Monday, April 17, 2006

Mastering Master Mind

Friday morning, early, I attended the monthly meeting of the Master Mind group I am a member of. We seven women have been meeting for over a year now. We formed soon after some of the members heard Jane Pollak speak at the Women's Entrepreneurial Network's annual business conference in October '04. We are all busy, so we decided to limit our group to seven people so that our meetings could be accomplished in two hours. We also decided to meet in our homes rather than our offices, so the host is not distracted by stuff. Our agenda includes, Success, Challenges and Goals. We time each part, with each member receiving three minutes dedicated to successes, 10 minutes to challenges and less than a minute to goals at the very end.

We can say that our group continues to be a resounding success. Some of us didn't know each other, others we knew slightly. While it is rare to have all seven of us in attendance as business and vacations take us away, now we are so connected, that we look forward to these meetings.

What is so amazing to me is that when the challenges are presented, usually the answer is so simple that the challenged member has to laugh. It's the old, "Why couldn't I think of that?" Also the few times that we have a full complement, it never fails that one member will need a bit more attention and time. We don't have to say, "Oh we're going to give more time to Debby," it just happens. Still we are efficient enough to finish on time.

We are a very diverse group as far as our work, and there are several other Master Mind groups that we know of, that are set up differently. One is a small gathering of retailers, and another is a diverse business group with both genders represented. Both have an agenda that is different than ours, not so structured.

Friday morning as we gathered around Lori Cannon's dining table, I reflected about our group. I think Master Mind groups are helpful because of the trusting relationships developed within each group. While we devote only two hours per month to each other, our friendship spans the other days of the month, making us want to help our MM friends everyday of the year.

What do you know about Master Mind groups? Do you have something better?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I helped Lori Cannon create this Master Mind group Debby belongs to, I remembered well the Napoleon Hill concept from Think and Grow Rich that focuses on several successful business folks. In Hill's view, he relies on Master Mind both as a physical group as well as a "mental" group. In this way, when Hill considers the challenges he is experiencing in business he simply needs to reflect with, "What would so and so say?"

I believe each of us in Debby's group may be reaching that level of perspective with one another, gaining diversity in our perspectives, so that once we need to miss a meeting, we may simply throw our challenges to the mental or spiritual group and say' "and how would Debby/Lori address this?"

That's the beauty of this group. It reaches us on several levels, when we let it.

MB

Unknown said...

I am planning on starting a Mater Mind group in the Ann Arbor area and was fortunate that Lori, Merri, Debby (my mom), and the rest of the members were willing to let me sit in and observe. What a great experience!

Of course, it was wonderful that each could count on the others to give them ideas and possible solutions to their challenges. My favorite part, though, was when they each spoke of their successes in the previous month. They were each excited for the others and really cheered each other on. How often in life do we have someone tell us we've done a good job?

Thank you again!

Anonymous said...

The Master Mind process reminds me to inventory, and methodically address, not only the challenges a start-up business faces but forces me to also, literally, write down the numerous small victories along the way. As a sole practitioner, this group has been an invaluable source of business support, objectivity, a safe space to vent - and is teaching me a lot about friendship.

Thank you Lori, Merri, Debbie, Sandy, Michelle and Cathy; this past year has been manageable because I know that you'll keep tossing pebbles into my cave until I get my ** out! :-) Love to you all.

Sandy of Sandy's Stuff for Women said...

The only thing I can add to this is a built-in sense of obligation to the group to accomplish the goals you set for yourself. Being held accountable creates action. When my newly located store had its grand opening in January, my fellow MMer's set a goal to be there and invite others - and they didn't let me down. Thanks.