Why is it good to establish a personal team of experts?

It is estimated that world knowledge doubles every 3 years. Today, more than 3 million books a year are written in English alone. No matter how much we know, we know too little in relation to the fact how much we could know. Even if we were in a situation where we would not have to work at all but only learn, even then we would not be able to follow all the trends of change that are happening in a unit of time.

3 ways to adopt and accumulate knowledge that are most often applied in the business world today:

1. Acquisition of knowledge without practical application
2. Acquisition of knowledge with practical application and obtaining feedback
3. Acquisition of knowledge from other people who studied and through practical application already received feedback through results

Which of these three options do you like the most?

Wise is he who learns from his own mistakes, but even wiser is he who learns from other’s experience.

This is one of the reasons why it is desirable to establish your own team of experts.

What exactly does that mean?

Many successful people had a team of experts, which they formed in different ways, in different sizes, in order to use the accumulated knowledge and experience of the entire productive group by socialising and working with them.

There is no right way to set up a team of experts, but I hope these tips can be helpful in that:

1. Choose 3 to 5 people who are at a higher level of achievement than you or in higher positions, but in non-competitive industries

a) A higher level of knowledge or higher positions will allow you to learn from those who achieved more. Unfortunately, most people spend time in the company of those who are at the same or lower level of achievement than them, because in such groups they are superior. The strategy here is something else – to get applicable knowledge of a higher rank than yours.

b) Find people who are in non-competitive industries so that you can be relaxed with each other while exchanging ideas, problems and experiences, without thinking that in some way it would be abused by competitors.

c) A group of 3 to 5 people gives space to each individual to express themselves in a sufficient unit of time.

2. Form a group based on the true professional values that connect you to these people.

a) If you do not share the same professional values with someone, then you can hardly adopt their experiences or suggestions in the right way.

b) It is recommended that you find at least one person with whom you share the same professional values, then that person can recommend the next one, and so on. Thus, everyone will have a similar status and responsibility for those they recommend.

c) During the first three meetings, everyone should agree that each individual suits them. Otherwise the group will not give the best results.

3. Organise a meeting every 15 days during breakfast, lasting 60 to 90 minutes, and exchange ideas, problems and experiences.

a) Breakfast is the perfect time, because the brain is still not tired after a surge of operational work.

b) After breakfast and exchange of ideas, problems and experiences, you go to work and have the opportunity to immediately apply in practice the things you heard and accepted as useful advice.

c) Everyone pays for his/her breakfast so that there would be no comparisons (who paid more and when), restraint (what will I order when others pay) and thinking about absences (it often happens that someone was not able to come, then he/she will always wonder when it is his/her turn). Short reckonings make long friends.

If you want to get the most out of a team of experts, you need to meet regularly. You can define meeting topics in 3 ways:

• At the end of each ongoing meeting for the next time
• By e-mail or text message 24-48 hours before the meeting
• Spontaneous – everyone presents proposals for topics at the meeting

Options 1 and 2 are more efficient, because everyone comes prepared.

When establishing your team of experts, make sure that each team member, in addition to professional values, accepts this principle:

1. Always have a positive attitude
2. Openly and equally exchange ideas, problems and experiences, give each individual enough space to express himself/herself
3. Be equal in giving and taking knowledge and experiences with others

This is one of the ways that has helped many to be more productive in their work, to avoid the piles of mistakes that someone else had already made and paid dearly for.