The agenda for a first Mastermind meeting

Guest Contributor: Chris Barrow
Chris' Posts - Chris' Blog


Here at Breathe Business we have recently created 6 new mastermind groups of UK dental principals and their business managers- the meetings are spread regionally around the UK and readers of my previous posts will know a little about the invitations, background and format of the quarterly sessions.

Whilst we arrived at our first meetings in January 2008 with a pretty good idea of what we wanted to cover, we were also alive and aware of the clients' needs and adapted our material quickly as we co-facilitated from the front of the room.

After our first tranche of meetings we have "nailed" the agenda (isn't it sometime like that - you have to facilitate a meeting in order to figure out how to do it?) - and I thought you might benefit from seeing the finished result:

Monday:

1.00pm - arrive and enjoy a light lunch - exchange informal greetings between group members

2.00pm formal proceedings begin with "house rules" on mastermind group etiquette and expectations for the year ahead

2.30pm - group members formally introduce themselves with brief personal and practice history and expectations from the year of coaching ahead

3.30pm - "Imagineering" session - each group member is given 90 minutes in which to create a vision of how they would like their personal and professional lives to look at the "finish line" - definition of finish line is the point at which they feel that the latest "phase" of their evolution is complete (can be three years or 20 years)

5.00pm - break for personal time

7.30pm - informal dinner

9.30pm - informal after-dinner discussion on their "Imagineering" results

10.30pm close.

Tuesday:

9.00am - roadblocks - what's likely to get in the way of the "Imagineering"

10.30am - Kolbe analysis - (members are asked to create a Kolbe profile - www.kolbe.com - and bring it with them) - analysis of how they are likely to perform and behave as they create the vision and deal with the roadblocks

11.30am - solutions - detailed work begins on "what has to happen" for each member to move towards their vision - open forum discussion by facilitators and members on each "Imagineering" project

3.30pm - actions - action plan created for each member

4.30pm - reflections and feedback on the meeting

5.00pm close.

The emphasis throughout is on "conversation" and not "presentation" - although my business partner Simon ad I do lead and guide from the front of the room, although we do steer and introduce concepts that we have developed - we allow a conversation - there is no PowerPoint - just lots of flip chart sheets which we pin to the wall.

At the conclusion of the meeting we photograph the flip chart sheets and distribute to all members as digital photos.