A Glimpse Back at Catalyst East 2009

I didn’t take a single note at Catalyst this year… on purpose. Sometimes I get so distracted with filling in the blanks and asking “what did he say?” that I miss things. I decided to take it all in, tweet what impacted me in the moment, and then watch the forthcoming event DVDs to get what I missed.

While there were a good number of speakers that I was impacted by, I’d have to say that Malcolm Gladwell’s Thursday session, and Andy Stanley’s Friday session, were among my favorites.

Here’s a glimpse back at these sessions in case you missed the event (or if, like me, you just want a refresher):

Malcolm Gladwell - “The Necessity of Humility in Leadership” by Michael Hyatt

According to Gladwell, more information does not guarantee better decisions. In fact, we tend to overestimate the value of additional information. He cited the work of Dr. Stuart Hopkins, who did extensive research on this topic. What he discovered is that when people are given more information, they grow more confident in their ability to solve the problem. However, their actual results are not better. Sometimes, they are worse. ...

Overconfidence is “the disease of experts.” They think think they know more than they actually do know. In fact, they make mistakes precisely because they have knowledge. This is what happened on Wall Street. ...

The lesson is this: In times of crisis, we think we need leaders who are bold and confident. This is completely wrong-headed. What we really need are leaders who are humble and willing to listen. As leaders ourselves, how can we avoid becoming overly confident?

Read the full recap article…

 
Andy Stanley - “Andy Stanley on Creating a Healthy Work Culture” by Kent Shaffer

A culture characterized by trust attracts healthy people. You will never know who you can trust until you trust them. The longer you refuse to trust people, the longer that untrustworthy people can hide in your organization. The moment you feel to tightly manage someone, you might have made a hiring mistake. And if you don’t address the hiring problem, you might create a culture where everyone distrusts each other. You will never know who you can trust until you trust them. Trusting is risky. Refusing to trust is riskier. ...

Trust enables an organization to move faster. In an organization of trust, the culture is fluid. When there is a high level of trust, I am going to act/email/write/communicate as if I believe the best. Teams use trust as currency. ...

Developing a culture of trust begins with a leader. Trust and suspicion are both telegraphed from the leader throughout the organization. We must learn to choose to trust.

Read the full recap article…

Posted 10.15.2009

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