Session L2 - Releasing your peoples creative genius

Session L2


Releasing your peoples creative genius

Karen Ver - Chair

Gordon Peterson –



Set the scene by measuring the energy in the group..

“has elvis left the building?”



Bono when going round asks “who is the elvis here?” what he is looking for is charisma, attitude

There is a little bit of elvis in everyone and our goal is to unleash the little bit of elvis in us

In pairs – face each other and looking at each other say I like you without smiling or laughing



As a Jedi – can you say “I love you” without laughing and smiling – they say it is impossible

There are some challenges that require us to use our social oomph



Told us a personal story of personal change, and how we often try to change but do not use the strategies that work and we wonder why.. we need to play to our strengths.

Innovation is about change, and sometimes we try to make change too early and not in the right context.



Introduces Yin/ Yang – all about balance.- doing-being

What gets lost in the doing stuff is the being how we do things.

Using simple mindsets can help us get into the mindset of



Productive creativity

The habit of doing new things to make a positive difference

Habit is counter intuitive – you don’t associate habit with doing nw things – you can build a habit of doing new things. Its not about crazytivity, its about something that can take us forward.



There is no right or wrong

Positive minded – you need a vision – how good are you and your organisations at killing ideas – 1-10

How do we kill ideas – write a report, do a business case, money, tried that before…. We are very good at killing ideas

Being able to nurture ideas is vital.



Story

walk along a path – 3 little shoots – a genie appears

choose one…

1. rose

2. oak tree

3. gorse

what do you do? – wait nurture? See what is growing and changing

easy to say – difficult to do



in pairs – person 1 comes up with ideas to make the cipd conf better next yr

person 2 answers everyone with yes.. but

Say in your pairs

Remember that you felt like

Person 1 offers ideas to improve the conference

Person 2 answers with yes… and – offers ways of building

Recap on how people felt

When someone craps on someone’s ideas you sapp their power

How often do you have conversations of the second type – less judge mental and more supportive.



You need to be clear of what you expect from people – this is what de-bonos 6 hats is about. Being clear means you need to be careful about the language you use.

When we ask the question “what do you think?”

A better q would be “how could we make this better?”



Chris kissing the fish – there is a story behind this chris never used to like fish, he would go to dinner parties and be offered fish & DECLINED it – people took pitty on him. One day he tried it as he was wondering what he was missing out on. He tried it, found he liked it



Getting Fresh

Do you travel to work the same way?

Fav restaurant/ dish

Read the same mag/ news paper

Even when staying away sleep on the same side of the bed.



Why do we stay with our habits/ favourites.

Studies show that we can recall almost every piece of data we have ever been exposed to. We can hold an unlimited amount of data..

Why might having a lot of diff ideas in your mind – when you are looking to solve problems, if you have different experiences you have a wider pool of ideas to select from – fresh ideas

Get fresh, explore the ideas, get a fresh perspective. Buy a diff mag, go a different way to work. Consider doing something different every day – this may be as simple as going into a shop you would not otherwise go into, read a mag of something different that you would chose to read



Lighten-up! – do something frivolous

REAL – a fav company of mine is IDEO

Philosophy –



Get people engaged, bring the idea to life

Ask yourself the question – how can you bring your idea to life

FAST

Virgin spent months looking at virgin cola for months – then one day righard branson on morning TV answered the question “what is next?” he said in 6 ½ weeks is virgin cola – none of the project team knew this and were shocked, but the team delivered 6 ½ weeks later!.



MOVEMENT

BIG – do it, say it – take a personal risk. If you wait you will miss the moment. Be brave. If you take something away from this week be brave – do something



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DRAFT POST

Workshop w10 Building Innovation Capability

Building Innovation Capability


Facilitated by Ian Plover http://www.businessofchange.com/ & Cris Beswick http://www.letsthinkbeyond.com/

22 people in the workshop where there were spaces for 32, strange as innovation is a key theme for many at the moment, I would have thought the session would have been full (31 people were expected)



Cris works in Innovation, Ian in Change management

Notes, flipcharts and other materials that are developed on the day will be sent to us later.



