There has been a number of requests from ITA members to augment our current roundtable offerings by offering the community the opportunity to participate in year-long roundtable with a professional facilitator. ITA staff has listened and invite you to participate in a trial of our first effort at such a roundtable – an ITA PeerSpectives Network.
PeerSpectives Network: Peer-to-Peer Learning for Entrepreneurs, is a unique opportunity providing CEOs, presidents, and business owners with:
- timely insights from experienced peers
- proven, productive problem-solving methods
- unbiased knowledgeable feedback
The PeerSpectives Network peer groups are composed of eight to 12 non-competing business owners, led by a professional facilitator, who gather for confidential sharing of experiences and challenges approximately 10 times over a 12-month period. The peer-to-peer exchanges enhance the decision-making processes, critical for owners who want to grow their already established companies.
This program utilizes the Edward Lowe Foundation’s proprietary PeerSpectives ™ peer learning methodology, which promotes true experiential learning among the roundtable participants, leading to concrete, real solutions that the participants can actually implement. There is no other peer learning process like this in the United States. (An example can be found at http://www.edwardlowe.org/index.elf?page=wwd&function=video.) The PeerSpectives ™ peer learning roundtables are completely portable, and can be held anywhere where there is a facility large enough to accommodate the group. The only equipment required is an easel and note pad, plus markers!
The Network roundtables provide a valuable opportunity for owners, CEOs and presidents to tap into the collective wisdom of their peers on topics such as finance, employee relations, legal compliance, marketing and advertising, accessing new markets, production, and personal isolation. The group members are committed to confidentiality, sharing, accountability, and dispassionate analysis.
These roundtables have undergone a rigorous evaluation process. Participants in these roundtables have indicated that, as a direct result of this innovative peer learning experience, they took actions that benefited them both as leaders in their organizations and in their personal lives.
Who can participate?
The PeerSpectives Network is most effective for qualified owners, CEOs, and presidents of growth-oriented Second-Stage™ companies. In general, a company is Second-Stage if it is:
- privately held and past the start-up stage
- facing issues of growth rather than survival
- transitioning from an entrepreneurial to a professional management style
ITA believe that this highly creative peer-to-peer learning roundtable program would be as valuable to ITA member companies as they have been elsewhere around the county.