#939: Mastermind groups are very popular, but so is dissatisfaction with them. The benefit is peers coming together to provide support and counsel to each other and to do so effectively requires trust, structure, and some deft facilitating. Diana Pavlac Glyer has intimately researched one of the most successful and well known mastermind groups of all time, which interestingly did not at all call and maybe didn’t even consider itself as such; The Inklings. The Inklings are an infamous group of authors who came together in the 1930s, headlined by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. At face value they had informal gatherings over 14 years at Magdalen College in Oxford, and a local pub. But as Diana uncovers in her book, Bandersnatch, what you’ll see is these men were intrinsically involved in each other's work and not only spurred each other on, but actually sparred with each other. Diana greatly dispels what she refers to as, “the myth of the solitary genius.” The charge and takeaway from this conversation is the opportunity and great benefit we can derive from investing in other’s pursuits, but not simply for their reciprocity, but what we directly receive from devoting attention to the endeavors of our peers. I was so convicted by Diana’s research and the benefit, I’ve put together my own, new mastermind, called the Driven Counsel, you can find it at drivencounsel.com, and the point is coming together to help each other on what we are most striving to progress in with our work.
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