Ian gave the story of a former MD at Anglian Water that was your typical MD – unassuming, then took some time out & went to Harvard. When he returned he was gushing with ideas and drove change through involvement and participation.

Innovation as a tool – the challenge is to create an org that can thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Who feels that they work in an innovative org? many feel that they have innovation IN their org but not as a whole

Innovation is often seen as product or service and it is often seen to have covert teams at the top level that are innovative.

How do we increase or capacity for innovation?

To use innovation – we need to understand it.

1) innovation is not the sole domain of R&D, high tech industries or specialists

2) is not about being first

3) not about being the biggest and best



Innovation is about diversity – about people. Innovation comes from how we mix stuff together.

GM spent $8B on innovation/ R&D and they went bust – that is $1/4M per employee – but they did not innovate internally.

Strategy-people-community-physical environment-creativity-risk-leadership

Strategy – it has to be core of what we do. The word “innovation” has been bastardised by marketing teams which no longer add value. What we need to do is to pump people some value into innovation

Do you have a HR strategy? A business strategy – are they aligned?



People – as an MD I want great people – if we have poor people I want them out-quickly

Community – I want people thinking of the community in the org – doing things for other teams, not just their own – its about more than “culture” – Jim Collins – how can you be a help to others

Environment – Tom Peter – “cultivate great talent by creating great places to work-eliminate cubical slavery” look at Google, they have done things to make the workspace a place people want to be

Creativity – creativity is not about designers & wacky stuff – its about thinking differently – 20% time in Google – 20% of their time to work on ‘stuff’ they feel is the next….. this is Google giving people “white space” in their diaries. How can we give people time to help think differently? Create the environment and the time to use it.

RISK – the big one…. Risk is all relative – if we want people to be creative, if we want – mark Twain ”if you always do what you have always done..” If you don’t risk anything you risk everything. Risk is about what R&D do and call prototyping – they rarely get it right first time – they take risks, they have time for risks – but the final output is proven. Google “to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible & useful” leadership is key to drive the vision.

Customers need to put the label “innovation” on something – not the creators…



Ian

The “Human Beings” department – rarely have I heard of HR & innovation mentioned in the same sentence

Thers is something about HR – we get on with the job and hide our lights under a bush. That is a shame as HR people are more innovative and we need to tell our businesses what we have done. If we want to be a real “business partner” we cannot wait for people to ask us – we need to take the imitative. You often see a FD on the right hand side of the MD – you rarely see HR on the left hand side.

12 yrs ago Ulrich said HR needs to be in 4 areas, HR are no good at selling ourselves – we need to learn the language of finance and marketing. David’s (Ulrich) message has never really be understood – HR has focused on T&C of work, it should be T&C of the work place. The only people that can make HR a business partner is for us to invite ourselves to the table – lead by doing and using business language.
HR is often seen as transactional, and until we change this we will never be a real “BP”
Interesting session – innovation in the org and political commentary about our role – innovation is a reason to be invited to the org

HR & Strategy

HR & People

HR & Community

HR & Environment – physical & psychological

HR & Creativity – how often are people allowed & told they are creative

HR & Risk – not about putting people lives at risk

HR & Leadership

Ulrick change agent is about changing the org in the area of human capital

Change through people not through gantt charts. No-one else in an org has the ability to change people like HR have.
Group task – brainstorm innovative areas – what great innovations have your done yourself, come across of heard of - nominate someone to feedback not to us but to everyone else in the room. – the ideas will be sent to us later.

