It’s great to sit around brainstorming brilliant ideas and solutions in your mastermind group meetings, but then you’ve got to get moving on those ideas!

Whether you’re a mastermind group facilitator or a mastermind group member, your commitment to your mastermind group includes helping people create and implement action plans.

This can be hard to do. Many people love to “be in the process of planning and dreaming” — a yummy place to be sure — but then resist actually doing anything with the creative ideas that were spawned in the meeting.

How do you get members to make plans and take action?

It all starts with the Hot Seat process. In each Hot Seat, an individual member talks about his specific problem, decision or goal, and then the group spends time masterminding/brainstorming about his situation. This generates a list of potential solutions, pros/cons of a decision, resources, etc.

But don’t stop there! Ask the Hot Seat member to select one action he will complete before the next meeting:

• Sometimes the member knows instantly which idea he’ll move forward on. At this point, he’ll create a step-by-step action plan.
• Sometimes that action item is to simply look at the list that was generated during the meeting, weigh each idea against goals and resources, and choose the best idea from that meeting. Analyzing and deciding are strong action items, too, even though they happen in your head or on paper.

Along with choosing an action item, ask the member to set a deadline for themselves. Make sure they’re in the “sweet spot” of having plans and deadlines that are both challenging (don’t make it too easy or you’ll never grow) and do-able (make sure it’s something the member feels it’s possible to accomplish).

Give your group members the structure and tools they need to create the personal and professional life they want. By getting your mastermind group members to set and keep goals and create action plans, you make them accountable for their success. Otherwise, your group meetings just deteriorate into mere brainstorming and advice-giving sessions that never lead anywhere.

Related blog posts

• Setting Yearly Goals: Is Your Group Asking You To Grow?
• Getting Your Mastermind Group to Set and Keep Goals
• Why Accountability is Important in a Mastermind Group
• What’s the Difference: Mastermind Groups versus Accountability Groups
• Categories for Small Business Goal-Setting

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