Earlier this year, I hosted a series of roundtable lunches with financial advisors across Canada that focused on what they’re doing to move their businesses forward.

A common refrain among these advisors was the difficulty they had had in implementing new initiatives. Said one successful advisor: “I have lots of good ideas and I fundamentally know what I need to do. What I struggle with is making those ideas happen.”

This advisor is far from unique. In my conversations with advisors, implementing change often tops the list of business challenges and frustrations. If you’d like to advance your business, one proven strategy that has demonstrated remarkable success is tapping into the power of peer performance groups.



> The Power Of Performance Groups
The concept behind peer performance groups is simple: a compatible group meets on a regular basis, with members sharing the goal of helping each other succeed. Participants make an absolute commitment to keep conversations confidential so everyone feels free to speak honestly.

The idea isn’t a new one. At the turn of the 20th century, Andrew Carnegie attributed much of his success in dominating the steel industry to a “mastermind group” established specifically for this purpose. And Napoleon Hill wrote about mastermind groups in the influential motivational book Think and Grow Rich.

Top producers in the insurance industry have long participated in quarterly “study groups.”

And one of the key benefits of belonging to the Young Presidents’ Organization, a global network of young CEOs founded in 1950, is the chance to participate in peer advisory groups.

There are three main advantages to participating in a performance or peer advisory group:

> you have a group of people helping you address your business challenges, offering a variety of perspectives and presenting different points of view;

> your performance group can bring a range of resources and connections to the table;

> participating in the right performance group creates accountability and helps you maintain your motivation.



> Making A Performance Group Work
Getting a performance group going requires making several decisions, such as the number of participants, the composition of the group, the frequency and duration of meetings and the agenda for each meeting. You also need a process for dealing with any tensions or disagreements that arise.

> Number Of Participants. Most successful performance work groups have between six and eight members. Although there are always exceptions, this size has been proven to be optimum.

> Composition. The makeup of the group is critical to its success. Making this decision requires giving careful thought about the people you want participating in the group. For a group to be productive, the organizer must set a minimum level of compatibility among participants in terms of level and direction of their businesses.

You must establish ground rules, to which all participants must agree. These rules should go beyond maintaining confidentiality and include treating the commitment seriously and making meetings a priority. That means a “no BlackBerry aside from scheduled breaks” rule.

A key decision is whether to include advisors from the same branch, firm and community or to draw participants from different regions and firms. Drawing from various regions can provide a wider range of perspectives, help avoid conflicts and ease concerns about confidentiality; offsetting that is that travel can make the logistics of meetings more complex.

> Frequency And Duration. As a general rule, performance groups meet for one day annually and four hours monthly. Rather than meeting monthly for half a day, some groups that draw from a wider geographical area meet every two or three months for a full day.

> Where To Meet. The venue can be an office boardroom, although many groups find it works better to go offsite. Some rotate among member’s homes.

> Running The Meetings. Although some groups hire a professional facilitator, a more effective practice is to rotate responsibility for leading the discussion within the group, aided by a carefully structured agenda for each meeting.

To keep everyone on track, members take turns keeping notes from the meeting and then circulating them to participants afterward.@page_break@No matter how careful you are, there is a good chance that one member will consistently command more than his or her fair share of the time. This can become a major annoyance.

One solution is the “egg timer” rule. Participants agree on the maximum time for which a participant will talk. One member is made responsible for starting an egg timer when each participant begins talking; when the timer rings, time is up.

> Dealing With “Problem” Members. One awkward issue is what to do if one or more members of a group end up being counterproductive — either because of not pulling his or her weight or because the person dominates the conversation.

A solution is to have groups run for 12-month periods, after which they automatically are disbanded and have to be reconstituted.



> Sample Meeting Agenda
For these meetings to be meaningful, they have to be carefully structured — and having an effective agenda to keep everyone on track is essential.

Here’s what a four-hour meeting might look like:

Item: Quick update (30 minutes)

Each member begins by identifying the one most positive thing that’s happened and the biggest challenge that’s emerged since the previous meeting.

Item: Reporting in (45 minutes)

Each member takes five minutes to share performance vs key goals established at the previous meeting.

Item: Lessons from the past month (30 minutes)

The group holds a roundtable discussion of the most important lesson the participants learned over the past month.

Item: Break (15 minutes)

Item: Deep dive (45 minutes)

One member provides an in-depth presentation of the structure, direction and challenges of his or her business, followed by a discussion among the group, with a view to suggestions and ideas to consider. In fact, some advisors have said that just the process of preparing the analysis of their business for their presentation provides huge value.

Item: Focus discussion (45 minutes)

The group discusses one common issue of concern that was identified as a priority at the previous meeting. Members might have submitted written thoughts on this in advance of the current meeting. In some cases, there might be a short period during which the group splits in two to discuss this issue.

Item: The next 30 days (30 minutes)

Each member briefly outlines the key goals that he or she is committing to for the next month. These are circulated after the meeting and will be the basis for accountability — the “reporting in” stage — the following month.

This agenda is just a starting point. Some groups occasionally invite guest speakers, who might replace the deep dive or focus discussions at some of the monthly update meetings. For annual planning meetings, a different agenda will be required.



? Getting Started
Like most worthwhile things in life, developing a successful peer performance group requires a significant amount of up-front work. If this idea appeals to you, a good starting point might be to identify one or two people with whom you’d like to participate in a group.

You could then perhaps broach the topic of forming a group over a cup of coffee and, if they’re open to the idea, brainstorm for names of others you might invite to participate.

Of course, there is no guarantee that a peer performance group will work as well for you as it has for others. But with the right level of thought and commitment, such a group can have a significant impact in helping you drive your business forward. It can also help you overcome the frustration of having good ideas but struggling to implement them. IE



Dan Richards is CEO of Clientinsights (www.clientinsights.ca) in Toronto. For other columns by this sales expert, visit
www.investmentexecutive.com.