentees will ask questions that may have conflicts of interest, this needs to be acceptable.
o Willing to say “I Don’t Know” when necessary.
o Redirect to a more appropriate source when needed.
o Ready to be the devil’s advocate.
o Ready to say no if needed.
· Specialization
o Specialist
o Industry
· Sharing
o Guide the mentee to develop their networking.
· Expectations
o The mentee is not a billable resource.
o This is not a recruitment project.
o This is not a training program.
o This is a guidance (Nurturing Model)
o Willing to join with other mentors in a Mentoring Circles environment
o The mentor is not there to solve your technical issues.
o The mentor is not there to manage your customer.
o This is not a recruitment project.
o Ready to present learning to other mentees either in a group or via presentations.
o Reverse Mentoring the mentor can learn from the Mentee.
o The mentee is here to learn, but the mentor is not here to teach.
o If something goes wrong; don’t blame the mentor
Although not a primarily Community oriented project, community should be a large part of the mentoring process. The mentee should be willing and ready to share their experience with others in their same situation
These are some aspects of mentoring that I found when searching on the internet that I feel follow the core principals that I am interested to follow.
A mentor is a person who has professional and life experience and who voluntarily agrees to help a mentee develop skills, competencies, or goals. Put another way, a mentor is an advisor and role model who is willing to invest in the mentee’s personal growth and professional development.
Mentors are more than role models
Some folks think that mentor is really just another word for role model. Mentors certainly are expected to be a role model for mentees in a variety of areas, such as relating to peers, work-life balance, and ethics, but merely being a role model does not make you a mentor. Being a mentor means interacting with a mentee and providing support, advice, and feedback to the mentee – in other words, it requires involvement with the mentee.
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A desire to help others succeed
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A willingness to pass along information
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A willingness to give and receive feedback
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A desire to work with others
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A desire to engage with others on an
interpersonal level
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A desire to learn
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A motivation to mentor
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Good listening and communication skills
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Good questioning skills
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Good common sense
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Good people management and leadership skills
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Knowledge of the industry, organization, or
field in which the mentee works or aspires to work in
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Self-confidence and self-awareness
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Strong ethics
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Lack of prejudice
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Openness, honesty and
trustworthiness
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Patience
· Empathy
A mentee is someone who has identified a specific personal or professional goal and who believes that the guidance and help of a mentor – and being held accountable to the mentor – can help them achieve their goal.
Qualities to look for in mentees
· A willingness to learn from others’ experience
· Commitment to their personal and professional growth
· Good listening skills
· An open mind and a willingness to try new things
· An ability to accept feedback and learn from it
· Patience and ability to take a long-term view
· Flexibility
· Respect for other people's time and effort
· Realistic expectations
· A strong initiative
· A clear commitment to being mentored
· A willingness to take responsibility for their career
· Openness, honesty and trustworthiness