TRIANGLE Monthly Session

Structuring Mentorship: Applying the Scientific Method as a Framework

Overview

This session reframes mentorship as a deliberate, skills-based process rather than an ad hoc relationship. Using the scientific method as an organizing lens, participants will learn how to plan, assess, and adapt mentorship interactions to support clear expectations, productive engagement, and successful mentor–mentee partnerships.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Differentiate informal mentorship, formal mentorship, and supervision and explain when each style is appropriate.
2. Identify eight key mentorship skills and demonstrate how and when to use them across the mentorship timeline.
3. Detect early mentorship challenges and apply strategies to improve the mentorship relationship.

Presenter Biography:

For over 15 years, Shannon Floer has worked with leaders in organizations across all sectors to develop practical human-centered skills. Her work focuses on translating complex concepts into tangible strategies that improve workplaces, support growth, and strengthen relationships. She brings firsthand experience in health sciences through her participation on two patient-oriented research teams as a parent collaborator and over five years of work with dietitian preceptors and students in the Saskatchewan Health Region. Shannon and Dr. Haskey received funding to study and improve mentorship practices, presenting their findings at the Dietitians of Canada conference and to preceptors in the Academic Health Sciences Network of Saskatchewan. Shannon holds a Master of Science from Western Illinois University and a Bachelor of Arts from Western University in London, Ontario.