Final Prep For Group Formation

byDaveSw

5.6K followers

Updated 6 years ago

Hi, Everyone...

This will be the final post prior to the foundational post for group formations. In the past few days, things have been worked behind the scenes, and now we are about ready to get started!

Exciting times, and this is a bit different than what Bo is doing with his group of 5 people. Rather than one group, we will have many, each focused on a particular niche, market segment, or subject.

Based on the feedback from the other posts we now have an pretty extensive list of potential areas that members can get involved with as they may have interest in...

You can join more than one group, meaning that if you are working a niche, but perhaps want to learn more about/interact with members interested in, say, e-comerce, you can join both groups...

There will be three levels of group participation...Group Administrators, Group Leaders, and Group Members. Again, you can be in one, two, or all three if you want. There are no restrictions needed, it is more a matter of the time and desire you have...

UPDATE: Kyle has chimed in with some guidance for us as we get started. He wants to make sure that whatever we do is within the realm of Wealthy Affiliate as there have been times when such groups have been misused...

Therefore what we may do at the start is keep things tied together for each group via general posts by Group Leaders for their groups, where activities can be scheduled...The comment section for each post can be used in a chat-like manner...

I have asked Kyle if it would be permissable to stand up a siterubix hosted website where members of the each group could gather to conduct some interaction, i.e. if that website had a chat feature, much like we have here, etc.

One of the reasons I have not gone into ALL the specifics was I expected that at some point Kyle and Carson would provide some direction. This is their platform, so we have to comply with the basic rules which is understandable...

Here is the guidance to now from Kyle:

"This is something that we have definitely considered for our future design updates, right now it is not appropriate to run external groups so you can maintain such an environment within WA (well not excluding others) that is fine.

But please do not initiate external masterminds, there have been a lot of people that have gotten ripped off and it does go against our policies here.

We are certainly listening and aware for the need for a much larger subset of groupings and the ability to interact in a more cohesive nature about lower level topics, niches, and in many cases, particular challenges."

What Does All This Mean For Our Mentoring Groups?

So for us this guidance means that we can proceed with the foundational posts, create support mentor groups of 6-8, and then that group can conduct activities through posts, comments on posts, and using PM/other means of communication we have here...

This makes it a transparent activity that Kyle and Carson will allow. If they are OK with standing up a website hosted by SiteRubix and open to their oversight, I will take the lead (I am open to assistance of course) in standing one up...

If not, we will make do with what we have. Using completely the resources we have right here, we can make this a worthwhile endeavor...

Let's start with group composition first...

Groups Composition

Once we start adding foundational posts to cover each niche, market segment, or subject, if you are interested in joining as a member of a group within that area, we will ask you to leave a comment on the post.

I will start off by adding a few such posts, and there are others that have volunteered to also publish these foundational posts. As you see them and have an interest, you can let us know and we will form as many groups as needed...

The way we will know you are interested in joining a mentoring program group is that you will leave a comment on the foundational post...

We will ask that you provide in that comment your interest, your skill level, and whatever other points that feel you are bringing to the table (i.e. past leadership positions, management positions, etc.). Also please add what you want to get out of group participation...

We ask this so we can put together groups that are a mix of experience and skills.

The foundational post author will then put together the groups based on the number and backgrounds of interested members, and we are planning for each group consisting of 6-8 people generally, although there may be some exceptions...

Within that foundational post will be some general guidelines, ideals, and points that are expected to be covered within the groups. but of course each group will go in their own direction too in addition to the basics.

I would hope that group members share their group experiences within Wealthy Affiliate so others can also benefit and new ideas and paths may be discovered. This can help provide new knowledge to everyone...

Note that having the smaller groups makes a lot more sense than trying to have one massive group by interest, market segment, or subject. This way members of the group can work closer with one another, and more gets done...

Now let's cover the three levels of the group mentoring program we envision...

(1) Group Administration

Right now Catherine (a long time WA member) has stepped forward to volunteer to act as an advisor to all groups, as I have. There have been other members who also have expressed an interest, so the number of group advisors will grow as we proceed.

This is an important position because these members will be there to help groups get organized and get a plan in place, to establish goals and objectives, identify tasks and due-outs, etc. These advisors are there to help move things along for all groups...

We need more advisors...

As this grows, we will need more group advisors. By definition these are people that have had more experience with online business, or due to their training or background have the skills necessary to help groups operate effectively.

If you are interested in such a role, please comment below or send me a PM. I do hope that we get some of the people like Catherine who has been here for over 10 years who will volunteer.

There will be times when one or more of people helping in this position will have real-life tasks that mean they will not be available. If we have enough advisors, we can make sure that the groups will have someone to help when they need it...

Guidelines for Advisors...

