Many MasterMind groups are composed of people in the same industry: speakers, authors, real estate brokers,insurance agents, coaches, you name it. These MasterMind Groups are generally formed out of a large industry-specific gathering, (such as a convention). Sometimes they spring up from big organizations because someone with leadership qualities decides they want a small group for accountability, brainstorming, and support. Sometimes people organically get together and create their own group. Sometimes the large organization structures, oversees and/or sponsors the group. This certainly follows the "singleness of purpose" concept written in Napoleon Hill's books. I have facilitated a number of these groups and the results can be phenomenal. When all the members have a deep understanding of the industry, the sharing of ideas can be at a very deep level, and accountability can be intense. I have seen amazing breakthroughs in this kind of group.
On the other hand, a group with a variety of expertise from different industries, can be one of the most exciting groups you will ever experience.
I currently facilitate a group of 12 members, all in different businesses, all with different goals and needs. It meets twice a month on the telephone. It might as well be called the Diversity MasterMind group. The youngest member is 23 and the eldest is 60-something. The group consists of people in banking, show business, politics, real estate, sustainability consulting, physical training, professional speaking, graphic design, sportscasting, music, international development, entrepreneurial investments, you name it. This group is one of the top two best MasterMind groups I have ever been affiliated with over the years. What makes it work is the variety of ideas and thought patterns, and the potpourri of industry experience. There is no getting "stuck" with "what used to work" in this group! It is all about "Have you ever thought of........." and "In our industry we sometimes.........maybe a variation on that would be an idea". This group goes wide with ideas and has no limits.
When you are choosing a group, think about whether you would rather have:
Industry-specific: narrower and deeper. Or: Varied industries: wider with no limits.
Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone were not in the same businesses, yet they contributed to each other, and supported each other, thereby going down in history as the greatest men in their field.
There is no rule about which type of group you should be in. It is your choice. Maybe you will choose one of each! The main thing to remember is to be able to contribute and to be willing to receive. Above all, harmony is the nucleus, as Dr. Hill states in "Magic Ladder to Success"
Mastermind Groups, just like any person or group of people, on its own, will take the path of least resistance, unless someone helps push the group along. Sometimes people in the group are naturally big thinkers,doers, and encouragers, but not always.
Some MasterMind Groups, however, are finding themselves going nowhere, or even dissolving.
When the group and the individuals in the group are not moving forward, there are some things you can do to re-start the group's engine:
1. Change/rotate leaders. It's easy to get into habits (and ruts). The group may need new leadership. Change it around on a regular basis. You might want to change leadership every quarter or so, depending on how often you meet. fresh, new ideas and patterns of how you operate the group may be just the boost you need.
2. Begin to push each other out of your comfort zones. Your group always needs to be a place of trust and respect, but that does not mean a comfy, cushy, crying towel. It needs to be fertile soil for big new ideas, where you can make bold, daring promises and be held accountable to them.Step up to the plate, and ask each other to do the same. If they promise to work out twice a week, ask "why not 3 times?" etc.
3. Learn how to think bigger. My friend Charlie "Tremendous" Jones says, "5 years from now you will be the same person you are today, except for the books you read and the people you hang around". The only way you will learn to think bigger is with practice. The only way to practice thinking bigger is by reading, and by talking to big thinkers. I call this "pumping mental iron". Start letting your bigger ideas out. The group is a safe place for big ideas, even if they seem crazy at first; ideas can always be refined. Let them out!
4. Join a professionally faciliated group, or hire a professional facilitator to lead your group. Not someone to tell the group what to do, but someone to facilitate the group. A skilled facilitator will keep the group moving ahead, help identify when it is "stuck", make sure the objectives of the group are clear, and get each meeting started and wrapped up on time. You can pay anywhere from $100 to $2,000 a month per person to either join a professionally run group, or hire a professional facilitator to run your group. Consider the value of your time. This is well worth the money if it will really turbo-charge your group engine.
5. And, speaking of "pumping mental iron", what ARE you reading? Here's an idea for you: Why not have everyone in your group read a book, write a report on it, and give a copy to everyone else in the group? If you did this once a quarter and you have 5 people in your Mastermind group, essentially you will have read 20 extra books this year! If you did it once a month, you will read 60 extra books a year! Now THAT's pumping some mental iron!
6. Put some skin in the game. One cause of groups dissolving is that the members don't have anything invested in the group. If you charge a membership fee, people find more value, and are more apt to take the group seriously. You will weed out "wanna-be's", and end up with people who are serious about taking their lives or careers to a big "NEXT". I once paid $2,000 per month to belong to a specific MasterMind group that met 6 times a year. Do you think I put some effort into it? That's an understatement! It was life-transforming.
7. Do some homework. Time goes quickly and our lives can seem rather chaotic, and all of a sudden, tonight is the meeting and you are not prepared. With all the worries of the day, everyone arrives at the meeting waiting for someone to "lay the magic on them". WRONG. But all too common. We've all been guilty. As a coach, I have this happen with clients. they come rushing into their appointment, panting, unprepared and wait for the magic to happen. If you have homework to complete before your next MasterMind meeting, you are more likely to implement the changes you have promised yourself, kept the thought process going, and come up with some new ideas in the meantime. You reap what you sow.
