Why A Facilitated Peer Group May Be Right For You - Part 1

There are tremendous benefits in participating in a peer group

by Greg Hayne, Hayne Coaching Group

Hi! I’m Greg Hayne of the Hayne Coaching Group (some of you already know me in my roles with Roof Management). I wanted to share with you my recent experience with a facilitated peer group.  Peer groups have been around for decades, but they are just now starting to appear in the construction industry.  There is a very good reason for this.  Our world is changing; you may have noticed.   The rate of change is accelerating and it is not going to let up.  Business leaders are having trouble keeping up.   It isn’t just you, it is everybody and it’s in every industry.

How can you use these changes to your advantage? 

What many leaders have discovered is that there are tremendous benefits in participating in a peer group.  What would that look like for you?  It would mean being in a group of about 10 similar-sized, non-competing contractors from different geographic regions of the country who are either primarily commercial or residential contractors. The group would meet 3 or 4 times a year to share best practices and collaboratively work on solving common problems that you all share.  Because you are all from the same industry, your other group members will actually…really, understand your challenges, because they have them too.  (Of course, if they have solved one of your problems, they will share their solutions).  Also, they share financial statements, protected by non-disclosure agreements, to help you see how you compare.  There is sharing of proven best practices for marketing, sales, production efficiency, service departments, cost cutting, organizational structures and compensation/incentive plans to insure you keep your key people.   In a peer group everybody gets better.  “The rising tide” of collaborative sharing “raises all boats.”

Peer groups work. 

What works even better is a professionally facilitated peer group led by a qualified, facilitator.  A facilitator doesn’t just do the heavy lifting of meeting organization, he or she will prepare a composite financial statement and lead the group.  He keeps the egos in check and keeps the meetings fresh.  Being well-trained, he can assist the group by asking the questions that need to be asked.  Some trained facilitators are also credentialed coaches, so they have the ability to ask questions that dig even deeper and come from a coaching perspective.  Plus, because he works with many companies, he may have knowledge (“answers”) to help the group move forward that the members do not yet have…or he knows where to get it.

What we are going to do in the next few articles, are expand on a few of the individual benefits that come from being a member of a peer group, so you can discover how peer groups can profit you and your organization.

About Hayne Coaching Group

Hayne Coaching Group assists roofing contractors prosper by discovering and implementing smarter, better ways to work.  We provide executive coaching for key leaders in a company and  organized and facilitated industry peer groups, so that companies may benefit from their group’s collective experience, buying power, accountability and so much more.  Learn more here http://haynecoachinggroup.com.