We are starting two groups to help our members achieve professional goals to create a positive impact in the world through their work. 

The purpose of the groups is two-fold: 

Support and Feedback from Peers

We will bring together a diverse group of talented and skilled people who share in common the goal of making a positive difference with their work. The diversity of enthusiasms, perspectives, and resources that a group of this sort can bring will enrich and stretch each of us beyond our own backgrounds and approaches, and it will hopefully provide a wider network of colleagues who will continue to enrich our work lives well after the group is complete.

Skills for Increasing the Impact of your Work

Almost anyone who cares about meaningful work has had the experience of feeling stalled either in their degree of clarity and passion around the value of their work or in making real progress in the areas they care the most about. The reality is that we all have a tendency to fall into routines that take on a life of their own, and fresh possibilities and angles that would open up our work in new ways feel less accessible. Fortunately, there is a lot of research on how to break out of these grooves and mobilize ourselves towards meaningful progress.

In these groups, we will all share work projects -- whether these projects are working with an established team on achieving a well-defined goal or exploring opportunities for your next project. Each class will include some focused sharing by group members about what they have tried since the last group, a 45 (or so) minute didactic portion that introduces or expands on helpful skills, an in-class exercise, and time for reactions and to share commitments for the following week. The groups will spend a good bit of time on how to gather and use the feedback that can challenge us and drive growth, and we will model that principle by using corrective feedback to improve the groups as we go.

We have two groups starting in the next few months, which between them should fit the interests of a wide range of members. 

Community Group

The first group addresses the challenges of people who are trying to make an impact through culture (e.g., art, event planning) or community (e.g., medical care, social services, community building, politics). These are the people who are exploring avenues of meaningful achievement that de-emphasize the central role of for-profit business. Common challenges for people in this group are many. Developing sharp clarity of vision and effective execution is often hard, because there are so few established pathways for achieving what they are attempting. In addition, the areas where purpose is most needed often involve shifting away from a status quo, and society can be very resistant or initially indifferent to the value of many types of positive change. 

Date: A series of 10 Mondays beginning January 17, 2022

Fee: $1500, or what you can afford. No one will be turned away because of finances.

Group size: 12 members

Social Entrepreneur’s Group

The second group specifically addresses the challenges facing social entrepreneurs and other mission-driven business leaders. One major difficulty facing this group is that we are building a complex organization with many stakeholders pulling in different directions, and it can be a challenge to get everyone inside of a shared vision. There also is a level that achieving excellence at making a meaningful impact on the world is a less clear concept than achieving excellence at creating a well-run and profitable business. In other words, the goal that is most important to us is often more difficult to bring into focus, and so it can become harder to achieve. 

Our goal is for every member of both groups to end the class feeling (1) that they have greater clarity about what they want to achieve and how, (2) feeling momentum in overcoming the challenges that stand in their way, and (3) feeling they have a more engaged team around them who get what they are doing and are increasing that momentum. 

The facilitator for both groups is Vault Virginia member Cannon Thomas, PhD. Cannon is a clinical psychologist who works as an executive and career coach. He specializes in working with purpose-driven organizations and individuals. His approach is skills-based and grounded in research.

TBD (Mid-January, 2022)

Thursdays from 6pm-8pm

Fee: $2500

Group size: 12 members