Having Your Own Sounding Board

by Warwick Powell

You have them every day. The big ones often pop up when you least expect them. They come from different members of your team. They happen outside your organization and impact it. They can be small or big. They come from the competition. They can come from another city, state or country. The federal, state and city governments produce them. Changing times reveal them. What are they?

What are they?

They are the issues and challenges you face every day in your business or company or organization. They are the bread and butter of what leaders, managers and owners do. Many of the challenges we deal with are technical and technical people help us with the solutions. Sometimes the challenges are external, strategic, or people issues that we cannot find help for as easily for a variety of reasons. As a Leader in your organization it is often difficult to share some of your challenges with other members of your staff due to their lack the experience; because the issue is legal, tax related or financial in some way; or because the challenge is new or unknown. Yet there may be owners of other companies who can say, "Been there, done that" and can save you a great deal of anxiety and grief. One successful way to assist with these challenges is to participate in an Action Learning Advisory Board (an ALAB).

What is an ALAB?

An Action Learning Advisory Board is a group of busy owners/managers/leaders who come together to coach each other about the issues and challenges that each member brings to the group. Action Learning is an internationally recognized process to help groups and individuals develop and learn.

How does an ALAB work?

An ALAB comprises 6 - 8 managers/owners/leaders from dissimilar companies/organizations plus an independent facilitator. The groups meets on a regular basis, usually monthly, but as members of the group get comfortable with each other the meetings can be set more or less frequently. There is a set agenda with the facilitator chairing the meeting, ensuring timeliness, arranging venues and keeping everyone in touch. Each member is given an opportunity to air an issue or have a challenge discussed. Sometimes there may be an overriding issue that most want to focus on for the whole meeting. Each member is committed to sharing real-life challenges, and using the other members to assist in their learning.

At the meetings each member has an equal amount of time to air, discuss and get feedback on their challenges/issues/goals. The other members help by sharing similar experiences, asking probing questions, and sharing relevant materials. Members can commit to doing learning assignments and using each other as resources between meetings.

Post meeting actions usually result from each meeting. Often individuals undertake to provide relevant information to other members before or at the next meeting. A full review of the ALAB and its operation is carried out after six months. Members keep all meeting proceedings confidential to the group.

What do I get out of participating in an ALAB?

Benefits include:

An external, impartial low cost group/advisory board to help you.
The opportunity to set goals for yourself and get help to achieve them
Contribution to the challenges of others just as they are contributing to your challenges
The facility to access other minds in a focused way without spending a lot of time and money
Increased knowledge about yourself, other businesses, other organizations, and the external environment
Camaraderie with fellow team members

Time Investment

Each member attends one meeting every month for six months
Each meeting lasts up to three hours
Reviews occur at the end of the third and sixth meetings.
At the end of the sixth meeting members collectively decide to continue or not.

For more information contact Warwick Powell at 412-247-5292 or wpowell@interlinkbusiness.com

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