This is part of a series. You can navigate to other posts in the series from the list called The Art of Mentoring.

As one follows Telemachus through the Odyssey (see The Odyssey Influence), it becomes apparent that in the formation, focus and pursuit of his Dream, Telemachus, who is no longer a helpless infant, becomes the authority of his life. In order to achieve his Dream, he engages several necessary Mentoring Resources which include multiple Mentors and other non-human mentoring resources. Telemachus’ journey, from infant to his fathers return to Ithaca, enabled the UIF to identify three mentoring Systems, three mentoring Models and nine mentoring Types, each of which appear to have been necessary for his then moment in time, and each of which determines the characteristics of the participants, the nature of the Mentoring Resources then in use and Telemachus’ Mentoring Activities. Following is a description of each System, Model and Type.

Three Mentoring Systems
	Open System Mentoring - Protégé engages multiple resources - Protégé driven
	Collaboration System Mentoring - Participants share leadership - Participants control mentoring resources
	Closed System Mentoring - One-to-one

Three Mentoring Models
	Natural Mentoring  - Based on Individual Objectives  - Self-Activated and Self-Managed
	Planned Mentoring  - Based on Individual and/or Organizational Objectives  - Self-Structured and Self-Managed
	Structured Mentoring  - Based on Organizational Objectives  - Highly Structured

Nine Mentoring Types

After the UIF identified Three Mentoring Systems and Three Mentoring Models based on the context of Mentoring and Mentor as used in the Odyssey. Each Mentoring System was then understood to be able to be activated with each Mentoring Model, often sequentially and/or simultaneously in the same mentoring environment. Following is a description of each System and each Model in a Matrix of combinations that identifies Nine Possible Mentoring Types.

Matrix of Nine Mentoring Types
	Natural Mentoring	Planned Mentoring	Structured Mentoring
Open System Mentoring	Natural Open System Mentoring	Planned Open System Mentoring	Structured Open System Mentoring
Collaboration System Mentoring	Natural Collaboration System Mentoring	Planned Collaboration System Mentoring	Structured Collaboration System Mentoring
Closed System Mentoring	Natural Closed System Mentoring	Planned Closed System Mentoring	Structured Closed System Mentoring