Why Peer-to-Peer Mastermind Groups Work So Well

Mastermind groups work well when they allow us to gain insights into our situation which we otherwise do not see. If we are in a context of trust and confidentiality, we can take advantage of the group's collective ability to "see things differently." The resulting insights empower us to make different choices and to create a different outcome. What we are doing in a mastermind group is finding a way to see past our own cognitive limits.

Few of us actively acknowledge the limitations placed upon us as humans. We speak and write as if we have access to much more of the world than we really do.  Our minds dislike ambiguity and doubt. Instead, we have an ingrained desire to construct coherent narratives which leads us to seek confirming evidence, while disregarding information that refutes our prior view – a problem known as confirmation bias. What results is a confidence in our understanding which is greater than the circumstances warrant, and a further confidence in the simplifications we have chosen on which we then base our actions.

Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman tells us: “We are ruined by our own biases. When making decisions, we see what we want, ignore probabilities, and minimize risks that uproot our hopes.” When we simplify, we allow our biases to help determine the very reality we are creating.

Humans have limited cognitive capabilities. We CANNOT process the complex interwoven infinite string of things that make up whatever it is that reality might be. At best, we can hold 3-9 ideas in our minds simultaneously. Most of us have lots of trouble with the idea that what matters may be one or two steps removed from what we are observing. We know we are limited in this way — but we ignore it.

We tend to speak as if we have access to something called “the truth.” Whatever access we have, however, is limited by the point above. We cannot process the whole truth. We can only process bits and pieces. The “truth” we are so sure we have access to is a narrative created by our minds to render the world somewhat coherent. Our mind’s goal is coherence NOT truth.

For every situation we find ourselves in, we pick out some aspects of what we are dealing with or encountering and using those 3-9 data points we tell ourselves a story. We then refine that story so that it “fits” into our current understanding of the world — an understanding which itself is the result of the years of prior story telling gone before and our immediate perception of the situation or context we find ourselves in. Our story of coherence is built upon those 3-9 data points, but we will tell the story as if it is based upon some “revealed truth.”

In order to avoid exhaustion, we also rely on our prior stories to “explain” current situations. If one or more of our chosen data points lines up with a previously told narrative, it requires a lot less energy to just go with the existing story rather than try to tell a new one. (Which, by the way, is why it is so much easier just to tell “the truth” — there is no need to either come up with a new story or remember what story you may have told previously.) We allow these chosen data points to trigger some meaning in our heads, and we then rely on the triggered meaning, unless or until the prior narrative fails to render the present situation coherent.

Throughout this process, we ignore the simple fact that we are CHOOSING which of the infinite data points and observations available to us to pay attention to. We make that choice based upon our prior history, contexts, beliefs and based on our present surroundings, context, and situation. This statement needs repeating. We choose what we pay attention to, and then we weave our narrative around those choices. Different people encountering the very same situation are highly likely to make different choices of data points.

In that simple fact: different people are highly likely to make different choices of data points lies the potential power of the mastermind group.

Potential power becomes real power through careful facilitation and a safe, nurturing, confidential context. Thousands of CEO’s and other business executives test their limiting perspectives through the mechanism of a peer-to-peer advisory group. This is a group of 12-20 executives who meet regularly for the very purpose of encountering the perspectives of the others. The members of these groups use the insights of others to full advantage hoping to gain new insights into their own situations and issues. Peer to peer groups work because they embody the following tenets (captured from my own peer-to-peer group):

The members recognize that most of the time we and others operate by the least action principle: i.e., minimize the effort needed to satisfice our goal. I.e., its easy to rely on the initial stories we tell ourselves than make the effort to compose new ones. Unless we are made aware of the limitations which our original stories impose upon us, we will not recognize the high energy cost of staying with the original stories.

Our understanding will always be based, in part on the present context as we encounter it. (Note, by definition, abstract definitions and arbitrary labels are meant to be context free.) The more insight and self-limitation that become evident to us through the group dialogue, the greater the opportunity for us to choose a different context. Because we can only pay attention to a limited number of data points, those we pay attention to will determine our context; context always matters.

In order to simplify any context we are dealing with, we tend to hide processes which allow inputs to become outputs and treat them as a black box. We can create more possibilities if we recognize when a black box is being used, and ask questions in an effort to at least partially reveal those hidden processes. The key strength of the group dialogue is found in the questions fellow members ask as they attempt to understand.

Because meaning is determined by the receiver, not the sender, the give and take of dialogue allows for the mutual development of reflective understanding.

This requires (1) the sender work very hard to take into account how the receiver may interpret and (2) the receiver distinguish between a triggered meaning in herself and a meaning that emerges from a process of dialogue. The mutual understandings that surface becomes the foundation for the next possibility.

Possibilities are limited by affordances (i.e., only those possibilities that are immediately adjacent (available) to a current situation are capable being enacted). Choices become available as possibilities only when we recognize them as such – an unattended-to choice is incapable of being acted upon. Another contribution of the group process is surfacing adjacent and available possible actions. Goals and intentions are not to be confused with adjacent and available actions.

Collectively the group serves as a reflective sounding board for each of its members. The reflective part comes from the insight each member gains while discussing issues raised by others. When raising one's own issues, the group process changes how members listen to themselves opening a productive opportunity for self-reflection.

Successful group processes become a part of each member’s day-to-day interaction with all of their significant others (professional, personal, community). As the lessons regarding questions to be asked, openness to the perspectives of others, and a recognition of self-imposed limitations are reflexively recognized and then shared, each member is able to help these others also grow.

Peer-to-peer groups thus help members to act so as to maximize the choices available to them. The re-iteration of this process over many situations creates the opportunity for members to abstract from lessons learned into guiding principles. Those guiding principles - in turn - become the basis for a new and better coherence.

Napoleon Hill made this observation more than 75 years ago. He was reflecting on the success of the original mastermind group. Today organizations such as Vistage and YPO have thousands of members who are furthering their success through the power of a mastermind group. When done right, they work well. And now you know why.

Perhaps a mastermind group would be right for you.