Some innovative ideas –

1 + 3 = 5 one person carried 2 roles CEO & ops director (mat cover) devolved her roles to 3 managers where they did 5 months each, and the OPPs mgr on maternity was available to each of the managers. At the end of the period the company had significantly increased its Human capital
Confidence and competency

Keep-in-touch – diverse locations where people don’t meet, use of touch screen tech to allow people more access to intranets and social networks for people that are IT resistant

Proudly received – proudly given – a drive to share ideas openly

People want to be involved more – dialogue or monologue?

Incremental or radical innovation

If you put in the reward system people are more inclined to participate (but what is reward – we need to look at this) – In Qatar they pay managers extra to coach employees and the reward suggestion schemes with high value rewards – multiples of salary!

Tesco – where managers go “back to the floor” on a regular basis

We are about to go for a break – when you come back – leave your ‘HR’ hat outside and come back with a line manager hat on, without all the limitations of HR policy, regulations etc.


As managers – tell me what I can do – not what I cannot do

Exercise to build a culture where people want to work for and your customers want to spend money for.
We were given a scenario and asked to explore that in the context of the 7 steps from a business perspective – the what not the how at this stage.
Groups shared their thinking and ideas. This material will be “codified” and sent to us – I’ll add it here when we get it.
One concept that came up was based on the concept that Jim Collins mentioned which was to have a “not to do list” and from an L&D perspective and talent management perspectives what about having a “do not develop” list
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DRAFT post

Talking talent (in turbulent times)

Closing Keynote

The Panel

Vicky Wright - President CIPD

Liane Hornsey - Google

Satish Pradhan - Tata Sons

David Smith - ASDA

Alex Wilson - BT

This panel session was introduced by Vicky Wright , President of the CIPD. Wright in her introduction directed us to the fact that all four of these organisations had one thing in common - they have all experienced and are experiencing transition currently.

Jon Snow facilitated the session featuring;

• David Smith - ASDA
• Liane Hornsey - Google
• Alex Wilson - BT
• Satish Pradhan - Tata Sons

Snow's opening words were "in the 20 years of Channel 4 news I can only think of two major events that have impacted all of us. One was 9/11 the other is our current economic challenge "

Snow posed a number of question to the panel and this was followed by the opportunity to ask questions. Below is a summary of key messages from each of the panel:

David Smith -

"you have to have an employer brand.. and mean it"

"it (business) is not just about making money, we must make money ethically and stability"

"one of the roles of HR is to say the unpopular messages/ news to the CEO"

"HR & Business strategy are the same thing"

"we recruit to the culture more than skills - all staff including hourly paid staff have to complete a 1/2 day assessment centre as part of the recruitment process. If they are gregarious, we will hire them, if they are shy or difficult we don't want them."

"we set out to befriend our people, managers are expected to know their people at an individual level"

Alex Wilson

"The further staff are away from the front line the more we (and other organisations) need to remember that customers are important."

"This is our (HR) time, now we need to shine in the tough times"

"our first choice in tough times is always redeployment rather than redundancy" - The alumni of people that have left the organisation is bigger than that employed - we do what we can for the majority to remain advocates"

Liane Hornsey

"HR is about picking the right people for the job. Google will not compromise - we only hire people that will add value to Google". Hornsey mentioned one example of this where she has a vacant head of HR post for over 18 months as she has yest to find a suitable candidate.

In answer to a question about retention strategy for Google...

"We make the environment a place people want to be

We develop people relentlessly

We give then the work (and challenge) they enjoy"

Google also recruit to the culture not the job - often recruiting people without offering a particular role and then work with the individuals to find the right role for them.

At Google they use people and their hobbies and encourage people to run workshops and short training sessions on their hobby - this helps to create a culture of learning and people are free to attend anytime - they do not need to ask permission to attend - the business trusts that this action will encourage loyalty and a drive to work harder.

Satish Pradhan

"always use the best people to solve the biggest challenges"

"communicate what you are doing.. why you are doing it and most importantly in an authentic way. You must do what is right for that business, not just for the stakeholders."

