What do tins and KMI Master Mind™ Facilitators have in common?

Everyone has tins in their home – some antique, some just old. They lurk in the pantry, garage, workshop, and closet. That round tin that held cookies as they snuggled together among frilly paper cups now houses spools of thread or letters or, well, more cookies. The coffee can full of stalwart stray screws and nails patiently waiting to come to your rescue. Or my tall, colorful Amaretti cookie tins that are the perfect size for a pound of linguine and nest comfortably with the tin of ziti or farfalle. Or the old coffee can my mother had from her father’s grocery store, almost 100 years old, full of years of buttons from old clothes, sewing projects, or spare buttons for dad’s dress shirts. 
 
Mary McDowall and I were playing with ways to describe a KMI Master Mind™ and the role of the facilitator. So we decided to use one of the tools we use in our master mind and that we teach facilitators to use. Muse Popcorn is a brainstorming tool that takes a random object and asks what it has to do with the question or issue at hand. Ideas spontaneously pop out and generate other ideas that bounce off each other. Its fun, can be silly and takes you places that will surprise and delight you.
 
We asked “what does an antique tin have in common with a KMI Master Mind™?”
 
Ideas filled the air space like popcorn in a pot. Unique, multi-purposed, appealing, have stories, creative, colorful, a container to hold different things.
 
It was the container part that stuck with me. Those tins are strong, last a long time and keep things safe, fresh and intact.

When Napoleon Hill coined the term Master Mind in his book Think and Grow Rich, he did so in the context of business. For me, his 1930’s formal writing style evoked stuffy, pin striped old men with cigars and big bellies. But Hill also talked about the principle behind the master mind. He described how a group of individual brains, coordinated and functioning in harmony, creates an increased energy that becomes available to every brain in the group. That felt quite different, more open and expansive. It felt like a creative template that could be applied in just about any situation; a safe and sturdy, like the old tin that becomes whatever we need.
 
The container of a KMI Master Mind™ - a flexible structure held by the facilitator – keeps members together. Like old tins, it creates a familiar container that holds diverse plans and dreams and goals. It’s a space in which people connect and nestle together as they share their energy, provide accountability, sounding boards, small questions and celebrations of successes. As a facilitated master mind, it functions harmoniously, follows a flexible agenda, and is watched over and tended. It’s a space for innovation and imagination as it incorporates creativity and Kaizen. While it may not be as time tested as your grandmother’s tin of old letters, it has shown itself to be quite effective for many purposes. And even more flexible.
 
For instance, Creative Clutter Clearing, a KMI Master Mind™ which, for one member, provided “a tangible level of support to tackle this difficult issue, which can have so many layers.” There were wonderful outcomes.
 
Or, Your Creative Edge, a KMI Master Mind™ which supports women as they gain momentum in projects both personal (one woman had a fitness goal) and business.
 
Or a circle that helped women entrepreneurs find their business voice through writing and master minding.
 
For facilitators the applications are only limited by their own interests and passions. (Think writing, nutrition, wellness, creativity, art, meditation…) What do you love? Where can you make a difference?
 
Tins and master minds. Similar and distinct. A container that gathers people together in a safe space full of idea generating tools, resources, feedback, good listening and accountability. These are just a few things that come together to “create an increased energy that becomes available to every brain in the group”. In other words, magic.
 
Join us for an hour on Thursday, 1/12/17 at 12:00 ET/9:00 AM PT for a free event that explores the SPACE of a KMI Master Mind™ from the vantage point of a facilitator.  We gather at The Purple Ink Café via Zoom, a free videoconferencing app.  Sign up here for meeting login information. ​