HR Conferences start early in Texas. It was pitch dark this morning on the short walk from the hotel over to the HR Southwest conference at the massive Fort Worth Conference center.
An early start was needed to be able to attend one of the opening sessions that all kicked off at 7:00AM.
Fortunately, for those of us that shook off the BBQ cobwebs from Sunday night, the HR Southwest organizers had supplied us well with piping hot Starbucks coffee.
I don't care what anyone says, conferences that get the coffee right get a leg up on the entire event.
The early session I attended, with about 50 or so other early risers, was called 'Creativity Boot Camp for Leaders and Trainers', presented by Candy Whirley. Candy did a good job of engaging the attendees at such an early hour with a series of exercises that can be incorporated in various training and team building environments, (identifying your personal approach to creative thinking, building and branding a new team identity using games and props, and organizing the group along behavioral styles).
I think at that early hour, the group did appreciate the interactive nature of the session (an activity called 'Go Fish' was used to illustrate the importance of inclusion and incorporation of diverse thought). Again, the 50 or so attendees seemed to enjoy and identify with the lessons, and Candy was active and lively throughout.
The final activity required the attendees to self-identify into one of four 'animal' groups, Chameleons, Lions, Lambs, and Owls. I won't get into all the definitions of each group, save to say that about half the attendees, all HR professionals, classified themselves as 'Lambs'.
That seemed a bit scary to me, about half the room identifying with the 'Lamb' archetype, which from Candy's own book are often successful in occupations like Nurse, Receptionist, and Social Worker.
Which one are you do you think? Lion, Chameleon, Lamb?
Or something else entirely?
First.