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.
Please let me know if you have any comments! J
