Conscious Capitalism Conference - Chicago

Why We Were There and How We Prepared

Earlier this month I had the privilege of attending the Conscious Capitalism Conference in Chicago.  15 people total went from my company, VMBC.  Most of the attendees were from our management team and most had flown in from Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

We went there to radically participate in the Conscious Capitalism event, to learn as much as we could, and to bring back content to share with our teams at home.  We spent the week prior to the event preparing to make sure we all had questions we were seeking to answer which would apply to our specific teams, picked out a schedule of topics that was appealing to us individually, and engaging on the online platforms. 

The questions I sought out to answer were:

1.      As we define our culture as an organization, what techniques can we adopt to genuinely engage our team, inspire each to find their purpose, and encourage growth for everyone?

2.      How can we apply these techniques as best practices for coordinators to make a positive daily impact for all teams?

My Experience

Most of us arrived on Monday.  Michael Kovach and I were the last to arrive and had flown out on the same plane together.   We met the rest of the team at Billy Goat Tavern – the restaurant famous for the SNL skit where Jim Belushi says “Cheeseborger Cheeseborger Cheeseborger”. J   It was this little hole in the wall from outside – the entrance was underground.  We had a great time together eating cheeseburgers and chips.  We walked for about 20 minutes in downtown Chicago and took a lot of pictures.  It was beautiful!

Tuesday around noon our team met up to each record the questions we were seeking to answer on video.  Austin from Round Table Companies joined us for the entire event to create a write up of our experience.  She managed to score us a private boardroom to use for the event so we all met there. 

The conference kicked off on Tuesday afternoon.  One of the quotes given by a host of the event immediately resonated with me, “The world is full of beauty when the heart is full of love.”  I instantly felt excited for what we were about to experience.

 

Tuesday was mostly keynote speakers. 

·        We heard from author Tony Schwartz who helped bring awareness to the fact that stress is good for us when it is balanced with renewal.  I was heavily hit with the realization that I have plenty of stress in my life but need more balance when it comes to renewal.  My takeaway from this was to start sleeping a little more each night (at least 7 hours) and to schedule in a couple of 20 minute breaks during my day. 

·        Another key point that Tony made which stuck with me was about opposites.  He said that each opposite has a positive opposite.  For example, compassion when overused becomes indulgence.  The balanced opposite is self-care.  We should seek value in the opposites we undervalue.  “The best leader is the one who holds opposites most gracefully.”  They see deeper and exclude less; they become more conscious. 

·        Next up was author Simon Sinek.  Everyone that I spoke to was very inspired by his talk.  He has a way about him that is very intriguing and straight forward.  He’s refreshing.  He talked to us a lot about behavior, what makes people feel good, and leadership.  What stood out most to me were his points about leadership.  He shared the idea that leadership is not a rank, it’s a behavior that some of us have.  Leadership requires the practice of putting the lives of others before our own interests.  Consistency is way more important than intensity.  A safe environment for your team is key.  “Be the leader you wish you had.” 

·        Bob Chapman closed out the day with an amazing talk.  He is the CEO of Barry Wehmiller and brought real life experience to share with us which was really inspiring.  He also focused a lot on leadership and highlighted communications as being a key part of people care.  “Leadership is the stewardship of the lives entrusted to you.”  He told us how with communications training and caring about how he touched people’s lives, he is able to lead an organization of over 8,500 people in a way that is deeply inspiring.  He has merged over 70 small companies to become one big happy family by using a formula that has proven successful.  He highlighted the power that business has to be a force for good.  When people spend over 40 hours per week at work, making this time fulfilling for them is critical.  He told us how he has managed to truly accomplish that.

