Sean D'Souza: From brainstorming comes insights - if you do it right

In 1937, Napoleon Hill wrote a book - Think and Grow Rich.

To date, that book has sold over 30 million copies. And it was in that book that Napoleon Hill underlined the concept of masterminds.

Masterminding is when a group of people get together regularly and talk about their challenges - business or personal. The mere idea of getting people together and "brainstorming", as it were, would lead to insights. It would lead to the wisdom of crowds - a situation where one person didn't have all the answers, but a collective group of people could feed off each other's wisdom and come up with a solution.

There was just one thing wrong with Hill's concept And that thing was: how do I implement this mastermind concept?

Hill gives six steps in the book, and talks in reasonable detail about how to go about things, but there are three core factors that distinguish between masterminds that work, from those that don't:

* Leadership.

* Agenda.

* Showing up.

Leadership is critical in a mastermind. It doesn't matter if it's a group of peers. Someone has to be head honcho. And someone has to take charge. There's no such thing as something that runs itself. The leader must make sure everyone shows up, then sticks to the agenda.

There needs to be a vice-president as well. This vice-president needs to have the contact details of all the people involved.

The communication needs to be two way. First the vice-president needs to get in touch with everyone to make sure they show up. And the member who cannot show up needs to send their apologies. Yes, apologies. It's not good form not showing up, and so it's important to give advance notice (wherever possible).

And yes, make sure that the leadership rotates after two to three months, so everyone in the group gets a feeling for the responsibility involved.

Which takes us to factor number 2, setting the agenda: most people just show up not really knowing what to talk about. And that's not good at all. A good idea is always to have a "hot seat". A hot seat is where one member of the group talks about their issues and projects. About their challenges. And the group rallies around, solving the issues the best they can.

The most important thing for the agenda to work is for the group to reference a common document.

Whatever the resources, they need to be simple and easy to access. And preferably short.

But, but, but ... should you only concentrate on the person in the hot seat?

Ideally you should. The more you focus on the person on the hot seat, the more focused you will be and the more focused the hot seat person will be as well.

It's not quite the same having five or seven completely different problems tabled in the same week. That won't work. That would dilute your mastermind and quickly throw it into disarray. Focusing on one person for the week keeps the agenda tight and allows you to understand the problems faced by that one person. And it allows you to collectively work on solutions, more questions and different angles to look at just one project or challenge.

But what does the rest of the group do while they wait their turn?

Hey, it's not a rule to keep focused on one person. It's a guideline. You can bring up other issues. Your mastermind will always have time and space for you. But one of the destructive elements of mastermind groups is that people get too busy.

And so if you do have something that needs discussion, then do bring it up.

But make sure it's not some massive project and, rather, something small. And use your common sense or ask whether it's fine to table an item.
We now move to the greatest killer of mastermind groups: actually showing up.

But surely there are mastermind groups that meet and don't die? There are indeed. But they're run by fiercely motivated people. But surely you are fiercely motivated as well, you think. And you probably are. But in an increasingly nutty world, our time is fragmented. Therefore you need to set up a situation where you reduce the failure factor.

You meet on an online forum.

Right away, quite a few people's hackles go up. After all they've had experiences with forums, and not all of them have been good. That's true, but this is your tiny group. And the biggest advantage of a forum is that people can show up at any point and not be bound by time.

All you need to do is choose a day of the week, or two days, then make sure the vice-president sends out the emails to invite folks back to the forum. Over a few months, this showing up will become a habit and members will show up several times a week - even several times a day.

The forum doesn't require as much timekeeping as a live event. Live events are fine for a short period, but anything that requires a long meeting needs to have something where people can jump in when they have the time.

So let's summarise:

* Strong leadership is important. And rotate the leaders from time to time.

* The agenda is easily resolved with the hot seat concept.

* Kill the group by having live sessions. Or use a forum. And more people will show up. And show up consistently.

A mastermind group is hard work, but not as hard as you think.

Over the weeks and months, it often becomes a place of refuge. A place where you can go to have an honest discussion with people you trust and respect. A place where you can sort out your issues.

If you structure it well, it will succeed.

If not, it just fails.

Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and an international author and trainer. He is the author of The Brain Audit - Why Customers Buy (And Why They Don't).


www.psychotactics.com