The Secret of Mastermind Groups – The concept of Mastermind Groups has become quite the phenomenon. Everyone who wants to monetize personal growth, financial success, health or well being is forming a mastermind group. The concept is simple, anyone with an idea, a concept or a system forms a group, charging for membership, and teaches classes on a regular basis. The problem is that this is not how mastermind groups evolved nor how a successful mastermind group works.
Benjamin Franklin started the first mastermind group in our part of the world when he was 21 in 1727. It was called the Junta and many of its members went on to form the Continental Congress. They met on a regular basis to discuss politics, philosophy, and finance to support each other’s endeavors.
Napolean Hill brought mastermind groups into the public eye with his groundbreaking work “Think and Grow Rich” in 1938. He defined a mastermind as: “the coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.”
While we may think it is abstract reasoning that is responsible for humans’ domination of the planet, it may be that our social interactions and formation of civilization was more important. Groundbreaking ideas almost always require teamwork to bring them to fruition; social reasoning is what allows us to build and maintain the social relationships and infrastructure needed for teams to thrive.
As we mature, we go through a process of evolution of social skills.
These include connection, mindreading, and harmonizing.
- Connection: During our evolutionary journey, mammals split off from other animals and evolved the capacity to feel social pains and pleasures, hardwiring our well-being to our social relationships.
- Mindreading: Humans have developed the rare ability to understand the actions and thoughts of those around us, enhancing our ability to connect and interact purposefully. This capacity allows humans to create groups that can implement and plan ideas and to anticipate the needs and wants of those around us. This is truly unique in the animal kingdom.
- Harmonizing: The sense of self is one of the rarest aspects of our mental and emotional evolution. Even more profound is our ability to harmonize with others and form groups with common purposes. The concept of allowing a common purpose to override our individual desires is truly remarkable.
A “mastermind” group is a peer-mentoring network usually composed of three to six participants with a maximum of eight to ten participants. The main purpose of a mastermind group is to help its members navigate the challenges and solve problems using their collective knowledge and experiences. These groups are self-directed. The original purpose of the mastermind group concept was to enable a group-based approach to problem-solving.
When people pool their knowledge, skills, and resources, they can achieve their goals much more quickly than when they work alone. Other members’ perspectives can help you identify opportunities, problems, and issues that you might not have thought of yourself. Working with others can help you to generate an entirely different approach or solution to a persistent problem, which brings you closer to your goal.
Group members can also help you to tap into other skill sets and networks. They may be able to fill gaps in your own knowledge or introduce you to key people in different industries or from different backgrounds. By meeting regularly and holding one another accountable for achieving their goals, members of Mastermind Groups can inspire one another to stay on track. Knowing that you must share your progress in the next meeting can spur you on, so that you don’t let the group down.
Successful Mastermind Groups consist of people who are committed to supporting one another. But to ensure that that commitment lasts, the group should schedule frequent meetings with action items due at each one. Holding meetings or setting deadlines too far apart can cause the group to lose momentum. To continue their progress, group members should also establish a way to communicate between meetings.
Studies have established that taking part in a mastermind group can effectively help shift focus from the negative aspects of a challenge faced by its group members to the positive aspects of a potential solution.
It should be noted, however, that just because someone calls their organization a “mastermind group”, that does not make it one. If it is a meeting where the leader simply passes along information, that is not a mastermind group. A mastermind group must include sharing, accountability, support, and goals. Anything else is just an educational class, a club or a cult.
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