What is a Brain Trust?
A brain trust is a group of people with similar expertise coming together to solve common problems.
Brain trusts are a great way to grow your network, collaborate on challenges that are relevant to the entire group, and learn about how to solve the problems you are facing in your role right now.
At our HR Leader Brain Trust meetings, we focus on how to approach workplace mental health challenges as an HR leader. This June, our topic was “Starting an Employee Mental Health Program”.
The meeting starts off with some networking and transitions into storytelling and problem-solving. Sometimes, attendees form “circles” to encourage small groups of people to connect more deeply.
Here is a sample agenda:
10 minutes – Introduction and connection principles
15 minutes – Impromptu Networking around peer generated HR topic
15 minutes – Story Breakout Rooms
Each member of a four-person group will get 2 minutes to pick one of the story prompts and share it with the breakout group (four peers)
Share the most adventurous thing you have ever done
or
Share a story about the worst task you’ve ever had to do
5 minutes – Critical Questions Overview
After connecting, we will frame the next most crucial experience. Inner Circles.
25 minutes -Inner Circle Breakout Sessions
Each member of the group will get 7 minutes to share and collaborate on a challenge they are currently dealing with and would like some help and collaboration on.
This is the portion of the meeting that new relationships are forged, and existing relationships are deepened.
5 minutes -Main Session Wrap Up
What We Learned
Here are some key takeaways we got from our discussion on mental health programs at work.