Like many others at the beginning of this year, I had a long look at what had happened in the previous twelve months and decided to make some changes to my life.
Apart from the usual health and fitness promises (some of which, believe it or not, are still being kept), one of the real challenges was being able to make the time to spend with people I find interesting, stimulating and can really add something special to my life.
Like everyone else, life had just become too busy to take even a few hours off regularly to catch up with those brilliant individuals who encourage and motivate you to better things.
So after talking this through with two close friends - Gareth Jones of Town Square and David Williams of the Youth Development Agency – we decided to each identify a small number of people we would like to invite for a regular night out of great food, good wine and brilliant conversations.
As a result, we had our first ‘supper club’ at Casanovas in Cardiff in February and since then, have continued to bring people together every month to just talk about their businesses, share their personal and entrepreneurial journeys and, more importantly, make new friends.
Of course, the development of such ‘tribes” is not new in the business community but often many of the business networks that are established are used by members to sell their services to other members.
That is not what I wanted to achieve with our group and certainly, I have begun recently to feel out of place at many networking events where it is more about swapping business cards rather than experiences.
But it is not only about meeting up for a great night out with wonderful people, although that is clearly an important part of it. Indeed, some of the reasons for establishing the supper club were articulated brilliantly by Gianpiero Petriglieri in the Harvard Business Review last month.
His article - “To Take Charge of Your Career, Start by Building Your Tribe” - examines how establishing a tight close-knit community of like-minded people can help individuals and businesses on a number of levels.
First of all, such groups are strong spaces, not just safe spaces i.e. besides letting those who are part of such groups feel accepted as they are, they give courage as well as comfort. Certainly, we have had some open conversations amongst our group that would not normally have taken place in other settings. The honesty and empathy of the people around the table has been one of the best experiences I have had in recent times.
In fact, one of the most important aspects of developing such a ‘tribe’ is that they are about appreciating learning and not just performance. Whilst we have only had four suppers to date, it is clear that people want to be part of the group so that they can learn from each other.
Indeed, what is potentially one of the biggest benefits of developing this group over the coming months is that we will act as a sounding board to each other going forward and become a pool of friendly advice when needed.
Many also find such communities also help to address one of the issues that very few will talk about in regard to starting and managing a business, namely the loneliness of the entrepreneur. That is not to say that all founders stuck in their home offices on their own and many are either working within co-working spaces or have their own offices or premises for their business.
But it is often the situation that, unlike larger organisations, they are required to make all of the decisions within their business with little support from others. Being able to share experiences with others who are going through the same process can often not only be helpful but can reaffirm that the right decisions are being made (and that they are not only individual having to make such decisions every day).
To be frank, I have no idea of how our supper club will evolve over the next few months although as we now have twenty-five people involved, we will probably need a bigger restaurant.
But what is most important is that a group of businesspeople - many of whom did not previously know each other - now have the opportunity to come together regularly to share stories in a convivial and friendly setting. It has certainly worked for us in creating a tribe of like-minded people who can discuss their entrepreneurial experiences together and I would certainly encourage others to do the same within their networks and communities.