The Rules and Penalties of a PdEI Group
Prior to the development of this process, CEO groups were given a great deal of latitude regarding rules and protocol. Those few that survived had their success principally attributed to an empathic leader in the group that developed a culture of commitment of the members to each other. Rather than take a chance of leaving a group's attendance dependant on their close relationship with each other, we began an experiment with the first UIC PdEI Group, in 1998, with a pre-commitment to a set of rules as a requirement for membership. For those that agreed to the rules at the outset, the results were almost instantaneous, consistently earning the highest attendance and performance scores in their following years, and subsequently confirmed the value of these rules. Following rules not only proved effective, but it resulted in other groups copying these rules for the same reasons.
Some rules appear counter-intuitive, or overly direct, but all have proven most effective, simple to understand and easy to implement. Here are the rules and the penalties, and herein lies their legitimacy:
Rule 1: A member that misses any meeting with less than a thirty-day notice pays for the Group's entire dinner, including drinks and wine. Any member that makes a meeting but misses the dinner for any reason pays for the dinners, not the drinks, for all the members.
Rule 2: Any member that arrives late, for any reason, pays for all the drinks that evening.
Rule 3: No member can miss more than one meeting in one year, as a condition for membership—and missing a dinner or a meeting counts as a miss.
Rule 4: Attending Retreat is mandatory for all, and a requirement to maintain membership.
Reasons for the Penalties
All participants commit 100% to the calendar dates for the full year, agreed to by each member in their forum, and prior to their first meeting of the year. This allows everyone to eliminate known conflicts beforehand. Once committed, all schedule future dates around their earlier commitments to the group.
If a conflict does arise, each member has thirty days to give notice to the group, and allow them the opportunity to consensus a date change to accommodate that member. Absence without 30-day notification is inexcusable, impolite, and disrespectful. This infraction also applies to being late.
For those that are forced to miss for business reasons, we conclude they are either saving or making money for their business, and the value of their absence is greater than the cost of this penalty, given our free market and their executive right to choice. A fair trade, since we all enjoy free dinners, drinks and good wine.
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