shadow-roles

A shadow role involves two people, a shadow and a facilitator, meeting every fortnight for 30 minutes. The shadow becomes a kind of understudy of the facilitator’s role. It’s a bit like mentoring, but typically this is a sideways shift in a team or organisation, rather than mentoring from a more senior team member.

Why are Shadow Roles useful?

Feedback shows that shadow roles have the following benefits for teams, facilitators, and shadows.

1. Cultural: Building empathy and friendships across roles.
2. Upskilling: Developing new skills, career mobility, and leadership talent.
3. Innovation: Looking at challenges creatively from new perspectives.

How do Shadow Roles work?

The facilitator schedules a recurring fortnightly “shadow session” for 30 minutes which runs for 6-12 months. In these sessions, both people present a challenge they can work on together as a pair inside and outside of the session.

The best pairs extend their sessions or make them more frequent. When these pairs have to move the session, they always re-organise it within the same day or week. Outside of shadow sessions, the facilitator can invite the shadow to other relevant meetings and the shadow can take on some of the role’s tasks and responsibilities, particularly when the facilitator is away or needs an extra pair of hands.

How do you terminate a Shadow Role?

Speak to an Organiser. At any time, the shadowing can be terminated by the facilitator or shadow, but it’s important to give it a chance to succeed. Typically a termination happens when a facilitator isn’t able to make enough of their time available to the shadow. This usually happens when the facilitator changes roles or takes on new responsibilities. If another facilitator or shadow is available, the facilitator and/or shadow may be able to continue with different people.

What should we discuss in our first Shadow Session?

In your first session, you can follow this agenda.

1. Briefly walk through this Shadow Role Guide together.
2. Tell each other what you like to do outside work to get to know each other a little better.
3. Tell each other WHY you wanted to participate in this shadow role.
4. Find a day and time for your fortnightly shadow session.
5. Write down your goal(s)/motivation(s) for the shadow role (1-3 lines max).

What should we discuss in regular Shadow Sessions?

In your regular Shadow Sessions, you can use these conversation starters if you get stuck to help reveal things you can discuss.

1. What’s got your attention and what’s your biggest challenge right now? (consider the GROW model)
2. What’s something we could work on together right now?
3. What has your week involved and what will you be doing in the week to come?
4. What’s the pathway to the role? Where can you learn more, what’s important to know, and how can you become good at the role?
5. What are the boring/repetitive parts and what are the exciting/forward-thinking parts of the role?

The sessions also become more comfortable and enjoyable when pairs get to know each other personally with questions like “what did you do this weekend?” and “any exciting plans tonight?”.

Authored by Ryan Smith © 2021 with CC-BY-4.0 license

This site is open source. Improve this page.