Diversity is not a universal formula, and what is relevant for one organisation and context. Successfully businesses cannot work to a mathematical formula to diversity. What is right for one is not necessarily right for another.

Tata is an organisation that is run more like a federation rather than a traditional hierarchy, so they enable and empower people. Tata believe governance and culture is critical. Often staff that were employed under previous owners can do and deliver given the right context.

You cannot and must not see unions as adversaries... you must see them as advocates, if you don't take this approach you lose before you start.

The Close

Wright summarised the week and reminded us that this week is the changing face of business. Wright reminded us that Orme had earlier said in the week that the CIPD is changing to provide "relevant help to you".. just in time.

Wright had the belief that the conference had provided delegates with "relevant things you can take away... something new that you can do... HR and the role of HR is changing"

• Wright reminded us that Harrogate had been the home of the annual conference for 60 years (IPM, IPD etc..) and that they needs to change. The move to Manchester in 2009 would provide:
• Better exhibition space on one level
• The conference would be different - more relevant and provide more opportunities
• Smaller groups
• Select master classes
• More events within the exhibition space (this has worked well for the last two years)
• A more intimate environment

Wright also reminded us that the CIPD annual conference and exhibition 2009 would take place in NOVEMBER 2009... see you there...

Comment

This was an engaging and fitting end to the conference, we have had the Academics, the CEO's and finished with the HR directors. It was a shame that the audience by this session was somewhat depleted, many traveling back home and not fully engaged with the whole event. There were so many messages that would benefit many HR team members.

Now to travel home, to reflect on the weeks events and the overall impact of the exhibition and conference.. but that I will leave for another day.

Be a hero - a HR hero

The theme of this years event has been HR individuals as organisational heroes. Each session has commencement with a short, yet punchy video showing HR professionals doing a wide range of activities. Key messages were:

• Challenge
• Drive performance
• Predicting the future
• Leading change

All around the exhibition have been references and activities promoting the "individual practitioner" as a hero.

Delegates have had the opportunity of video blogging their thoughts, have their photo taken in a seaside style cut-out and several other fun and lighthearted activities. I suspect much of this will make its way into People Management and the CIPD site in the coming months.

At the begining of each session a short video was played - this was based on the theme of the HR hero... No version of this appear on Youtube or the CIPD site - so appologies for the quality.

What's driving the business context

Bob Morton from Ciba introduced the session and Liam Fahey

Bob Morton from Ciba speciality chemicals opened the session and during his opening he reminded us that while many other speakers at the event had highlighted the current financial situation we should look beyond what is happening in the financial sector and look at the wider picture. His implication being that if you only look at the end of your nose you miss the real issues and more importantly the opportunities.

Liam Fahey (from the leadership forum) 'launched' himself on an unsuspecting audience with the opening line "good afternoon (it was 0935), those of us not in HR are used to an earlier start." - not a ripple from the some what small audience in the large auditorium. Fahey carried on regardless.

Fahey started to set the scene of what is happening in the world and how this impacts on our future strategy development - not just for hr but HR and business. He asked the rhetorical question "what COULD happen in the future that can screw your organisation?..." "what are humanities greatest needs" Indeed big questions for early on a Thursday morning.

Fahey drew our attention to what he calls the 10 needs of humanity (foci of change):

1. Energy
2. Water
3. Environment
4. Education
5. Poverty
6. Food
7. Disease
8. Terrorism/ war
9. Democracy
10. Population

And asked us how many of us applied this to our organisation when looking at strategy? In conjunction with this he highlighted a range of change domains: Products/ Services, Plans/Strategies, Region/ Global etc.. all of which interact with the global drivers of change. These can create and destroy significant business opportunities. To put these factors into context he pointed out that it did not matter how big or small our organisations were, nor what products or services we offer - regionally or globally, these factors would impact us and our decision making.

