Mastermind Group. There’s an expression that smacks of management speak – but only if you’re one of those people prejudiced against an idea before you’ve even considered it.
A Mastermind Group is supposed to be a group of individuals of experience, intellect, academia, or other background whose opinions are sought on a project. The ideal Mastermind Group comes from a variety of backgrounds, each bringing an alternative perspective on the matter under discussion. They are utilised in business a lot, particularly entrepreneurial start-ups. Identify the potential problems, challenges and opportunities by seeking input from those who have boldly gone before.
What does this have to do with police time management?
Consider this: every team briefing COULD be a Mastermind Group, if you just consider this:
The people around the table all have different experiences, backgrounds and pastimes. They’ve read different books. They’ve been on different courses both within and beyond the organisation. They all have, potentially, brilliant alternative perspectives and abilities that they bring to the table.
Even if your briefing table is full of probationers which I gather is becoming the norm, what they did before they started serving may have a nugget of value for the matters at hand.
Ellie was a paralegal and knows how the defence lawyers think and work: Jimmy was a tyre mechanic and actually understands the definition of a defective tyre* and can explain it to others; Tahir was a social media specialist and can open-source investigate the pips out of a Facebook account; Jean was an accountant and those bank account records you have taken during a search need interpretation. You get the idea.
The people around the table have one thing in common – policing. But they equally have a diversity of experience and knowledge that could help the rest of the team if it is just acknowledged and utilised. Even the newbie, who might well have the most useful insight on something but is too shy to put themselves forward – until asked.
This potentially results in the saving of massive amounts of time seeking out ‘specialists’ who are far too important and busy to help. (Some are too busy, in fairness. None are too important.)
Find out what your team’s potential Mastermind Group input could be, if you haven’t already.
You’d probably be amazed at their enthusiasm if you gave them time to contribute.
(*I was once told what to write in a statement about a bald tyre and replied to the memo that I couldn’t say that in evidence because I didn’t understand it, it was so technical.)
Police Time Management 