·        Bob shared his 10 keys to a people-centric culture:

1.      Begin every day with a focus on the lives you touch.

2.      Leadership is the stewardship of the lives entrusted to you.

3.      Embrace leadership practices that send people home each day safe, healthy, and fulfilled.

4.      Align all actions to an inspirational vision of a better future.

5.      Trust is the foundation of all relationships – act accordingly.

6.      Look for the goodness in people and recognize and celebrate daily.

7.      Ask no more or less of anyone than you would of your own child.

8.      Lead with a clear sense of grounded optimism.

9.      Recognize and flex to the uniqueness of everyone.

10.   Always measure success by the way you touch the lives of people.

Tuesday night we all had dinner in the hotel together (all meals were included in the event).  It was rainy outside and I felt tired so I went back to my room and typed up my notes.  I knew too much information would be lost if I didn’t!

Wednesday morning a few of us woke up super early and did yoga in a class lead by Manduka.  The class was super packed and a little too challenging for me since I’m pregnant.  I hung in there and felt amazing that morning! 

For a full day on Wednesday we were able to attend a lot of practicums.  We were able to select from about 5 topics at any given time.  Each one that I attended was absolutely amazing.  Here are some highlights:

·        I was sure to catch more from Tony Schwartz.  Tony’s energy audit was kind of depressing to be honest, but also gave me clear insight on what exact adjustments I need to make.  I realized I’m depleting my energy too much and the motivation to improve my behaviors was one of my key realizations of the day.

·        Bob’s Chief People Officer, Rhonda Spencer, spoke about how they do what they do and it was incredible.  They walked through challenging leadership situations and how to turn them around.  She was a great example of a successful woman which I really enjoyed seeing.  I left really wanting to take their communications training ASAP!

·        Finally I watched a session where Simon and Bob spoke together.  We learned more about leadership and left feeling more inspired.  “Practice being the last to speak.”

That night there was a dinner exercise.  After we ate, each table opened up a donut box filled with supplies.  We were challenged to make a stakeholder model in groups of 8 or so.  We had a blast being creative and competitive.  We cheered louder than we should have and were extremely proud of our creation.  We ended up getting second place.  We definitely were the most creative but the winner had a standout idea – all stakeholders were connected with each other as well as us. 

Thursday was the final day of the conference and it was just a half day through lunch.  The day started with a touching keynote from Melissa Reiff, CEO of the Container Store.  She spoke a lot about communications.  She moved me to the point where I got emotional.  It was a pleasure to hear her experience and see how she’s made an impact on so many.  Here are her 15 characteristics of a leader:

1.      Security – Know you deserve to be seen as who you are.  Have the security to see the best in others. 

2.      Confidence – Ability to dig deep and not be intimidated.  Humility. 

3.      Positive attitude – Make the choice to be happy.

4.      Maturity – Life isn’t the way it’s supposed to be – it is the way it is.  The way you cope with it makes the difference.  Listen, learn, and then react. 

5.      Focus – The ability to zero in and focus on one thing.  Prioritize accurately.

6.      Courage – Never be afraid to show vulnerability.  Work hard to understand and figure out how to bring others with you. 

7.      Sweet – Sincere, thoughtful, generous at heart.  Put others first.  Be caring enough to connect with different types of personalities.

8.      Communication – Open, transparent, caring enough to be thoughtful with approach.  Anything can be solved with dedication to communication.

9.      Tenacity – Never give up. Take responsibility whenever you have the opportunity to do so.

10.   Humor – One of the brightest lights in lie.  Never forget to laugh.  Laugh with others.  Be adventuresome.  “Laughter is an instant vacation.” –Milton Borough

11.   Agility – keeps us alert and nimble.  Challenges us to be strong/on edge.  Trailblazer. 

12.   Creativity – Ignites our passion.  Keeps us youthful. 

13.   Commitment – Without it we sit in limbo.  One of real dangers in life is lack of commitment.  As soon as we commit, the universe conspires to assist you. 

14.   Inspiration – One of the greatest gifts can give self and others. 

15.   Passion – For life and all you do. 

 

Thursday afternoon my team met for several hours to debrief what we learned.  At this point we were exhausted and were getting stir crazy in the hotel.  I think most of us were reluctant to go into another meeting room, but we were all surprised at how amazing we connected.  We shared what stood out to us most and collaborated in a way that I never have before.  We talked about how we can apply what we learned and how we can share it with our teams back home.  We all connected on another level and although we had different opinions, ended up coming to common ground.  You can view a full copy of our team notes here. 

