GROUP HELP Session Replay: The #1 secret to thriving group life — and how to harness it

Why some groups thrive, others fizzle, and a simple equation to diagnose the health of your group (or gathering)

Me getting really into the GROUP HELP Zoom.

In my work as a facilitator, there’s an equation that stopped me in my tracks when I first came across it. It’s from an inside-baseball facilitator’s resource called Small Groups as Complex Systems: Formation, Coordination, Development, and Adaptation and it is both simple and profound. The entire book is about respecting the group as its own entity to understand, honor, and also then learn to shape.

The reality is, many of us are part of groups — family groups, work groups, friend groups — but we rarely actually stop to ask: is this group working? And if not, what do we do about it? As I get GROUP LIFE going, I’m excited to get down to the brass tacks with you to learn together what actually creates healthy, sustainable groups and how any of us can build and be part of them. And frankly, to help make group help as normal a skill as “self-help.”

In that vein, this past Wednesday, I hosted my very first GROUP HELP Session live on Zoom and was so thrilled to have 426 of you in the room live with me learning this magical, foundational equation of group commitment.

In this very first session, I shared a core diagnostic tool for figuring out the health of your group (or gathering). It’s a tool and a lens I come back to again and again in my own work.

Here is the full replay of the first GROUP HELP Session: The #1 secret to a thriving group life — and how to harness it:

As I launch GROUP LIFE, I think of these GROUP HELP Sessions as the core real practical, skills-based teaching I can offer GROUP LIFERS (paid subscribers) every two weeks to build your own group intelligence. They’re interactive and juicy and super practical. And I’m sharing the replay with all of you so you can learn alongside me and get a feel for what these sessions are about.

If you like what you see, and want to build your group intelligence with me, come join me and become a GROUP LIFER (paid subscriber), grow these skills with me and your friends and colleagues and families will thank you. . And as a special thank you for being with me, we are offering a special introductory 10% discount to GROUP LIFE membership through September.

The next GROUP HELP Session is coming up on September 24 at 12pm ET: GETTING UNSTUCK: How to Host a Gathering You Actually Want to Attend — including the five biggest blockers I see in gatherings and how to move past them.

(Psssttt… we shaped this topic straight from what you all asked for in the GROUP CHAT.)

Me grinning from ear to ear finally getting to teach with you all live!

Huge thanks to everyone who came! It was such a joy to see familiar faces and to meet so many of you for the first time. And a special shoutout to Mia and Eileen for sharing about the groups in your lives, and to Sarah, Glenn, Jessica, and Marisa for your thoughtful questions.

I’d love to hear from you. What are you wrestling with in your own groups? What would you want me to cover in these sessions? Come say hi in the Group Chat and let me know here.

Warmest,

Priya

P.S. I am opening the first two GROUP HELP sessions in September to all of you as part of launch celebrations, and to let you try them to see if you’d like to become a GROUP LIFER. 🎉 Going forward, these GROUP HELP Sessions will be for paid subscribers to build our skills together in community. Please join us. I’d love to have you there.