Horizon groups consist of 4 to 5 peers striving for a similar goal or horizon in their career at Lifely. These peer-led circles are where team members come together monthly to discuss their growth portfolios and challenges at Lifely. Horizon Groups take up 2.5 hours of your monthly personal development hourly budget. An external facilitator coach guides every Horizon Session.
Horizon Groups provide a confidential, peer-supported setting where you can openly discuss your goals, achievements, and challenges without worry. Confidentiality is paramount, ensuring a safe space for genuine self-expression and collaborative problem-solving. Additionally, a professional coach will be present to offer insights and guidance, ensuring a structured yet flexible process.
The Horizon Group Sessions are designed to directly build the meta skills of ARC.
There is an emphasis on becoming more Aware of your own thought processes, and helping others to see theirs. Time is set aside for personal reflection, to further hone the skill of Awareness. The group setting is an excellent mirror for self-accountability and Responsibility. Finally, the structure of the group sessions involves a lot of listening and understanding others, which are the foundations of building empathy and Connection.
For those of you who are interested in taking on roles that have a component of coaching and leadership, the Horizon Group sessions are specifically designed to help train these skills.
But probably the main objective of the Horizon Groups is to provide you with a specific group of peers who can continue to support you throughout your career at Lifely, and even throughout your career. It is not unusual for groups like these to support each other for decades!
The key drumbeat of the Horizon Group will be the group Sessions that are scheduled every month. It is important that everyone in the group attends every session. Illness, of course, is unavoidable, but client work is not a sufficiently good reason to ‘skip’ a session. As you will come to see, the trust and mutual support of the group is a foundational pillar.
While the focus is on peer-led discussions, the experience within Horizon Groups is guided. The professional coach acts as a facilitator to ensure that the discussions are aligned with the ARC framework and are productive in helping each member work towards their personal and professional goals.
Outside of the scheduled sessions, the intention is that your Horizon Group provides ongoing day-to-day peer support. Each group will have a dedicated Slack channel to discuss your ongoing Personal Development and give each other support. This is a space for you to get feedback on your Growth Portfolio, for example, or get help clarifying an issue you would like to bring to the next Horizon Group Session.
<aside> 🤐 It is crucial to note that, just like the Horizon Group Sessions, these Slack channels are strictly confidential. All discussions, shared files, and messages within the channel are privileged information accessible only to the respective group members. To further safeguard this confidentiality, these Slack channels are mandated to be deleted at the end of each year.
</aside>
Horizon Groups are strategically formed at the beginning of each calendar year, specifically during the second week of January. To facilitate this process, a questionnaire featuring 20 growth goals—each aligning with Lifely’s overall strategic objectives—is sent out to all employees in December. Every team member is expected to select their top three growth goals for the upcoming year from this list.
Based on these chosen goals, employees are assigned to a Horizon Group of peers with similar ambitions. This ensures the group is synergistic and focused, making the process more effective and meaningful for everyone involved. Once the groups are formed, each is responsible for creating a dedicated Slack channel to serve as a platform for ongoing discussion, progress tracking, and peer support.