Where can I find support groups for professional development?

Where can I find support groups for professional development?

That’s the wrong question.

Or maybe, it’s the right question pointed at the wrong gods. The lists are easy. The algorithms are happy to serve you what you ask for. You can go to Meetup.com and find a dozen local gatherings. You can scroll through endless LinkedIn Groups or join a massive organization like the Association for Talent Development (ATD).

The tools aren't the enemy. But they are just maps. They show you where people gather, but they tell you nothing about the terrain of their hearts.

And you can fill your calendar with all of it and still feel fucking alone.

I know because I was there last Tuesday. 2 AM. Staring at the screen, the cursor blinking on a project plan that felt both world-changing and utterly insane. And a wave of that cold, familiar dread washed over me. The one that whispers, you are a fraud and you are going to fail.

In that moment, I could have scrolled through a thousand connections. A dozen groups. But who could I actually message, right then, and say, "I'm in the dark here and I think I'm losing the path"?

No one.

That’s the failure of the modern "support group." It’s transactional. It's performative. It’s a network. It is not support.

The word itself tells us what we’re missing. Support. From the Latin sub, meaning "from below," and portare, "to carry."

To carry from below.

It isn't about a pat on the back. It's not about trading favors. It's about providing the goddamn foundation. It’s about being the ground when someone else’s is crumbling.

The Ancients understood this better. Think of the Greek phalanx. A wall of shields and spears. A soldier’s life didn't depend on his own strength or his own shield. It depended entirely on the shield of the man standing next to him. His shield protected the man to his left; the shield of the man to his right protected him. They moved as one organism. They survived or died together. It wasn’t about individual advancement. It was about the integrity of the wall.

This is what we're actually craving.

Not a professional development group. A phalanx.

We think we need a network to climb, but what we really need is a shield wall to hold the line when the real fight begins. The internal one. The one that happens at 2 AM when the dread sets in. The reframe isn't about finding a group that can do something for you. It’s about finding the people you would hold a shield for.

I’m not looking for more connections. I’m building my phalanx. Two, maybe three people. That’s it. We don't talk about quarterly goals. We talk about fear. We talk about the messy, uncertain, terrifying work of building a life of meaning. We carry each other from below.

It’s slow work. It requires a terrifying level of vulnerability. But it's the only thing that's real.

So forget the lists. Ask a better question.

Who is in your shield wall?

When was the last time you felt truly carried by your peers, not just "connected" to them?

Follow me for more reflections from the trenches.

And if you’re ready to stop networking and start building your phalanx, the work we do at My 12 Journeys is where you begin.

#ProfessionalDevelopment #Leadership #Community #Vulnerability #Support