Century 21 Masterminds Field Staff Training

By Margery Weinstein

When Century 21 Real Estate LLC needed a way to keep field staff well trained and well connected to the company, it launched The Mastermind Group (MMG). Evolved from Century 21’s Performance Consulting Series and the expertise field staff shared within these trainings, MMG sessions were designed with two main objectives:

1. Provide an environment for field staff to stay connected and experience community.
2. Provide an opportunity for field staff to share best practices, challenges, and successes.

Here’s how this program works: 

• These informal meetings are held on a monthly basis, run for about one-and-a-half hours, and are structured so they are either open forum or with a predetermined topic.
• In creating the groups, one of the most critical parameters established was that the sessions were not to devolve into complaint sessions or become overrun with negativity. The group moderator helps to move the conversations forward, calls on quiet members, and makes sure everyone has an opportunity to speak. The focus of the group is generating positive solutions.
• Following each MMG, a summary document is sent to the entire field services group outlining the topics, solutions, and successes (called Woot! Woots!) that were shared. The organization also send out resources that were shared such as games used in agent meetings and ideas for trainings sessions.
• The success of the MMG has led to the creation of a short podcast series that centers on one or more hot topics. For example, during one session, the topic of recruiting was raised. This question led to participants bringing up the names of peers who had implemented successful solutions around recruiting. Two of those two staff members agreed to meet and record a “podside chat.” During the recorded sessions, each team member was able to share his or her great idea. These recordings are housed on the wiki and sent to all field staff, with kudos going to the contributing staff member and a note to their manager.

HAVE INPUT OR TIPS on this topic? If so, send them our way in an e-mail to lorri@trainingmag.com with the subject line “Century 21,” and we’ll try to include your advice in an upcoming edition of the Training Top 125 Best Practices/Executive Exchange e-newsletter.