The Human Edge

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The Human Edge We drive economic & social change with our EMCC-accredited mentoring curricula. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/4r3f0Op

Building thriving businesses and social impact organisations that drive lasting positive change takes confident leadership, skills and connections. The Human Edge, formerly Mowgli Mentoring, designs and delivers human-centred learning initiatives and programmes. Drawing on our mentoring and coaching expertise, we equip people with the tools, approaches, and skills to overcome challenges, build stronger relationships, steer their organisations forward and achieve greater impact, faster. We partner globally, and work in multiple languages, across contexts, cultures, and sectors.

πŸŽ“ Another cohort has graduated from the Euronatur's Mentoring for Effective Nature Conservation Programme.Graduation is ...
09/10/2026

πŸŽ“ Another cohort has graduated from the Euronatur's Mentoring for Effective Nature Conservation Programme.

Graduation is always a good moment to pause.

Not just to celebrate what has been achieved, but to look back at the journey: what changed, what participants took with them, and perhaps just as importantly, what they chose to let go of along the way.

For this cohort, that reflection brought some powerful insights:

β€œI’m leaving this mentoring programme being a much more positive person. This is a success for me.”

β€œDespite challenges being still there, the way to look at them and to deal with them has changed a lot over the course of the journey, in a positive way.”

And perhaps one of the simplest reflections of all:

β€œEverybody can be a mentee and would benefit from being one.”

The challenges may not have disappeared. But sometimes the most meaningful change is in how we approach them, how we make sense of them and how we move forward.

Congratulations to everyone in this cohort, and thank you for the openness, honesty and commitment you brought to the journey. 🌱

Here’s to continuing to learn, reflect and grow.

What happens to a mentoring programme when the person in charge of it all leaves? Across the organisations we spoke with...
06/10/2026

What happens to a mentoring programme when the person in charge of it all leaves?

Across the organisations we spoke with, most mentoring programmes run on the sustained effort of one or two people, often part time, often carrying a huge amount of institutional knowledge.

It's a pattern that shows up regardless of organisation size and it says a lot about how mentoring tends to get resourced across the sector.

One thing seemed to make a difference: senior buy in that goes beyond a single champion.

Because if mentoring depends on one person caring deeply about it, it’s vulnerable. If the organisation owns it, it has a much better chance of lasting.

πŸ“₯ More on what we found β†’ https://bit.ly/4h4vDou

Mentoring programmes with proper capacity investment return between 3 and 8.5 times what was invested. It's what happens...
02/10/2026

Mentoring programmes with proper capacity investment return between 3 and 8.5 times what was invested. It's what happens when mentoring is designed and resourced properly, not bolted on as an afterthought.

The return isn't the case for mentoring. It's the case for investing in it properly.

What makes a good peer mentoring relationship?Sometimes, it starts before the first proper mentoring conversation.Last w...
24/09/2026

What makes a good peer mentoring relationship?

Sometimes, it starts before the first proper mentoring conversation.

Last week, Tess Thuo brought Catalyst Circle’s second cohort participants together for a Peer Connect session, giving them a chance to meet their peer mentor, build rapport and start thinking about how they want their relationship to work.

The session included guided conversations, breakout activities and time for each pair to explore the mentoring toolkit together. And there were already some interesting questions emerging.

One participant asked how they and their peer mentor could avoid becoming co-dependent, and how to make sure the relationship remained healthy and supportive.

Another discovered that their peer mentor was around the same age as them, which immediately made them feel more comfortable and at ease.

Small moments, perhaps, but important ones. Because a peer mentoring relationship isn’t just about being matched with someone. It takes trust, boundaries, openness and a shared understanding of what both people need from the relationship.

We’re looking forward to seeing how these relationships develop over the coming months.

Pollinate Impact

A mentoring platform doesn't fix engagement. It makes a mentoring programme easier to run. That’s one of the more intere...
21/09/2026

A mentoring platform doesn't fix engagement.

It makes a mentoring programme easier to run. That’s one of the more interesting things we heard in our research into mentoring across UK Membership Bodies and Networks.

Every coordinator who'd moved to a platform described it as a genuine shift for their own workload, less admin, faster matching, better visibility.

But there’s a catch: it doesn’t make the programme itself work.

That comes down to the things underneath the technology: thoughtful programme design, enough capacity to support participants and the capability to deliver the experience well.

Because when a mentoring programme isn’t getting the engagement or outcomes it needs, the answer isn’t always a better platform. Sometimes, the programme needs better foundations.

This was one of the patterns we heard across the 11 organisations we spoke to. See what else emerged from the research.

πŸ“₯ Full findings β†’ https://bit.ly/4in4gbL

Mentoring doesn’t happen in isolation. Sometimes, the space around the mentoring relationship matters just as much.As pa...
18/09/2026

Mentoring doesn’t happen in isolation. Sometimes, the space around the mentoring relationship matters just as much.

