It was beginning to get dark, and the rain was driving across the polders as I arrived last night for a network event with a difference at Boerderij Achtervennen. Continue reading
drinking tea and talking trees.
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Category Archives: mastermind groups
Mastermind groups – or – effective intervisie for ZZPérs
I’ve blogged about my mastermind groups (in dutch its intervisie) before, here and here, but I realise I have not really explained what it is, and what we do! For me it is a great way to refresh my ideas, I could say its a sounding board. As a ZZPér its important to have somewhere to release new ideas and old problems which hold me back.
A mastermind group is an organised regular meeting between people who have the same type of work or work for the same organisation. In our case we are individual coaching practitioners. The goal of our group is to learn from each other.
We have a few important ground rules, we consider all members of equal standing, at each meeting a different leader is chosen, and the group decides on the topic, or problem to be discussed. The group also decides what method will be worked with to drive the discussion.
We experience an interactive learning effect from each meeting, as the person whose issue or problem is discussed learns from the feedback whereas the listeners learn from the experience discussed.
In coaching there are several intervisie methods which can be employed, two which are very useful are the Socratic method of questioning, and the Balint analysis method.
1 In the Socratic method, a case study is briefly described and the problem the which the coach experienced explained. then each member of the group asks three questions which are written down for all to see. The questions themselves are not judged, there are no stupid questions. the group as a whole studies the questions, and then they are evaluated by the one who brought the case study as to their usefulness in bringing him/her to a new insight. The questions may be answered but questioners do not interrupt the flow of answers. It is then possible to ask another round of questions, or to stop the procedure and evaluate what has been learned by both questioners and the coach with the case study.
2 In the Balint method each group member proposes an issue which is holding them back (be that a clients problem, or a problem that the coach himself experiences). The group choses one issue to work on. The issue is described, and each member writes down the ideas that they associate with the problem. Each member reads out their ideas, and the member who introduced the issue gives short answers to each idea. The group leader summarises all the ideas, and a theme is recognised. These can be discussed and the member bringing the issue to table can chose to move forward with the theme discussed, or share the outcome of the issue.
This all sounds very formal, and in truth we do not always follow this format, but both methods are an extremely effective way of driving the meeting, especially when the meeting becomes stuck in old patterns of communication.
If you are a ZZPér and interested in bringing together your own mastermind group, I would be happy to help you on your way; and very interested in the outcome. I am convinced this method is transferable across industries so please get in touch with comments and questions.
Introducing My Mastermind Group
This great new years message inspired me to write a little about my mastermind group,(the dutch word is intervisie!) and how we came together. It’s a great example of my organic network!
The photo of Aukje Reinders really reflects her personality as I have known her over the last few years. We are both members of NOBCO, and three years ago I searched their membership list in order to find coaches living close to my home town with the intention of forming an intervisie group. Aukje replied to me email by return and we set up our intervisie group of two which helped us both greatly as I developed my coaching practice, and Aukje tested out new forms of coaching.
In the meantime we became a members of “Waterlands network for gezondheid en ontwikkeling” which was set up a couple of years ago to bring together practitioners of different complementary therapies in my region. At the end of 2009 one of their members, Daphne van Roon was looking for new members to join her already existing intervisie group. Aukje and I decided to join forces with them, and we had our first group meeting in December 2009.
As well as Aukje, Daphne and myself the group is made complete by Mirjam Goudeket and Margy Jonathans. We bring together a broad spectrum of coaching skills; Daphne is a coach, trainer and instructor,
Margy focuses on duel cultural coaching, Mirjam is a relationship therapist and mediator whilst Aukje practices provocative coaching techniques and is a supervisor and trainer.
Each meeting develops us as professional coaches, and deepens our understanding of each other, but to be honest each meeting is also a lot of fun!
Complimentary therapy – a holistic approach
Yesterday I attended a showcase morning for a few of the therapists who work in Het Anker, the centre for complementary treatments and therapies where I have my practice.
Ingrid, an acupuncturist, and Anka, a homeopath and diet specialist, let us see how they carried out an initial interview with a client, and made their initial diagnosis.
The client, or patient, was Sjuul, who has her haptonomy practice in Het Anker. I and Erna, a hypnotherapist, were acting as observers. I have done a lot of observation when I was training as a coach, and used to sit with notebook in hand, watching proceedings and noting the verbal and none verbal nuances in every session. This was a different kind of observation, as Ingrid and Anka both worked through their interview questions in a different way to a coach. I learned a little about both therapies through this session, and a lot about Sjuul! I won’t try to give a scientific review of what went on, but I would like to let you know how I felt the interviews went.
Anka the homoeopathist wanted to know the family history of Sjuul, to link inherited health patterns to her current symptoms. She also asked for a detailed description of each symptom, how, lets call them fluids, looked and smelled, whether pain was pressing or sharp, which symptoms showed singly, or in groups. Her technique is to write up the notes of this initial interview, and then chose a cocktail of homeopathic medicine for the client to begin treatment.
Ingrid focused on how the symptoms linked to organs in the body, and would normally begin treating at least one symptom immediately, partly to help a client understand how acupuncture works, and whether the needles used actually hurt, and partly because as one symptom is treated, the treatment for other symptoms becomes clearer, a sort of peeling off of the layers. I was disappointed that we ran out of time and Ingrid could not begin treatment, but I think Sjuul was relieved!
Erna and I as observers found it very hard not to interrupt, but we both agreed it was interesting to see at what point we would have taken over the interview! We did not interrupt, but at the end of the session we each had a chance to raise points which we noted.
Erna felt that the symptom Sjuul described of feeling shortness of breathe could have been linked to a difficult birth experience which she would treat with hypnotherapy, and Sjuul immediately revealed that her birth had been very difficult, and she had nearly died.
I had picked up on two symptoms, not for their medical cause but their social connections. One was pain which I felt could have been intensified by a stressful situation, and I would have coached based on that specific social event, to reveal the underlying stress pattern connected to it. The other was a disrupted sleep pattern which I would have liked to explore further.
What was remarkable about the session was to see that each of us took a holistic approach to the clients symptoms, examining them from a physical, mental and social angle, and whether the therapy we offer is a physical intervention in the form of needles, or medicine, or an intervention which focuses on the clients mental processes, we could all have offered a treatment which would have benefited this client. It was a fascinating insight into different complimentary therapies and their benefits when practiced by experienced, qualified professionals.