That night we finally got out of the hotel!  We all went to dinner at Mike Ditka’s Restaurant and had a great time.  We continued to talk about what we learned and connect with each other.  After dinner, some of us walked back to the hotel so we could have one last view of downtown Chicago.  I walked through Millennium Park and saw the famous bean as well as the beautiful architecture of large buildings.

Friday morning we continued going through what we learned and our CEO, Jesse Crowe, called in to join us.  He had to fly out Thursday morning to attend an interview for the ACG Corporate Growth Awards.  Our company is nominated for most innovative company in Orange County!  After Jesse joined the call, we all focused more on an individual level about how we would apply what we learned starting Monday when we returned to work.  We continued to detail out our action plans until we had to hop in our taxi’s and head for the airport.

 

Summary

The entire experience was amazing.  I realized on a greater level that we already have a beautiful culture at VMBC.  We also have so much potential.  By having so many people attend, we have a critical mass that can bring these realizations to everyone in our team.  We were able to bond, connect, and collaborate on a whole new level.  I’m so excited to see how this year progresses as we continue to develop our culture and engage with the Conscious Capitalism movement. 

 

Answers I Found to My Questions

1.      As we define our culture as an organization, what techniques can we adopt to genuinely engage our team, inspire each to find their purpose, and encourage growth for everyone?

a.      Share with the management team where we are at in our culture journey and invite their ideas for our action plan.

b.     Invite each manager to submit ideas about our purpose.

c.      Create a leadership best practices to provide consistent leadership to all team members that applies what we learned here.

d.     [I learned a lot of details about how we should modify our culture action plan and made those adjustments.]

2.      How can we apply these techniques as best practices for coordinators to make a positive daily impact for all teams?

a.      Create Project Management best practices that help create structure and balance for projects to reduce the amount of time they take and make them more efficient. 

b.     Make calendar changes that build renewal periods into our schedules as well as for the managers.

c.      Create meetings improvements which encourage playful participation to follow our golden rules and find creative ways to free up time. 

d.     Apply the leadership best practices to our teams.

 

Please let me know if you have any comments! J

 

 

Conscious Capitalism Chicago 2015 – Team Notes

Some of our team had the privilege to attend the Chicago Conscious Capitalism Event earlier this month.  Here is a summary of our notes in case they may be helpful for you! :)

 

Highlights from Each Speaker/Class

 

Keynote: Tony Schwartz

●       Investment in saving your energy – working too many hours every day is not healthy.  Balance is key. 

●       We need to refuel as we exercise mentally and physically.

●       Balance is a key point of everything.  Even for your personal strengths – if we overuse confidence it becomes arrogance. 

●       It’s important to state that the way we are working isn’t working.  We need to change the way we work to improve that.

●       One of the golden rules of triggers is that when you’re angry, whatever you feel like you want to do – don’t.  That gives you space to think about what the other person is feeling and not only what you are irritated about. 

●       Sprints of 90 minutes of work followed by 20 minutes of rest.

●       You can only have 4 hours of high impact work per day.

●       Try to sleep 7 hours of sleep or more.

●       When you evaluate your strengths, consider these to have more empathy for the other person:  What else may be true here?  What else am I missing?

●       See more, exclude less.

●       Acknowledge the bad qualities we have, accept them, try to improve them.  Don’t cover them.  Look for the opposite positive quality.

●       Care is the cure.

●       Self-care makes care for others possible.

●       The best leader is the one who holds opposites most gracefully.  They expand their capacity to hold paradoxical opposites. 

 

Keynote: Simon Sinek

●       It’s not the people, it’s the environment.

●       The leaders are the ones that create the environment. 

●       A safe environment is very important.  Leaders must create a safe environment.  We need to create a community of openness and build off each other. 

●       Be the leader you wish you had.  Each of us needs to take ownership and be that person.