I hope these seven tips help you Turbo-Charge your MasterMind Group. Notice I did not title this "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective MasterMind Groups". Boring. Boring we are not. (No offense, Stephen, it's just that we need to come up with our own material!)
When you go to the doctor for a regular physical, there is a list of things she checks, such as your blood pressure, your temperature, and how you are feeling currently. She might have you do some blood profiles,and she will review what medications you are currently taking. She will listen to your breathing and your heart with her stethoscope, and probably check your ears, nose and throat. (say "AAAAAH"!)
When is the last time your MasterMind Group had a checkup? Here are the three major items to check to make sure your MasterMind group is healthy:
1. Chemistry. (Esprit de corps) Does your group have a common understanding and is it acting as a "mass mind"? If not, you could have conflicting ambitions, or your purpose may not be clear. Each participant in the group must know the purpose of the group. It is worth reviewing on a regular basis. What are some of the things you can do to have better chemistry in your group? This would be a wonderful topic for your MasterMind Group to discuss at your next meeting.
2. Organized knowledge. In Napoleon Hill's book "Magic Ladder to Success" he says "Power is organized knowledge, expressed through intelligent action!" Without a doubt, each of our biggest asset is our own brain. The brainpower we have must be gathered together in an organized manner. You already know your group has brainpower. The question is, how is it being organized? Honing this one facet can really take your gorup to the next level. This is a great topic to address in one of your meetings: How can you organize your knowledge better to have more success?
3. Perfect Harmony. Harmony, Dr. Hill says, "is the nucleus around which the MasterMind must be developed". Think of a small Chamber orchestra or a Barbershop quartet. The harmony comes from practice, blending individual sounds together, and using collective listening as much as using vocals or instruments. The groups who are the best have been together the longest. A group can have chemistry and organized knowledge without being in harmony. How can you listen more carefully to each other, and blend together as one mind? There's another topic for a future meeting!
Above are the three items you need to have in your checkup. As with the doctor's checkup, these items can show signs of deterioration, yet with attention and treatment, can be repaired and revived. All this is dependent on your commitment to the group, just like your commitment to your health. The doctor can say "quit smoking" and you may choose not to, and you may die from it. Your MasterMind Group is no different. It is a living, breathing organism, a collective mass of power that, cared for, will thrive and serve you. Uncared for, it can slowly wither and die.
Give your group a checkup on these three items. You may be amazed at what comes out of this exercise. And remember, you are an important member of the group, so give yourself your own individual "checkup from the neck up", as the oldtimers say. Are you contributing? Are you actively listening? Are you bringing your most valuable asset (your brain) to the meeting and using it to serve the greater good? Are you in harmony? Are you moving in the same direction as the rest of the group toward your collective purpose?
I wish you great health, both in body, in your brain, and in your collective mind.
Have you started a Mastermind Group and you don't know how to kick it off? Or maybe you're stuck in a rut and the group is not moving ahead?
Sometimes changing the status quo is a good idea. A departure from old habits might be just what the doctor ordered to give the group new life!
Whether your mastermind meets in person or virtually, here are some possible pattern-breaking ideas to change things a bit:
1. Have everyone read one chapter of "Think and Grow Rich", before each meeting and discuss it with each other, until the entire book is finished. (You can do this with any other great book, too.)
2. Have a "round-robin" style meeting, where you divide up the available time and each person gets an equal portion of time to share their biggest "win" and their biggest "challenge" and have the group contribute ideas within their allotted time.
3. Have one meeting where each person shares their vision, values, and mission statement.
4. Focus on only one person for a whole meeting, let them bring their own agenda (a challenge or idea) and have everyone else contribute positive ideas and thoughts to help move that person ahead. The next meeting will be another's turn. Do that until everyone has had an entire meeting dedicated just to them.
5. Bring in a speaker on a specific topic that would be helpful to everyone. This can be done on some regular recurring basis to keep the group moving forward.
6. Have one fun meeting just for "dream-building", where you all brainstorm big dreams and see how big and outrageous you can make the dreams/ideas. Make a game out of this one. See if you can make the balloon of thought so big it "pops".
7. Have an "appreciation" meeting, where each person gets to share something she appreciates about each of the other members, one by one, and then shares something that she appreciates about herself.
8. Start a (virtual) business together. Discuss the details of what the business would be and how you would get it off the ground. This is another brainstorm exercise that promotes creativity. This can be an ongoing exercise.
Hopefully, these 'crazy eight' ideas spark some ideas of your own. Remember, a MasterMind group should have a singleness of purpose, so if the group is floundering, it could be that you are not completely clear on your purpose. A meeting to discuss your purpose (or re-visit it) is a healthy idea, too.
If a Mastermind Group is not going anywhere, something needs to change. Unless you just enjoy a social get-together.(Not that there's anything wrong with that, just call it what it is!)
When groups fall apart, it is commonly due to lack of clarity, wobbly leadership, or insufficient commitment on the part of the members.
