A regular reader, Duane M., contacted me to see if I knew anything about MasterMind Groups. I don't (beyond what I have below), but I wonder if any of my readers do. Please leave a comment with more info and pointers to relevant stories.
Duane described MasterMind groups this way:
[T]hey sound like small support groups for like-minded people trying to achieve something or work thru some shared problem. The way she described it, i thought of it having a kind of knowledge management theme. Reminded me of those Xerox repairmen who met every morning at Denny's and talked about their work.
This description reminded me of Networlding, which works in a very similar way, as described in my meetings with the founder, Melissa Giovagnoli.
Duane also turned up this useful set of descriptions from a SpeakerNet News discussion on How to set up a mastermind group (written March 2000). From this, I also hear something like Toastmasters, but that may be due to the focus of this particular group (speakers).
"In describing our mastermind group, Mark Sanborn wrote:
Napoleon Hill coined the concept of the mastermind alliance in his classic book Think and Grow Rich. He believed that a group of like-minded, achievement-oriented individuals could dramatically leverage each other's success.