Blogging from the ATD Conference

We are about to unleash a week's worth of reading on our PM College blog readers, covering all the amazing sessions that Crystal Busch and I are attending here at ATD 2019 in Washington, DC. But first ... that fantastic Monday morning keynote. If ATD was trying to get our attention, it worked.

Oprah Winfrey started off by reflecting on her twenty-five-year show (that ended eight years ago ... how time flies). Her comment was: “we all look for the same thing – to live out the truest expression of our self as human beings.” (Crystal did a great job of personalizing her message in her blog post here.)

She was great at telling stories about her experiences in life with her show and also the school she opened in South Africa. She noted that money does not change things (she gave away a lot of money to help the needy to no avail) and came to the conclusion that the way to change people is to change the way they think … that is, through education. These were words dear to the hearts of those of us who help develop and present training programs. In recounting her personal story about the school, Oprah made a great observation. At first, she focused on the girls going to the school and not the leadership. She came to feel that was the wrong approach … she needed to focus on the teachers and leadership, and the girls would fall into place. Having the wrong leaders in place initially (and there were serious problems, including abuse), she attributed to not following her intuition.  The leadership didn’t feel right to her but she did not trust her gut. She tried to let her feeling go since she kept being told "this isn’t how we do it in Africa" .. as she recounted this, I was thinking about project management and how, often, project managers don't stick to their guns about estimates, deadlines, risks when leadership pushes back …. and trouble can brew!

She also spoke about her insight, in dealing with people (based on her years of interviews) that they all were seeking validation …  they wanted to know that they had been heard and understood. That is important – especially when trying to train. I think we often lose sight of the loop nature of communication. If you are talking but the other person isn't listening/hearing/comprehending ... no communication has taken place. Because, in my role as business development director, I am constantly trying to understand not only what people are saying, but what the context is behind their words, what they really mean, what they need, what might solve their problem ... this focus on the quality of listening was very validating to me!

Again, we are blogging on the PM College side of the house this week: Please travel over there to read recaps of the conference sessions Crystal and I are attending.