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True North Groups: A Powerful Path to Personal and Leadership Development (BK Business)

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True North Groups-A Powerful Path to
Personal and Leadership Development
by Bill George and Doug Baker is about
forming cohesive small groups to support
us during challenging times. Small group
membership requires a willingness to
challenge life's assumptions, comfort
with self-reflection, the ability to
listen and the sustained ability to
commit time to a common effort.
Ideal candidates have a sense of humor
about life, they like small group interaction
and are good listeners , as well as
facilitators.

Individual small groups possess common norms.
Examples of these norms are openness, trust,
respecting uniqueness, empathy, withholding
judgment, providing constructive suggestions
and attendance. Barriers to group cohesiveness
are lack of member commitment, absence of
suitable boundaries, dominating behaviors,
lack of sharing and the violation of group
normative values.

High performing groups usually have good attendance,
high levels of trust, adherence to explicit norms,
meaningful discussion topics, regular retreats or
meetings and a periodic group assessment. On occasion,
groups struggle for reform for a variety of reasons.
i.e. new blood is needed, people quit,the group
segments into one or more splinter subgroups.

Early in the life of a True North Group ,
members may meet to build intimacy and trust.
Each may discuss early life experiences,
obstacles in life, self-awareness issues,
values, passions, motivations, talents
and personal relationships.

Bill George and Doug Baker have established a
True North Groups Institute to support individual
True North Group efforts. Institute leaders are
available to support facilitation of the formation
of new True North Groups among individuals
and within organizations of varying
complexity.

There is a help line support to enhance the
effectiveness of existing groups. A registry
exists for professional facilitators to assist
in new group formation and performance. There
is an extensive bibliography with authoritative
references.

Overall, Bill George and Doug Baker have crafted
a very useful book for conveying the essential
elements of small group formation, as well as
the practical implementation problems which need
to be addressed at various juncture points where
small groups meet and debate.

Small group formation and interpersonal
interaction are difficult hurdles for
organizations to traverse. The guidelines
in True North Groups make this process of
group formation much easier with a
step-by-step implementation scheme and
a thorough delineation of classic pitfalls.

The methodologies explained in this book
are suited ideally for new system projects
in data processing organizations, as well
as human resource efforts at encouraging
small group formation in corporate
organizations, as well as governmental
organizations. The precepts in this book
could be extremely helpful in crafting a
budgetary framework for Congressional groups
meeting later this year.

Professional negotiators could utilize the
methodologies outlined to manage small group
issues at the neighborhood or regional level
in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Credits: First Published on Blogcritics

I was fortunate enough to participate in two of Bill George's True North Groups - once during taking his class at Harvard Business School and another time during a special currciulum created for the Young Global Leader - and was tremendously impacted by both experiences!

There is something so powerful about the tools Bill George & Doug Baker have created, through these books, to help you share your life and leadership with one another - that is truly remarkable.

Never before had I seen such a diverse group of tools, combined together, to help you examine your own life, leadership, values, goals and past experience.

I had been fortunate enough to do deep work, at different times in my life, in each of these areas but was obviously much more impactful when it was combined together into one common and shared experience.

As a result - I couldn't recommend this new book more highly and am in the process of using it right now myself - to start my own group (with great friends and a couple of key people I have been hoping to get closer to for a long time now).

Bill George and Doug Baker deliver a simple formula that will transform your life and those you truly care about. For centuries, we have known that there is power in groups and that social support is the key to success in any endeavor. The authors bring to life with examples, stories and practical advice, the concepts of a true mastermind group for personal, professional, spiritual and emotional growth in True North Groups. What was once thought to be magical and complex is presented in an easy to read format with step by step guidance,and suggested agenda topics, to allow anyone to build and sustain a True North Group. While reading True North Groups I thought of at least two dozen people I would send this book to, but why stop there, let's get this into our schools, clubs and neighborhoods. If you are looking for transformational growth and personal fulfillment, you have to read this book!

If you are sensing something missing from you leadership self, and looking for suggestions into how to connect more authentically to others, then pick up "True North Groups." Tactical and practical, and based on years of practice, this book shows how you and your group can connect in ways that help you and them live and lead more effectively. Bill George knows of what he writes and in "True North Group" he shares insights gained from a lifetime in leadership. Lucky for us he is sharing it with us.

This book is perfect for those wanting to do a "deep dive" on self-awareness and personal growth. In affect, by belonging to a True North group one is developing their own advisory board on a very very intimate level. The book reveals a step-by-step methodology in how to form a group...what processes to use, pitfalls to watch out for, and other pearls of wisdom. This group process has been in use for many years---successfully so. The authors, of course, have used it themselves and swear by it. The approach is powerful and transcends most corporate development efforts I'm aware of. Belonging to a True North group, I strongly suspect, isn't for everyone. For it to work, people have to be very committed to the group and the process and be prepared to look deeply at their own under-belly. And as we know that under-belly isn't always pretty. For those familiar with Vistage meetings, a True North meeting would be more intense, much more personal in nature. True North groups can be vulnerability on steroids. For some it's great. For others, not so much. By reading the book you'll get a much better feel for which camp you fall in.

Bill Wiersma --Author, The Big AHA and The Power of Professionalism (2011)

True North Groups: A Powerful Path to Personal and Leadership Development is a remarkable book that presents a simple, well-tested method for establishing member-run, open-ended, peer-support teams that enable members to support one another in their self-defined personal growth efforts. For decades, George and Baker have facilitated the formation of hundreds of True North Groups that have proven profoundly beneficial. Now they have distilled their thoughts into a user-friendly manual that any group of well functioning individuals can use to start their own support team.

The forces of modernization that produce widespread isolation are relentless. Often due to underlying economic insecurity, people in the modern world become obsessed with being productive, having an impact on the world, finding their hyper-specialized niche, advancing their career, and/or simply having a good time. These obsessions with work and play overwhelm deeper impulses.

To overcome those trends and find greater intimacy generally requires conscious, intentional effort. The True North approach seems to offer a great way to do so.

The True North approach does not involve authority figures training others with some pre-determined agenda. That authority-based model is harder to spread, for it requires time to train the trainers. And that model is less responsive to the needs of the participants, for it defines the agenda in advance rather than allowing each individual to define their own needs.

So far, few progressive political activists have indicated much interest in these ideas. Perhaps the success that has been demonstrated by the True North approach will encourage progressive political activists to take a closer look at the possibility of enriching their lives and enhancing their work by adopting the True North method. I intend to pursue this possibility.

--Wade Lee Hudson [...]