A CLOSURE CONVERSATION WITH OUR READERS
Dear Reader,
Every ending should be the start of a new beginning. Now that you’ve finished reading Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring, we invite you to look back and reflect on your practice and move forward to leverage your learning with new insights. We’ve learned a lot about our own assumptions while writing this book, and we hope you’ve taken away some new cultural understandings that will help you in working with the many different people you will encounter every day of your working life.
In moving through the cycle of mentoring in the context of cultural competency, we have focused on exploring many of the differences that exist between mentoring partners. We have done this not to point out how different we all are (though we are!), but with an eye toward promoting greater understanding, strengthening mentoring relationships, and facilitating deeper learning. We believe by bridging differences—that leaning forward into the differences between you, learning from them, and leveraging them—you will find the transformative magic in your mentoring relationship.
We invite you to share your insights with those in your own work environments. Creating mentoring relationships that bridge difference will lead to workplaces that bridge difference. We firmly believe that’s how change happens.
Thank you, and good luck on your journey. Keep building bridges!