●       If you feel your leader cares about you, you are inspired to follow their lead. 

●       Sometimes we invest a lot of energy into items that may be needed “just in case”.  That can take a lot of energy that could be focused into initiatives. 

●       Consistency is way more important than intensity.  You can’t work out for 9 hours one day and see results.  You can work out for 10 minutes every day and see results.

●       We need a vision and clear goal.

 

Keynote: Bob Chapman from Barry Wehmiller

●       10 keys to a people-centric culture:

1.      Begin every day with a focus on the lives you touch.

2.      Leadership is the stewardship of the lives entrusted to you.

3.      Embrace leadership practices that send people home each day safe, healthy, and fulfilled.

4.      Align all actions to an inspirational vision of a better future.

5.      Trust is the foundation of all relationships – act accordingly.

6.      Look for the goodness in people and recognize and celebrate daily.

7.      Ask no more or less of anyone than you would of your own child.

8.      Lead with a clear sense of grounded optimism.

9.      Recognize and flex to the uniqueness of everyone.

10.   Always measure success by the way you touch the lives of people.

●       His approach was very simple.  Loved that. 

●       Treat everyone as someone’s precious child.

●       The most important thing to do is to listen with care and empathy.

●       Leading is like parenting.  Children are different.  You have to customize your approach for each individual.  One size does not fit all.

●       Why can’t business be fun?  Find that element of fun. 

●       Ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

●       Make sure you have a safe bus with a skilled driver.  Don’t care so much about having skilled passengers.  We need to train the best drivers. 

●       Care and trust in people.

 

Keynote:  Melissa Reiff (Container Store)

●       We need to improve communications a lot. We need to anticipate how the listener will react to what we say and adjust our communications accordingly.  Be sure the message is received and produces a positive outcome. 

●       Think about speaking and other’s feelings.

●       Communications should be consistent, reliable, predictable, effective, thoughtful, compassionate, and courteous.

●       15 characteristics of a leader. 

1.      Security – Know you deserve to be seen as who you are.  Have the security to see the best in others. 

2.      Confidence – Ability to dig deep and not be intimidated.  Humility. 

3.      Positive attitude – Make the choice to be happy.

4.      Maturity – Life isn’t the way it’s supposed to be – it is the way it is.  The way you cope with it makes the difference.  Listen, learn, and then react. 

5.      Focus – The ability to zero in and focus on one thing.  Prioritize accurately.

6.      Courage – Never be afraid to show vulnerability.  Work hard to understand and figure out how to bring others with you. 

7.      Sweet – Sincere, thoughtful, generous at heart.  Put others first.  Be caring enough to connect with different types of personalities.

8.      Communication – Open, transparent, caring enough to be thoughtful with approach.  Anything can be solved with dedication to communication.

9.      Tenacity – Never give up. Take responsibility whenever you have the opportunity to do so.

10.   Humor – One of the brightest lights in lie.  Never forget to laugh.  Laugh with others.  Be adventuresome.  “Laughter is an instant vacation.” –Milton Borough

11.   Agility – keeps us alert and nimble.  Challenges us to be strong/on edge.  Trailblazer. 

12.   Creativity – Ignites our passion.  Keeps us youthful. 

13.   Commitment – Without it we sit in limbo.  One of real dangers in life is lack of commitment.  As soon as we commit, the universe conspires to assist you. 

14.   Inspiration – One of the greatest gifts can give self and others. 

15.   Passion – For life and all you do. 

●       LISTENING is important in communication.  Don’t talk at people, talk with them. 

●       How she managed at the time of the recession – monthly calls with each office to give reassurance, transparency.  Good approach if we have issues that we run into. 

●       There are no surprises.  People feel safe, secure, and warm. 

●       Laughter is an instant vacation. 

 

Tony Schwartz: Self Care and Caring for Others: Fueling Capacity in a World of Overwhelming Demand

●       You will have more demands through time but will not have more capacity to meet those demands and already feel overwhelmed.  You have to work smarter in terms of energy.  Make sure you balance the cycles by recharging to increase amount of energy.

