A small guide to running a mastermind group
Many of us might have experienced that once any deeply engaging activity ends, the energy that was there, is abruptly finished leaving a hole behind. Many might feel they would love to keep the momentum going and to stick to the like-minded people who understand the experience of the program. Thing is that when you get back to your real life after the crazy month experience responsibilities hit and it is really hard to find time for those extra activities. But there is a way to keep the momentum going: a mastermind group.
What are the benefits of a mastermind group?
— you keep on getting feedback from the “talking mirrors”
— you keep the spirit of an ongoing reflection
— you deepen the lessons together with people who deepen theirs
— you keep the spirit, which is something I cannot advertise enough, almost two years later.
Already during the workshop, we attended together, my mastermind group realized that having a person preferably on the other side of the world who knows nobody from your direct environment has this amazing quality: they can only hear what you say and react to it. If you victimize yourself, they hear it. If you are afraid to leap, they see it. And they are not afraid to point it out. I remember many sessions leaving me speechless — I was given so much food for thought, I had nothing more to say to excuse myself. All the corners and shadows I was trying to hide in were pointed at.
The mastermind group helped us to continue reflecting on our thoughts and actions. I my case it took a form of starting to write on Medium to externalize my thoughts (recently I have a little abandoned it but I have all the intentions to return to this amazing habit). For other of us it was meditation or informed action. It was the continuation of the self-development process initiated though the workshop .
It is an interesting thing — Workshops such as AltMBA opens many doors in our heads but one month is not enough to explore them all. The after-effects of this process go on for years after. Obviously, it is possible to keep on exploring on your own but having people who are also exploring and support you in the process makes it somewhat more approachable. I believe that many of the things that I reflected on and ultimately implemented in my life wouldn’t be done with such consistency and decisiveness if I didn’t have the support of the group.
Last but not least — the group helps to keep the workshop spirit. It helps to ship. You know that once a month you will face the people who understand what shipping is about and they are going to ask you how your commitments are doing. So you better have something to say ☺ I can see that some of my old habits try to kick in every now and then: I can choose to go lazy and avoid responsibility. But meeting with the guys helps me to push on. To fight Resistance. To ship.
Looking in retrospect three things seem to help running a successful mastermind group:
— the leader
— the true life challenges
— the time slot
Let me unpack them:
When we first started the rhythm of the meetings was not there. So, the guy who started our group took a role of a leader. He would simply insist of finding the next slot to meet and chat and he would be always there no matter whether there was one other person present or all four of us. He was the spiritus movens to get us rolling. Over time, two things happened: one person dropped off, one other person joined (also from our generation) and the need for the regular meetings became a joint need — something we all would insist on if the break was too long.
When we got started one of us (me, actually) had a major job-related challenge. I just took on a new role, which sounded very promising and turned out to be much harder than I would have ever imagined. So, the group was there for me to help me through the hard time and to support me in the decisions I needed to take. In the meantime, the second of us chose to quit his full time job and follow his dream of running his own business. Again, we are all on board to support him with the choices and decisions he was facing. A similar thing happened to the other two members of the group — along the period they both went though some major professional changes and we all were able to serve as talking mirrors for them. I can imagine that without the urge to leap in all of us the group would have last much shorter life.
Finally the timing: it was quite a challenge for us as two of us are in Europe and two down under. So we were left with the somewhat forced options of early mornings and late evenings (one way or the other). Surprisingly this constraint proved very useful. Obviously, late evenings or early mornings were undoable during the week-day when we had to go to work. So, the natural choice was weekend. The European time was morning and Australian time was evening. Again, in order to maintain the consistency of the weekend, the natural choice was to select Sunday. And you can imagine, lazy Sunday morning or evening spent on a nice and stimulating conversation is something to look forward to.
Another choice was the frequency: we started with a meeting every three weeks. When anyone of us was going through the decision time we would intensify the meetings — sometimes we would meet every week or even a few times a week. But now the meeting are less frequent: every month or so.
The future of the group: I am not sure whether we will continue on meeting forever. I can imagine that in time the group might meet more and more rarely and eventually stop. And that’s ok. It has an individual purpose for each of us. Once this purpose is fulfilled, there will be no point to force more of it.
But I can also imagine forming another mastermind group over time. With a different goal and maybe a shorter (or longer) time span. It really helps to keep on going. To make commitments and to live up to them. So, if you consider such an activity I wholeheartedly recommend it. It gives more than you put it. I am sure of that.
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Aga Szóstek, PhD is an experience designer with over 19 years of practice in both academic and business world. She is an author of “The Umami Strategy: stand out by mixing business with experience design”, a creator of tools supporting designers in the ideation process: Seed Cards and the co-host in the Catching The Next Wave podcast.
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