The Problem With Peer Groups And The Solution

Have you ever wasted a day attending a session where the speakers were of no value or the conversations were sparse and superficial? A bad experience while taking a day off to sharpen the saw can prevent good CEOs from forming transformational relationships. All growth stems from relationships. 

It’s lonely at the top. A top-echelon leader is in a unique position as he or she often spends more than 95% of his or her time with direct reports, customers and others whom it’s inappropriate to open up about challenges, questions and high-level ideas. 

A bevy of groups attempt to create environments for CEOs and other top leaders, but those programs often have a set of common problems. They’re too costly or time consuming. They cover irrelevant topics and feature boring speakers, or worse yet, they focus too much on commiserating and too little on forward thinking and innovation that leads to holistic growth. The much bigger problem: not being in a group focused on helping each other to grow your organizations and each other as individuals. 

For 30 years, I’ve facilitated CEO roundtables and forums, some with groups that have met monthly for more than 20 years. Others meet quarterly for a one- to three-year “sprints,” and others meet weekly for 90 minute 90-day sprints. 

I’ve found there are many keys to help make such a group effective. Here are a few ideas and qualifiers to use in creating, running or qualifying a group. 

Innovate on the time. I run many “one-day” monthly meetings, and my groups have chosen 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to allow for travel or work to be done before or after the meeting. Social hours usually ensue, and still, there is time to be back to the family for dinner. 

In 1990, I started a weekly roundtable for sales managers at a client’s location. We called it an Echeloning Lunch & Learn, but we focused it with a very tight time schedule and agenda. Contact me for a copy of Growth or Bust, and you can read for more details. The roundtable morphed into a weekly 90-minute face-to-face and sometimes virtual meeting. The CEOs gave brief updates by reporting for just a few minutes, and then, we had innovation round-robins for each attendee. Most of the time, the issue pertained to exploiting an opportunity. Sometimes it was problem-solving. We banned two things: not having an idea to contribute and being lugubrious. (Look it up as knowing the definition prevents it.) 

If you are interested in 90-minute growth-focused roundtables, contact me.  I’ll get you started on the right foot.  

Mark Faust works with owners, CEOs and sales managers who want to grow their businesses. You can schedule a free growth ideas session with Mark. Simply book your time by visiting 
https://calendly.com/markfaust