Your Pod is a great place to learn through discussion and practice the skills you are learning in the PQ Program
Research shows that your likelihood of success in establishing new, positive habits increases by 500% when you partner with an accountability group, compared to going it alone. Below are our best tips and information to make sure you get the most out of your own Pod.
- Invest in your Pod. Trust that massive benefits follow
- Be watchful of negative reactions to pod members (we're looking at you, Saboteurs!)
- Be real, authentic, and willing to be vulnerable
- Commit to a daily check-in
- Create, sign and honor your Pod Agreement
1. Invest in your Pod. Trust that massive benefits follow
Most relationships don’t have an immediate payoff. There’s an initial period of investing time and effort to establish trust and create a safe environment for sharing. Be patient with this initial period of investment, as the payoffs are huge and lasting. Some Pods continue to support each other for years.
2. Be watchful of negative reactions to pod members (we're looking at you, Saboteurs!)
You might witness yourself having negative reactions to pod members:
“I don’t have the right Pod members.”
“My Pod members are too different from me.”
“I’m irritated every time Janet says …..”
Your reactions to your pod members can be a powerful microcosm of your relationships on the whole. So when you feel any negative reactions to your pod members, get curious about which Saboteurs are messing with you. Use your Pod as a safe playground to intercept and shift how your Saboteurs impact your relationships. Practice your new Sage skills!
3. Be real, authentic, and willing to be vulnerable
The currency of exchange for acquiring goods and services is dollars, euros, etc. Do you know what the currency of exchange for acquiring trust is? Vulnerability.
Vulnerability is how you generate trust and make the relationship safe for more authentic interaction. In your pod interactions, challenge yourself to be 10% more vulnerable than your comfort zone. That’s how you help co-create a powerful Pod dynamic.
4. Commit to a daily check-in
It's a requirement of the Program to hold a weekly Pod meeting, but sometimes we need a little more.
In this program, we’re declaring war on very powerful enemies -- our Saboteurs. These Saboteurs are sneaky and committed to their own survival. They will create a thousand excuses for you and your pod members to fall off the wagon, get too busy to do the daily practices, or give up altogether.
A Pod commitment to a daily check-in enables the Pod to quickly intervene when a member’s practice is derailed. A daily check-in means each pod member takes 30 seconds every day to report a few sentences on their progress, learning, success, or failure in the PQ Community app.
If a Pod member has not checked in for a couple of days in the app’s Pod channel, reach out to him or her, outside the app if needed, and encourage and challenge them to keep going. Love your pod members enough to hold them accountable to keep growing.
You’ll discover that as you help others in this practice, you’re helping yourself as well. Changing years of Saboteur habits is hard. Your pod members need you. You need them. Remember: 500% increased success rate!
5. Complete and honor your Pod Agreement
In your very first weekly Pod meeting, you’ll have a discussion that will result in your Pod Agreement. This will set your Pod up for success, with clarity around goals and commitments.
In almost every instance, our program graduates report that their Pod played a key role in their learning and growth. Time extremely well spent.
So if you or one of your Pod members ever feels stuck, or if you aren't seeing the value of your Pod meetings, check out our other best practices for Managing Your Pod.