We were taken on a whistle stop tour of data and impacts of these ten factors, and shown that it is not difficult to get data on these factors - indeed many of the governmental agencies around the world provide this data for free - all we need to do is use it! This started to make the whole proposition real. No longer were these factors that would impact big and international organisations but each and every one of us.

As an example of using this data Fahey gave a brief case study looking at the mobile phone sector, he showed how the first 1/2 billion users are now changing their phone on average every 12 months, that the second 1/2 billion users have different requirements - and that the further down the user population you go the challenges faces - to the extent that the business model that works for the first 1/2 billion users is completely inappropriate for the second billion users etc... so as organisations we need to adapt to market needs greater than anything we have done before.

Lehey outlined the 10 factors and the potential impacts. He stated that 15% of the worlds population live with an abundance of water - that leave 85% with a water shortage - so their needs will be different, both in terms of services and application of technology and products. In this context he discussed two US based organisations that are pulling their manufacturing out of India and China and relocating them to the US on the basis that the water situation in the two countries will have a significant impact on production capability. So these 10 factors are being used by organisations for strategic decision making.

Food - demand is outpacing supply, and this is an area that needs to be looked at - both use and waste if we are to have a sustainable business model.

Terrorism - this was an interesting one, he asked us on a scale of one to ten of impact on us as a world population and economy where terrorism would be.... then he asked the same of human based viruses...... his answer was that terrorism was -10 and human virus was +100 in terms of impact. he cites SARS which only lasted for a few months and to all intents and purposes only really hit one region - he then asked us to imagine what would happen if a disease really spread and to thing about the impact..... He then asked what sort of effort and priority our governments were putting into protecting us from these factors - he mentioned that the UK only has enough vaccine for 5% of its population for a flu pandemic....

In Disease he looked at the increasing cost and impact of diabetes, both to the health of a population, health care implications and on product R and D. fascinating stuff.

Fahey skirted at a rapid pace on so many areas that I could not do them justice here.

Closing

He closed with challenging HR. HR needs to drive these things (the 10 factors) to influence senior management. We (HR) need to be both overt and subversive, we are potentially hold the key for success for our organisations... no one else is doing it...

Where ideology meets human circumstances ideology always loses.... this is as true in business as it is in politics... so values are all very well but just how far will the organisation go to support them? ( what would you do/ not do for £10m ?).

In the Q&A section in response to a question... You must remember the following two rules:

• Rule #1 you cannot predict the future
• Rule #2 ... remember rule #1

He said it was not about predicting the future - but running scenarios based on the information he has shared to forcast possible situations, he said that incidents like 9/11, the financial crash have been identified by scenario planning and some organisations are better position BECAUSE they had CONSIDERED the possibility... not because the 'predicted it'

He intimated that people are THE strategic asset and as managers we need to ensure that this asset and resources is utilised effectively - whatever that means in a given context.

Summary thoughts

It was a shame that there was a small audience and a a 'reluctant' applause. For me this was one of the most powerful and enlightening session of the conference. For an HR manager or director to be truly strategic we need to look beyond the policy and procedures and develop contingency and strategy to deal with the possible future scenarios. One colleague Fahey mentioned said that in an exercise looking at 'worst possible situation' - over 90% of them had already occurred - so strategic and scenario planning is of critical performance.

Fahey did not 'sell' his own books in fact they were not mentioned in the presentation - I for one will be buying some of them - a highly recommended speaker - in fact I would say mandatory reading/ listening for all CPP and other HR 'students'. I hope the MP3 of this session will be widely available.

Keynote - Jackie Orme

Jackie Orme
Jackie Orme is the new CEO for the CIPD and opened the session. She shared some of her views and goals for the years ahead. In the context of the breaking news about the financial markets Orme highlighted that we (the HR function) now have the best access to boards and CEOs for many years, that CEOs are starting to be proactive and approach HR for advice and guidance. She called for CIPD members to stop navel gazing and to focus on delivering results for the business.