●       The spiritual energy has nothing to do with God – is about self care – creating boundaries and take back your life.  If you don’t put boundaries, you cannot take care of the others. 

 

Everybody Matters: The Only Business Case with Truly Unlimited Potential (by Barry-Wehmiller’s Chief People Officer)

●       Ask team members – how can I reduce your frustration?

●       Make the vision clear to employees.  People need something to believe in. 

●       The culture is made by the direct supervisor, not the CEO.  Anytime the associate has a problem, you need to ask what is happening and give them an opportunity to give you feedback. 

●       A scoreboard is important.   What are the metrics and how close are they to achieving them? Some positions have no idea what winning means.  Give them a sense of being able to win. 

●       We need to invest time in our team.  That is our main job. 

Empowering the Creator Mindset:  How the Best Lead Through Change

●       There are three are un-resourceful mindsets: victim, persecutor, rescuer.  We can change these mindsets into resourceful ones – creator, challenger, coach.  When you change, you inspire the others to change.

●       This toolset helps you learn to be self-aware.  Helps you to switch to the resourceful mindsets.  You can’t control others but can be aware and adjust your approach.  Ex: a coach asks questions, a challenger makes statement. 

●       Escaping the drama triangle (insert picture).  This is a good way to resolve conflict. 

 

Unleashing Creativity by Jump

●       Don’t look at something and make assumptions.  Look at it and identify the need before you go directly to a solution. 

●       Give them the verb.  Let them find the noun. 

●       Create a culture of feedback – talk when things go right not just when they go wrong. 

●       By looking at the need first you step back and don’t do the job of your team.  By giving the solution, you put your team in a box and kill the creativity.  This makes you more aware that you may stop creativity in the team by giving them the solution rather than identifying the need. 

●       Ex:  Give requirements but don’t tell me how to do it.  Your team’s solution will be better than the one you come up with. 

●       Sometimes the reason is the solution as well.  Keep asking why until you get to the root. 

●       When we talk about projects, make sure we are aiming for a need before we aim to a solution.

●       You don’t have to stick to the past – think of new ideas.  What worked in the past won’t necessarily work in the future. 

●       Ex: Sony Walkman / iPod.   Same creative guy from Sony pitched idea to them.  Their creator had passed and there was a lack of innovation.  He took the idea to Apple and the iPod was born.  Huge opportunity missed by Sony.

●       Right now a lot of our visionary energy comes from one person.  As Sony can attest to, that is not a sustainable model.  We need to embrace this and figure out how to allow and unleash our teams so we come to identifying needs in marketplace and for clients.  Let the team create the solutions.  It will bubble up from within.  We need to identify the vehicle where we can bring those needs to the table. 

 

The Power of Purpose (Haley Rushing)

●       Diagram – your purpose is the intersection of your passion, strengths, and meaningful impact.  It can’t be a purpose unless it has all three of these things.

●       (Raj also talked about that the purpose has to have a healing.)

 

Selling with a Noble Purpose

●       3 questions to guide you to defining purpose:

o       How do you make a difference?

o       How are you different than your competitors?

o       On your best day, what do you love about your job?

●       Picture the customer in the room when you draft this. 

●       This noble purpose will create balance between each team’s needs – equilibrium. 

 

Conscious Engagement

●       Recognize people/attitudes you like.

●       Send weekly needs of encouragement.

●       Create courses.

●       Spend time with at least one employee per week.

●       Recruit employees to social events.

●       Sheet of activities where you can add points – people with higher marks get award/recognize. 

●       Organize events for family and friends.

●       Individual program retreats. 

●       Volunteer program – organize activities to encourage giving back. 

o       The team really wants to get involved in volunteering. 

o       Use working hours.

o       Look at companies that already have programs like this to build from.

o       Use our strengths to help make a difference. 

o       People can radically participate.

o       When we do give, it’s something that relates to what we do.  It helps to bring what we do into the world to add value into other people’s lives.  Related to our purpose.