In case anyone wondered what i meant by the Xerox repairmen, i was thinking about the guys in Julian Orr's book "Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job" . John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid wrote about the connection between KM and just sitting down for breakfast in their May 2000 HBR article "Balancing Act: How to Capture Knowledge Without Killing It". My sense of what a Mastermind group could be made me think of it as a potential KM tool, or process. I'd like to know more about them and wondered if anyone is a member --or maybe the idea has just become something we all do without thinking with our social networks?

Napoleon Hill was, indeed, the originator and first articulator of the "Mastermind Group" or "Mastermind Alliance" concept. The very best explanation of it I have ever seen is found on pages 181-188 of Hill's classic book "Think and Grow Rich!: The Original Version, Restored and Revised" (the ISBN 1s 1-59330-200-2). According to my much marked-up copy, there is also good information on pages 77, 78, 105-6, 150, 165-66, 186, 290, 294, 308, and 355. If you think I just about have the book memorized, you're right. I've read it 25 or 30 times and have applied the Mastermind concept in my business and personal life. Every success I have enjoyed I owe directly or indirectly to this great book and the Mastermind principle it teaches. The book really belongs in every library.

I write a regular blog on Mastermind Groups - what they're all about and how to achieve success with them. Your readers can check it out at

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Mastermind-Group/index.html

Cheers!

Evan.