Today, the possibilities for connection are endless: these may be monthly face-to-face meetings, intense weekend retreats, or weekly video-meetings! Members might take turns organizing and facilitating meetings themselves, or ask a facilitator to handle these details so they can focus.

The common element of all MasterMind formats is “the hotseat”, lasting from 30 to 60 minutes. At each meeting, one member takes a turn in “the hotseat” – presenting their current challenge and asking for input, while their trusted colleagues offer everything from thoughtful advice to crazy brainstorming ideas. The process is facilitated, to help all voices to be heard, and keep it from devolving into just another friendly chat.

The hotseat member listens deeply, without discussing the advice given, and is then free to use it, adapt it, or leave it, as he or she sees fit.

• you’ll work “on” your career, not just “in” your career
• you’ll get feedback specifically oriented to your stated needs and goals
• you’ll find a safe space to be vulnerable, appreciated, and encouraged
• you’ll reap the ideas, resources and experiences of diverse and passionate peers
• you’ll make a commitment to regular experimentation, reflection, and story-telling
• you’ll benefit from celebration, humor, accountability and confidentiality
• and, perhaps best of all, you’ll build an ongoing network that puts an end to the “lone leader” experience

I am committed to creating supportive and growing communities. So I’ve wrapped the Hotseat into a format that helps members connect, design personal experiments and get accountability to carrying them out, in a friendly and safe-to-fail environment.

For the Hotseat portion itself I use the powerful “Case Clinic” facilitation format from the Presencing Institute. Participants may add in other elements to suit the group’s needs, for example:  impulse emails, blogging, accountability partners who meet offine, peer coaching, or a resource sharing platform.

An example: a 4-month, 6-member online MasterMind group might look like this…

• A Kickoff Meeting
  to connect and develop common goals and working agreements
• 6 x 2-hour MasterMind meetings
  bi-monthly 2-hour video meetings, until each member has had the Hotseat once.
• A Wrapup Meeting
  to celebrate group progress and decide whether and how to continue.

A typical meeting agenda might look like this, using the Case Clinic format:

When I organize and facilitate the group for you, I charge the group as a whole 300€ per meeting. I recommend a first round of MasterMinds to give everyone a chance to try it, then we pause to evaluate whether and how to proceed further. Some groups continue for another round (with or without a facilitator), and others disband at that point.

So, for the above example, with 6 members and a series of 8 meetings, they’d pay a total of 400€ each, if they split the cost equally. That’s a lot of value and relationship building, for less than most one-day conferences – and with no travel!

For existing groups, where relationships are already established, there is another alternative: do a single facilitated MasterMind to help one member address an important issue – for example, how to handle an upcoming event or a particularly sticky problem. This is a single meeting for 300€, and instead of a Kickoff pre-meeting, you’ll work with me to handle communications with your members, set expectations and find the right date for the group.