The general guideline for this level is having the willingness to provide support and advice to groups to help make them work effectively for the members. Rather than listing a specific set of points, suffice it to say that they will do what they can...

(2) Group Leaders

With any group there has to be someone in charge to organize things and make sure that things are moving along. We want group members to get something out of their investment of time and effort...

Having someone who serves in this role for every group is important...

That role can be rotated between members of each group as they wish, as that position may require some extra effort to keep things going. Actually it would be good if everyone took a turn at being the group leader, as it is a growth opportunity.

The group advisors will also be there to help and even get directly involved as indicated or invited. That help includes giving the group leaders some guidance as to how to go about business.

As I said, we may have the situation where group advisors also are either group leaders or they may be a member of a group or two. They may even be all three types of member at times. It just depends on what their interests are and the time they are willing to invest...

Here are some general guidelines for effective group leaders...

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(3) Group Members

If you are interested in getting this sort of mentoring, but not having a leadership role, that is fine. There are some general guidelines that apply to being a group member which I will add here.

This is not hard and it really comes down to wanting to be a part of something where the whole is more than each part when put together. A quick analogy: Think of a thin stick and then 8 thin sticks roped together. Which is stronger?

Here are some general guidelines for effctive group members...

[tbp]

Group Goals

As the groups are formed up, the first order of business is figure out what the goals are and how they will be achieved. Likely some communication between all members in an initial meeting can be set up.

A good place to get that in place would be in the comment section of the foundational post. Whoever the group leader will be can then announce to other members what the next steps will be.

Chief goal for all groups will be to help one another to advance their online marketing efforts. The exact tasks required to enable this will vary from group to group depending on what area they are focusing on.

Group Communication

I would envision that the groups would 'meet' regularly (this can be done in a number of ways, some more elaborate than others). This could be a post right here by the group leader that other members then comment on and discuss...

Kyle has provided guidance that group activity should stay within the WA confines, so for now the posts and comments method will be the way we get started...Note I have asked if we could stand up a site for groups to interact using SiteRubix hosting where they have oversight...

If that happens, we can amend the way we do business...

The PM here is another way to communicate, but I have found it to be slow (it lags a lot and takes forever if you have a large amount of data)...It could be that you could prepare ahead of time using a text tool (like site content we have here) and then copying and pasting...

Face to face and with video is a very good way to plan on getting comms going, as it gives a more personable and face-to-face like experience. There is a lot of communication triggers that are sent through tone, body language, and expression that you simply cannot pick up on using mails...

I would hope that going forward, some of the communication features now found on the social platforms would be implemented here too. That would enhance our group communication ability.

Tools such as VoIP with chat/file sending and receiving, screensharing, instant polls and etc. would be really useful and used I believe. In the meantime, if we can get some of these in place on a SiteRubix website, that would work too...

If not, we can use what we have...Posts, comments, PM, perhaps comments on personal profiles, etc.

Publishing Group Activities and Successes

Since we are a large community and there will be groups doing many different things, it would be good to publish regularly the activities, the successes, the challenges and how they were addressed, etc.

This can be done throigh individual posts by group members here or it could be that and an additional post from the group leader. It helps in quite a few ways to do this. It shows in bacl and white what is being done, it is a chance to recognize efforts, and it shows others ways to consider advancing their own business...

Our Next Steps

(1) I will start publishing the foundational posts for the subjects I am willing to head up in the next two days so we can start gathering interested members.

(2) I will ask for more volunteers for the advisor role so we can split the position up and cover the many groups that are going to be in place...

(3) I will add some video training on groups here that all members can use whether or not they are going to participate...

(4) I ask that others who are willing to add foundational posts and help form up groups and group leaders get started too within the next few days. I will publish the first one as an example, and we can refine that based on your feedback for the other foundational posts as we proceed...

(5) I will ask those members who are publishing foundational posts keep me appraised of the number or sign-ups, the number of groups, who the leader is, etc. I will keep a running blog post here with updated information on the number and makeup of all groups for each niche, market segment, or subject (it may end up being two posts depending on how large of a program this turns into)...

(6) You will notice the foundational posts and if interested, comment and add in the information of the group role, the experience, and skills that you have so the foundational author can create the support groups...Note that there can be 10 groups or more for some niches...It does not matter...

(7) We may need to do some kind of live session or minimally an addiitional video tutorial where questions can be added in the comment section. I could do this using FB live streaming or via YouTube if there is enough interest, or I could record a video and publish it on YouTube...Maybe we make a channel on YouTube for mentoring groups at Wealthy Affiliate...Let's see...

Your Thoughts?

I am now interested in getting your feedback or input yet one more time...We are now getting ready to move to the next level with this project, and I think we have enough to paste together something that will help the masses...

I believe in ALL of you!

Cheers!

Dave : )