2025_EML Capstone Projects

16

Mentor Link Solutions: A Hybrid Mentorship and Knowledge Retention Model

reduced workload, a more effective team, and the possibility of promotions can help establish the

culture necessary for the program to remain effective in the long term. The recommendation to clients

is to ensure that leadership lives by what they preach by visibly endorsing the program and integrating it

into performance evaluations (Kotter, 1995).

4. Inconsistent Documentation Practices

There is the possibility that without oversight, employees may fall out of habit, and the

knowledge retention system may become neglected. To mitigate this risk, templates should be built and

added to workplace operating procedures, and users should be encouraged to use tools such as

versioned document libraries and integrated chat threads that align with existing workflows. In many

cases, tools such as Microsoft Teams are available internally and provide each of those features.

Additionally, one individual or resource group should not be solely responsible for the program. The

program should distribute responsibilities equally across every functional area.

5. Stakeholder Misalignment or Turnover

This program will require sustained support from leadership and the entire workforce, or there

is a risk of the program being deprioritized or failing altogether. To mitigate this, internal champions for

each functional area and phase of the project should be identified and assigned. The more the

responsibility is spread out, the less risk there is to the overall program. Champions will ease the training

burden, already have good relationships with their department, and will be essential to elevating the

feedback required for iterative improvements.

Change Management Approach

We used Kotter’s 8-Step Process and the Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and

Reinforcement (ADKAR) model to guide the cultural and operational changes our hybrid solution