Insights from yet another superb meeting of the "Managers Mastermind"

Just the other day I sent off a short e- mail to the participants of one of the wonderful "Managers Mastermind" groups that I facilitate and run. The e-mail contained some reflections of my own that I wished to share with the group…I am putting it up on my blog as I feel that it gives some insight as to what the actual value is in these unique groups:

From the e mail that I sent out:

1.    "I would like to point out that ,in my opinion, both of those members who shared their individual dilemmas did not come out with any "clear path" of what they need to do…this is not  the way of the mastermind in my book, this is not the value we must seek here! What DunetzMastermind does, when done professionally and correctly, is to empower the individual with new perspectives, vantage points, it challenges them and focuses them on questions from places they may never have looked! They get this from people who may know them exceedingly well as well as from people who just met them a few minutes back!

Uri and Osi (names have been changed for confidentiality) came to the group with their respective dilemmas or deliberations about making a decision, they had their own take on it…once the group started "to work" you can see that suddenly they had more options, they themselves decided  when and where they needed to put the foot on the gas pedal, suddenly they had feedback from 11 other managers at once (something so rare that most people don't get such a thing during their entire lives!). The minute they began sharing this out loud in the group (and I stress GROUP because many of us are accustomed to one on one discussions only with "confidantes"), that very minute something started to change for them, a certain clarification was in the air and it was really all theirs…

2.    Regarding the exercise we did in the group, in pairs and then with the full group, "One time I really screwed up…"- did you guys notice a certain pattern? Nearly all of us, in retrospect of course, had the feeling that "If I had only checked more, deeper, longer…or at all…with the customer, the employee, my boss, my partner, my supplier….things may have been different". There is a phrase that is found in the Jewish prayer of "Lecha Dodi" (as well as other places)- " The action always begins with the thought"…I am wondering as managers: how often does this really take place? How much thought, how deep and comprehensive are the thoughts that go into our actions? Are we really investing our time and energy in seeing the whole picture, different perspectives, asking others and gaining wisdom in making our decisions? Do we really have a hold on what is the price we pay for NOT doing this?

I think this is where DunetzMastermind is at its best for managerial discussion as a tool that does precisely that: brings perspectives that are often disregarded, passed over and not even given thought to…and these perspectives can make all the difference!

"Things that you see from "there" you can never see from "here".