As part of the New Economy Leaders Academy, we recently brought participants of the 3rd cohort together for a refresher session focused on three things:

πŸ”„ Reconnecting with peers and the wider cohort
πŸ’­ Reflecting on the beliefs, qualities, attitudes and behaviours that support effective mentoring
⚑️ Re-energising through peer support, feedback, shared experiences and practical tips

The session was also an opportunity to reflect on what participants are already experiencing through their mentoring relationships.

One participant described their mentor as a β€œπ’”π’π’–π’π’…π’Šπ’π’ˆ 𝒃𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 π’•π’‰π’π’–π’ˆπ’‰π’• 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒏𝒆𝒓 ”, valuing the perspective, experience and care they brought to the relationship.

Another highlighted the importance of having β€œπ’‚ π’—π’†π’“π’š π’ˆπ’π’π’… 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 π’“π’†π’‡π’π’†π’„π’•π’Šπ’π’π’” ”, while recognising that the mentee also has a role to play in bringing topics and questions to the conversation.

And for others, the impact is already showing up in their work:
β€œπˆ 𝐠𝐚𝐒𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬-𝐨𝐧 π₯𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐒𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐑𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐑𝐚𝐭 𝐑𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚π₯π₯𝐲 𝐒𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐫𝐨π₯𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐀.”

These moments of reflection and peer learning are an important part of creating the conditions for mentoring to work well, helping participants step back, share what they’re learning and bring fresh energy to the conversations that follow.

Thank you to the NELA 3 cohort for the openness and generosity you brought to the session. πŸ’™

15/09/2026

Everyone worries about finding enough mentors.

Turns out that's usually not the problem.

We just finished a piece of research into mentoring across UK professional membership bodies and one pattern that kept showing up: there were plenty of people willing to mentor.

The problem was getting people on the other side of the match to engage. Mentees signed up, then didn’t turn up. Or matched, then disappeared off the platform entirely, making it hard for the programme team to tell if the relationship was still going at all.

We invest heavily into recruiting mentors, but what if we’re overlooking the other half of the relationships? Preparing mentees for what mentoring actually asks of them. That might be where the real engagement problem starts.

Our new report explores what we found and what it might mean for our mentoring programmes are designed for your members.

πŸ“₯ Full findings here β†’ https://bit.ly/3V8t9yb

A good mentor doesn't guarantee a good programme. A good system does.Even the most experienced mentors can't compensate ...
10/09/2026

A good mentor doesn't guarantee a good programme. A good system does.

Even the most experienced mentors can't compensate for a programme with no structure behind it: no clear purpose, no preparation, no way of knowing whether it's working.

The mentor is one part of the design. Treat them as the whole strategy and the programme is carrying weight it was never built to hold.

Taking Care of Business has had mentoring at the heart of its work with grassroots entrepreneurs in South Africa for yea...
01/09/2026

Taking Care of Business has had mentoring at the heart of its work with grassroots entrepreneurs in South Africa for years.

As they grew across regions, the question shifted. It wasn't whether mentoring mattered anymore, it was how to make sure it was delivered with the same clarity and quality everywhere.

We focused on building mentor capability.

Through the Mentoring Skills and Practice programme, Taking Care of Business trained mentors, tutors, managers, and ops team members together. The goal was a shared understanding of what good mentoring actually looks like in their context, clear role boundaries, practical tools, a common language.

What that created was alignment with mentors feeling more confident and re-energised.
Teams across regions started connecting around shared standards. Taking Care of Business built the capacity to sustain mentoring quality at scale, without losing the human-centred approach that defines them.

It's one of the clearest examples we've seen of mentoring becoming more reliable when you design for preparation and capability, not just hope people figure it out.

πŸ‘‰ We write about programmes like Taking Care of Business in our newsletter, what actually helps mentoring deliver long-term value across different contexts. Link in comments.

Everyone wants results.But in mentoring, rushing to get there often means you never do.We’ve seen it too often:πŸ“‰ A progr...
28/08/2026

Everyone wants results.
But in mentoring, rushing to get there often means you never do.

We’ve seen it too often:
πŸ“‰ A programme is cut short to fit a grant cycle.
πŸ“‰ Mentors and mentees are not trained or prepared.
πŸ“‰ Reflection time is squeezed out.

What gets lost?
The very things that make mentoring work:
πŸ‘‰ Trust.
πŸ‘‰ Depth.
πŸ‘‰ The slow shift from reaction to reflection.

πŸ“Œ At The Human Edge, we design mentoring programmes that build momentum over time not just tick boxes.

Because the truth is: growth takes time.
And when you rush it, you don’t just lose depth.
You lose impact.

πŸ”— Want to see what strong pacing looks like in mentoring design?
Join our newsletter for behind-the-scenes insights β†’ link in bio

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