Playbook: TKSquads

Made by Navid

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Purpose: To accelerate personal growth through a trusted group of people who keep you accountable and help you with problems you're facing.

Background

TKSquads are based on a concept called "Masterminds". Organizations like YPO use them for CEOs of successful companies. Each mastermind group has 4-8 executives that meet monthly for 1-2 hours. Meetings are extremely confidential and everyone is there to add value to each other. Mastermind groups have been used for decades, but usually for top executives. TKSquads are our version of Masterminds.

TKSquad Requirements

  • Send each other daily updates.
  • Have a weekly TKSquad meeting (send calendar invites).

🎥 What TKS Alumni Are Saying About TKSquads

Structure of a TKSquad Meeting (60min)

Pre-Meeting:

  • Remove all distractions (put away your phone, close applications on your computer, tell your parents you're in a meeting).
  1. Start (10min)
    • Begin the meeting with a squad ritual. This might be doing a short workout, telling a joke, gratitude circle... whatever you want.
    • Check in on how each person is feeling (highs and lows of the week) and share the status on personal action items from the previous meeting.
  2. Spotlights (20min)
    • Each person gets a ~5 minute spotlight.
    • During the spotlight, they share their update on what they’re working on and any challenge they're facing.
    • The squad then gives their ideas and perspectives to help the person overcome their challenge.
  3. Discussion (20min)
    • Have a discussion about the the person of the week (potw), mindset of the week (motw), and/or any of the required content (podcasts, videos, articles).
    • Share new insights, think about specific action items you can take.

5 Traits of a Successful TKSquad

  1. Your squad trusts each other. You've develop a healthy relationship and you're all aligned on each other's goals. You respect each other and have intentionally developed your squad culture.
  2. You hold each other accountable and call each other out if someone doesn't accomplish something they said they were going to do.
  3. You have high standards for each other. If someone produces low-quality content/projects, your squad will call them out and provide them with valuable feedback to help them get better.
  4. You share consistent daily updates with each other.
  5. Everyone is prepared for the weekly TKSquad meeting, on time, and communicate early if they will be late or need to reschedule.

4 Common Issues

  1. People in your squad are not being responsive.
    • If there are people who aren't responding on Slack or showing up to meetings late/not at all, communicate with them first. Try to understand their perspective before making a quick judgement.
    • If they are still unresponsive, contact your director so they can remove them from your squad or you can be placed in a new squad. Explain the issue with screenshots from the Slack channel.
  2. Your weekly meetings aren't valuable.
    • If people are getting distracted in your weekly meetings or showing up late/leaving early, assign a squad lead. Your squad lead should set the culture, keep the meetings on track, and hold people accountable. Try to be a leader and activate your squad.
    • If that's not working, contact a director and ask for advice.
  3. Some people aren't sending daily updates.
    • Ask them why they aren't sending daily updates. Do they not trust the group? Or maybe they don't think it's valuable. Understand their perspective and have a discussion about it.
    • If they don't know why it's important, tell then to dm their director to get more insight (everything we do in TKS is intentional).
    • If they are still disengaged, contact your director and explain the issue with screenshots from the Slack channel.
  4. You don't vibe with your squad.
    • If you have a strong feeling after 2 weeks that you don't vibe with your squad, contact your director and explain why you feel this way and what type of people you'd vibe more with. Your director can give you guidance and/or put you in a new squad.

Pro Tips

  • Choose a squad lead to send out calendar invites, manage squad meetings (make sure meetings run on time), and align the squad (your squad lead can change).
  • Build a TKSquad Social Contract - set the culture and expectations of your squad.
    • Be positive to each other. Don't put each other down. Get to know each other in a meaningful way by creating a culture of authenticity.
  • Ask good questions in your squad meetings. Explain your situation.
    • Good: I'm working on xyz and my problem is abc. Specifically [more details]. What do you think I can do to overcome this?
    • Bad: Asking questions without content of your specific problem (examples: "How do you cold email someone?" or "Has anyone setup a Shopify store before?").
  • Everyone should have video chat during their TKSquad call (good video and audio).
  • Create a Notion doc for each meeting with notes and action items.
  • Send consistent daily updates.