The objectives and the format of the group both need to be very clear to everyone in it. Is the group's purpose just for sharing ideas? Brainstorming? Is it for support? Critique? Accountability? A mixture of all of these? If you need to go back to the drawing board to figure it all out, or re-invent it, do so. Otherwise, it is destined for disintegration.
The two people at each meeting who need to be the most stalwart are the facilitator and the timer.
The facilitator needs to be crystal-clear on both the overall objectives of the group, the objectives of the particular meeting, and the agenda for the meeting (which may change from meeting to meeting). He needs to be the person who pulls someone off a tangent and back on track. She needs to be the person who confronts someone who is ignoring or breaking the rules of the group, purposely or not. He is the person who stops someone from 'firehosing' an idea during a brainstorming session (where there are no wrong ideas), and she may even need to notify a member that they have been "ousted" for inadequate participation, or not meeting group criteria. She may also be in charge of setting dates and/or sending out reminders of the meeting.
I recommend the timer be a different person than the facilitator. It is too hard for the facilitator to have laser-like focus and keep the meeting on track if he has to watch the time as well. You could say it like this: the facilitator drives and the timer navigates. Make sure the timer has an agenda to keep the meeting on time-track, and a stop-watch.
Discipline is the name of the game. Remember: the chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. If your meetings become loose and sloppy, people ramble, talk about non-pertinent topics, repeatedly take more than their share of time, or don't have their work done (if there is homework) you will lose your most committed members. Now is the time for tough love. You may choose to focus a whole meeting on one person, that's fine, but do it by design, not by default. If you just sit back and let stuff happen you are in rocky territory.
Who should facilitate the group? You've heard me say it before, and you'll hear me say it again: There is no right or wrong. You can just designate a leader/facilitator of the group and have them do it indefinitely. Sometimes, however, one person may not be willing to take that responsibility for the long haul. I facilitate one group for the long haul. I started another group and set it up from the beginning to switch facilitators every 90 days (we meet twice a month), so each person facilitates 6 meetings and it's another 18-24 months before that person has to facilitate again. I like the difference in style of different people leading. Just remember that strength, discipline, and commitment are necessary for that role. If things start to get wishy-washy, and the facilitator doesn't tighten things up, as a committed member of the group, that will be your responsibility to step up and say something.
Remember that your group has the potential to spawn the next great collaborative marketing idea: such as Starbucks selling books and music, the marriage of the I-Phone and AT&T, the wireless module that fits into the sole of Nike+ running shoes and a receiver that plugs into the base of an I-Pod nano (450,000 in the first three months of availability), and so on. Your group has endless possibilities. The next joint venture that makes history could originate in your Mastermind. Your group could contain the next Rachel Ray or Oprah, and it's only one comment or idea away from happening right now. That ONE good idea from the group.The group saying "You can do it!" and holding you accountable to taking the next step.
It all hinges on the group staying disciplined and focused, and that takes good leadership on everyone's part, especially the facilitator.
That depends. There is no right or wrong; the Mastermind Group needs to have a clear purpose and be formed and styled around its vision and what the members want to accomplish through it.
Once I belonged to a MasterMind group with 100 people in it, all in the same industry. There were various requirements for being in, and staying in, the group. It was very tightly run by one person with a support team. The group met 6 times a year in person at different locations around the country. We each brought a book report on and distributed copies to everyone, so that each person went home with many reports on books, without having to read the whole book. I loved that part. We always brought in a well-known speaker, and spent about 3 days together doing various activities. We would break down activities into small groups of 6-8 for idea creation, then aggregate with the rest of the groups' ideas, have a piggy-back style conversation and then compile all the ideas. Small independent groups formed organically within the larger MasterMind and developed little projects totally on their own, voluntarily. Sometimes we made challenges to each other involving money. For instance, 6 of us each wrote a check for $2,000 to a charity, and had one person hold all the checks. We each agreed to one thing outside our comfort zone, within the next 6 weeks. We wrote our promises down and signed them. Anyone who didn't accomplish their promise, their check was sent in to the charity. If they were able to accomplish their promise, their check was held and carried over to the next meeting, at which time another agreement was made. On another occasion, one fellow in the MasterMind Group challenged me to do something I tried hard to accomplish but didn't quite hit the mark,and the deal was that I had to count out 1,000 in cash (ten one hundred dollars bills) to him in the hall in front of several other people. These might sound like silly things, but do you hear the underlying theme of accountability in there? With "negative" consequences for non-accomplishment. And stretching out of what is comfortable...... That's what that particular group was about. It was a great group. It really stretched me and made me uncomfortable and my business grew and so did I personally.
On the other end of the spectrum, I belong to a MasterMind currently that is small (3 of us) and is gentle, supportive, and akin to group therapy; dealing with problems we each have in our businesses.
No rights...no wrongs....just differences. Decide what you need out of your group and find other like-minded people who have the same needs and similar goals.
EvanCarmichael.com is the world's #1 website for small business motivation and strategies. Evan also runs a series of successful Mastermind Groups in Toronto for entrepreneurs.
Guest Contributor: Julia Wert-Marrocco
