For three years now I’ve been a part of an official Mastermind-group. And it’s been more impactful than I think I’ve given it credit for. There’s four of us in my Mastermind-group, and we meet up roughly every third week. When we started, we all lived in the same city, and our meetup’s were physical. For the past almost two years, we’ve mostly done SKYPE-sessions, with members calling in from all over the globe.
For us, a meeting normally runs for two and a half hour, so there’s plenty of time. We set them up daytime, most often in the morning. We try to schedule a full semester of sessions when we have our first meeting every term (August and January). In the summer, before going for vacation, we go on a Mastermind-retreat, doing a bit of work, but mostly relaxing, enjoying ourselves and having a blast together.
We know each other so well by now, both work-wise but also personally, that our topics can center on anything, and I literally mean anything! But that’s been a journey, in and of itself. We didn’t start there. We’ve grown together, learned to trust and love one another. These are three souls who know me inside and out, people I know are always there for me, ready to hold space for me, give me a hug in hard times and kick my behind when I’ve gotten stuck and needs a jolt.
Every meeting one of us acts as chairman, and we always rotate this position.
Our fall-back agenda reads something like this, with somewhat fluid time slots, depending on our mood and needs, with a bit of bio-breaks here and there as well:
1) Check in – 3-5 minutes each
2) Every one provides their question of the day, something they need help with, or input on, or if there’s just something on your mind you’d like to speak into the room and perhaps get some feedback/feed forward on – 3-5-7 minutes each
3) Reflection round on the individual questions/topics, where the others give their input – 7-10-15 minutes each
4) Take-away of the day – 1-3 minute each
5) Feedback for the chairman – 2 minutes total
6) Boost session where we go around the table and boost each other, one by one – 3 minutes each
Sometimes, we have a specific topic for the meeting, and we experiment more with the content of the agenda, than we did when we first started our meetings. The first semester we had a facilitator as well, who invited us all to the Mastermind-group. That was very helpful, and I for one am very grateful for that initiative.
The Mastermind-concept was coined by Napoleon Hill, but was, as I understand it, a reflection he made after interviewing many of the most successful people in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The way we run our Mastermind is an adaptation to suit us, and I strongly urge you to try it out yourself! Surrounding yourself with people who will hold your back, while always holding you to be the best possible You will impact your life in ways you never imagined.
First published on my blog on August 21st, 2016: https://helenaroth.com/doing-gentle-32-set-up-a-mastermind-group/
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Audio production: Caspian Almerud
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Soundtrack: Olof Jennfors Ljudtjänst http://jennforsljud.se/