Orme said that she was changing the priorities for the institute. Much of the research completed by the CIPD is academic and pure research based. Orme’s vision is for 50% of all CIPD research within the next 12 months to be topical and relevant to the ‘practitioner in the street’.

Changes are to be expected in the delivery of qualifications for HR too.. in that the people coming into HR are changing, HR needs to adapt and to be more relevant to the practitioner. She said that changes to the CIPD qualification structure and method of achieving would be announced by the end of the year. The new CIPD pathways would focus not only on qualification but application of skills and knowledge.

The future of HR is changing due to organisation leadership being more values based than ever. She said that we need to move from being staff advocates to being more of a business and customer service advocate, that is building an organisation that has talented people fighting to join.

Orme has a vision for change and did not appear to be shy of announcing it. Orme then introduced the main Keynote speakers.

It was disappointing that there was little time to ask any questions, however I am sure we are likely to see a more responsive institute in the coming months….but it may not be what we are expecting”

Keynote - Becoming a resonant leader

Becoming a resonant leader
This session featured Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee.

McKee started the session and gave us an overview of what it would take to become a resonant leader.

A strong beginning McKee stated that we are in the mist of the greatest change in human history.. with that she was referring to the changes to social structures and the dramatic changes to the economy and business world as we sat in conference. (the announcement of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers organisation). She said that there was an almost universal acceptance that the old models of leadership just don’t work anymore and we need to find and engage with new and appropriate strategies. She said that great leaders (resonant leaders) move us to change, that is they get us motivated, excited and engaged with change.

Curiously McKee turned the situation around pointing out that most stories about leaders are actually about the followers rather than the leaders themselves, this is certainly true for ‘natural leaders’ such as Mandella. McKee said that her research pointed to the fact that as leaders we have the power to touch and move people, that the wisdom of ‘resonant’ leadership lies within each of us..

McKee introduced the concept of ‘hope’ that hope was often a trigger for possibilities and that effective leaders inspire us to find meaning towards hope for the future. McKee explored the reality that resonant leadership may well be common sense but not common practice – that is we may know this but do not apply it. Mckee also introduce the concept of mindfulness – a subject and ‘competence’ that was introduced earlier by Ben Bryant. This may well be a concept that survives beyond the conference!

McKee set the scene for Richard Boyatzis. Boyatzis started his section with some rhetorical questions of the delegates… How can we tap into hope?, How can I manage the cycle of sacrifice and renewal? How can I become more resonate?

Boyatzis stated that his research into neurology suggested that as humans we are ‘wired for hope’ and that people like change… IF it is tied to hope and will make a positive difference to their lives. He highlighted a wide range of long term research looking at graduates and how they adapt to and accept change. Using Chaos based theory he suggested that for change to work it needs to be discontinuous. He used metaphor to explain that for many of us we will change when the reason is great enough and indeed as humans we find it difficult to cope with continuous change – but cope with and welcome ‘step change’.

Through a highly animated and engaging session Boyatzis explored the neurology of positive and negative ‘attractors’ factors which are important but which is more important is the ratio with which highly effective leaders use positive and negative factors. Leaders of effective teams were said to use positive to negative attractors a ratio of 3:1, however in time of stress these could be as much of 9:1 – a consistent factor in the identification of highly effective leaders.

He left us with the questions:
When you are on your way home, think about who's lists you are on? Are you on their positive or negative list?
Hoe can you ensure you use positive attractors more often?

Distractions

At one point in the presentation the antivirus software notification 'popped' onto the screen - tech guys corrected this quickly without the presenter reacting in any way, sitting near some of us was an individual that had fallen asleep and was snoring loudly - a shame as this was one of the best sessions of the day - the snoring did have a number of us in giggles, I was sat next to a member of CIPD staff at the time and we did joke about putting a photo of the poor individual here on the blog - but that would not have been fair... would it?

