Your Personal Board of Advisors (The Greatest Group Chat In History)
The Personal Board of Advisors is a mental concept used by some of the worlds top business thinkers. It allows you to gain new insights and make better decisions by leveraging your subconscious mind. In this article I'll show you how to create one for yourself - with a modern twist.
Your Personal Board of Advisors
The concept is simple. You choose a group of people, dead or alive, to serve as your personal advisors. Unless you are in an extremely fortunate position, you won't be able to actually call them to discuss your personal issues, but that's not a problem.
By leveraging the ideas and traits these people embody, you let your subconscious mind generate insights relevant to the situation at hand. It's a refined version of asking "What would Jesus do?".
In any given situation, you can ask yourself a similar question.
What would a person who has the results you want, do in a situation like this?
By creating a personal board of directors you systemize this process, while taking advantage of different points of view from different people in your board.
When their opinions converge, you have your board's recommendation.
The Greatest Group Chat in History
We're now going to build our own board of advisors. To make it a bit more modern, we're going to build it in the form of an imaginary group chat. But not just any group chat - the single greatest group chat in history.
The Criteria
You're now going to make a list of 5-10 people. Here are some questions to help you decide on whom to include:
- Who inspires you?
- Who would you hate to disappoint?
- Who has a life journey that inspires you?
- Who has done excellent work in your field?
- Who embodies your most important values?
- Who has the skills and traits you want to have?
- Who plays the same game at a much higher level?
- Which historical figure would you most like to meet?
Make sure to include people that embody excellence in different areas of life.
How To Use It
Through life you have to make endless decisions, some harder than others. You can use this exercise for decisions such as:
- What opportunity should I invest in?
- Will it be worth it to sacrifice X to gain Y?
- Should I go into business with this person?
- Should I move to another country to pursue my dreams?
Whenever you're faced with a tough decision like this, you can do one of two things:
- Ask yourself, "what would be my board's recommendation?".
If you have visualized your board, have a look at it while you ask the question.
If you're in tune with your intuition, you will immediately get a sense of what you should do in the form of a gut or heart feeling. In most cases, you would be wise to follow it. - Ask each board member for their take.
Sit down with pen and paper, an empty chat or a note-taking app.
Write down your problem statement and list every single name on your board.
Now "ask" every member for their opinion and write down the insights your receive.
By the end of this process, you should have a clear answer.
An invitation
This is a creative exercise that require you to let your imagination do it's thing. If you lean into it, it's a powerful method to get in touch with wisdom and intuition.
I have used it countless times to make tough calls. It has lead me into opportunity and kept me out of trouble. If you have an open mind, it will do the same for you.
Bonus: Leverage ChatGPT
To make it more vivid, leverage ChatGPT to take your group chat to the next level.
Use the following prompt:
Please act as my imaginary board of advisors and answer my questions and statements by using the values, experiences and identities of the following people:
Person 1
Person 2
Person 3 ...
When you have pre-framed the conversation, provide context about your situation and ask the question that's on your mind.
You'll likely get questions and general advice in return, but it will be in the spirit of each of your advisors. Take whatever you get and apply your own thinking and intuition.
){kind=link}