Short version (IMHO) is that Masterminds are excellent when you get good people (seniority, experience, entrepreneurial spirit etc) and they are far less good with less relevant people.
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Take a bunch of very early stage peers. They often have more limited and similar knowledge and networks. On the other hand, take a bunch of essentially lonely and talented entrepreneurs and stick them in a room, magic will happen!
I reckon it’s some combination of neglectedness/isolatedness and relative value.
I’m a member of a Mastermind group (from a Leadership Program I was on many years ago) which includes a couple of very senior civil servants. It’s just fascinating to watch how these leaders, unable to access advice and unguarded council from their own subordinates, can help each other—by virtue of their positions, experience and relevance. At the very least they respect each other and understand each other’s struggles in a way that few others can.
So I suspect that a huge amount of the value of Mastermind groups comes down to the matchmaking.
WANBAM (now Magnify Mentoring) seems to have had an outsized impact by connecting mentors with mentees across the community. I suspect an equivalent service of matching EAs into Circle/Masterminds could be very valuable. WANBAM’s success (from where I sit at least) seems to have been largely due to the skill of the matchmaker(s). Getting the fit “just right”. Likewise—getting the Circles “just right” could be amazingly powerful.
Would you say that inexperienced people benefit less from a Mastermind than experienced people? Or would you say that they benefit so little that a Mastermind is not worth for them?
If your claim is that Masterminds are only worthwhile for experienced people, then I disagree for two reasons:
First, the way I see Masterminds, one core aspect is that a group of peers can be much more effective in thinking through problems than a single individual. This is true even if none of my peers have any experience that I don’t have. It is surely not true for any imaginable group, but I would guess it is true in the case of intellectually humble and reasonably smart people with similar values, who come together explicitely to support each other. I personally have managed to solve dozens of tricky personal & professional problems with the help of Masterminds groups—problems which I was not able to solve on my own.
Second, people with little experience might need more personal support and motivation than people who already have a lot of experience. They also have less access to mentoring. Obviously, this is not always true, but it seems plausible.
Short version (IMHO) is that Masterminds are excellent when you get good people (seniority, experience, entrepreneurial spirit etc) and they are far less good with less relevant people.
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Take a bunch of very early stage peers. They often have more limited and similar knowledge and networks. On the other hand, take a bunch of essentially lonely and talented entrepreneurs and stick them in a room, magic will happen!
I reckon it’s some combination of neglectedness/isolatedness and relative value.
I’m a member of a Mastermind group (from a Leadership Program I was on many years ago) which includes a couple of very senior civil servants. It’s just fascinating to watch how these leaders, unable to access advice and unguarded council from their own subordinates, can help each other—by virtue of their positions, experience and relevance. At the very least they respect each other and understand each other’s struggles in a way that few others can.
So I suspect that a huge amount of the value of Mastermind groups comes down to the matchmaking.
WANBAM (now Magnify Mentoring) seems to have had an outsized impact by connecting mentors with mentees across the community. I suspect an equivalent service of matching EAs into Circle/Masterminds could be very valuable. WANBAM’s success (from where I sit at least) seems to have been largely due to the skill of the matchmaker(s). Getting the fit “just right”. Likewise—getting the Circles “just right” could be amazingly powerful.
Would you say that inexperienced people benefit less from a Mastermind than experienced people? Or would you say that they benefit so little that a Mastermind is not worth for them?
If your claim is that Masterminds are only worthwhile for experienced people, then I disagree for two reasons:
First, the way I see Masterminds, one core aspect is that a group of peers can be much more effective in thinking through problems than a single individual. This is true even if none of my peers have any experience that I don’t have. It is surely not true for any imaginable group, but I would guess it is true in the case of intellectually humble and reasonably smart people with similar values, who come together explicitely to support each other. I personally have managed to solve dozens of tricky personal & professional problems with the help of Masterminds groups—problems which I was not able to solve on my own.
Second, people with little experience might need more personal support and motivation than people who already have a lot of experience. They also have less access to mentoring. Obviously, this is not always true, but it seems plausible.