Summary
Richard was one of the most engaging and inspirational speakers I have seen for some time – a natural and funny man that not only understood his material, but the audience. A natural motivator and story teller (not your usual American motivational superficial speaker) An academic that understands how to apply solutions in the real world.

How to get engaged at work

This session was led by Beverly Alimo-Metcalf of Bradford school of management.
In this session we were introduced to a range of research projects around leadership, culture and engagement .

Traditionally people have been recruited into leadership roles on the basis of competence . This has been shown to be ineffective and a risky strategy. What is important for future leaders is the ability to create a culture of engagement and to reduce stress within the organisation . Research was highlighted that showed that 65-75% of employees cite their boss as the main source of work place stress. Something we all need to address.

Some of the questions posed to us include;
How important is engagement for your organisation ?
Do you really know how engaged your colleagues are?
How can you influence the creation of an engaging culture ?

Comments
A good speaker but the session was a little too focused on the placement of their products, rather than tangible actions delegates could undertake, indeed much of the content was about out with the old - yet seemed to put weight on 2003/4 research when the speaker said times were changing.

Freeing up organisations

Ben Bryant from the IMD led this session.

Using an engaging and interactive style Ben introduced us to the concept of organisational culture as being like an Iceberg - in that we tend to concentrate on what is above the waterline, but what impacts an organisation is what occurs below.

Ben outlined some interesting case studies around culture and used the examples of the "hotel coat hanger" as one example of the hidden message sent to staff from the corporate HQ - our guests are thieves and will take anything not tied down... you can see how small subtle actions like this can have a massive impact on peoples behaviours. He also highlighted the culture in Silicon Valley in the US where the accepted culture is that of taking risks and failure is an acceptable cost. That meetings are often only 30-60 minutes duration. Factors like this.. under the waterline send subsconscous messages to staff and customers alike.

Ben's key messages were about the various 'pathways to change' - i.e. structured left brain and intuitive right brain. He said that while both were EQUALLY important he would focus on right brain approaches as many of us are more than competent and experienced in the left brain based approaches.

Intuitive approaches to change are developed on four strategies:

1. Sense giving & sense making
2. Shadow Sensing
3. Mindfulness and awareness
4. Inner Freedom

Sense giving & sense making

Traditionally top management and HR have focused on Sense giving, Bryant argues that we need to spend more time on sense making - that is enabling our people to make sense of the situation, our goals and strategies.

An important strategy in sense making is the use of stories and metaphor, he said that research had shown that 40% of stories were about leaders in an organisation and the decisions they had made. Bryant went on to look at the type of metaphors we use - organic or inorganic and some of the 'hidden messages' we send while attempting to use these powerful communication strategies.

Mindfullness

Using stories around Nelson Mandela and the cultural changes that tool place 'below the water line in South Africa, Bryant highlighted some of the actions which let to below water activities turning the tangibles above the water.

Shadow sensing

This was about the impact we leave behind us as leaders - not what we say but the way we say it - very much the shadow that follow us. Our reputation and the management of our reputation.

Inner freedom

Here Bryant talked about the tension in leadership which in many cases inhibits freedom for us. He focused on the tensions between innovation, numbers and systems.

In a summary he highlighted that as humans in change we are instinctive defensive and we should pay attention to these factors and address them first.

He left the delegates with these questions:

• As HR are you controlling the message or letting go?
• Are you caught up in the action or standing back and being mindful?
• Are you known for talking the truth or colluding to play it safe?

Mikes summary -

An interesting and thought provoking session. Bryant cleverly interleaved techniques from TA, NLP and many other 'schools' top form a coherent message and approach. - one to watch.

What to me was very interesting was the number of people in the audience that spent the majority of their time on their Blackberries - the ones in eye shot were managing emails, not taking notes.. why attend?

In the session Bryant told an interesting motivational 'true story' about a consultancy firm - I have tried to find the company but without any luck.. one to follow up post conference.