The second day of Association for Talent Development (ATD) conference opened up with Tony Bingham talking about 75 years of ATD history. The three main points he made included:
- Keeping up with the current trends
- Getting outside your box
- Create a world that works better
Bingham then introduced the keynote speaker: President Barack Obama.
In preparation for this presentation, there was tighter than normal security. Everyone had to stand in line for about an hour and a half. The line we were in stretched around the conference center, up the wharf, and back.
But it was worth it.
Using interview-style Q&A, Bingham asked President Obama a number of different questions and in a very extemporaneous manner, Obama reply to these questions.
Importance of Education
The first question focused on education. President Obama highlighted the different ways that society help him achieve his educational goals and that of different members of his family. Some of these benefits included the G.I. Bill, which he was proud to extend to family members. He noted that society must invest in its people and should create opportunities for people to succeed. One of these opportunities is to have affordable income or affordable education.
Resilience
The next topic that they discussed was on resilience. How did he keep going in times of struggle or difficulty? Obama pointed out the things he does he does because he believes it’s the right thing to do. That makes it much easier to stay the course. You need to do things that are right rather than achieving some position or role. You need to have a north star. This is all about staying true to your values.
Successful Organizations
They also talked about organizations and how to make them successful. Obama believes that you need to create an environment that accepts failure. This does it mean that you strive for failure rather it means that you accept failure. You can then make the organization better based on lessons learned. After each incident or event, they would conduct an after actions review. They did this whether the event was a success or failure in order to learn lessons to make the next event better. Obama also believes in giving people responsibility, even young 22-23 year olds.
Obama pointed out that he would try to get all the information possible about a situation before making a decision. In the end, the decision was made on the best probability of success. Decisions were often made in a compressed time frame. He spoke specifically about the auto bailout. He stressed the importance of listening to your staff.
Values
Obama talked about values. He believes it’s important to be honest, kind, hard-working, useful, and responsible. He is concerned that values are not being upheld and they can deteriorate a democracy, which must be constantly nurtured. It’s important to note that you cannot make decisions without facts.
Change
Another area they touched on was change. Simply put, change is hard. In order to get people to change, they must accept that the current situation is not good. He provided a story about his smoking and what eventually cost him to stop smoking. In terms of change, change doesn’t happen all at once. You are building upon legacy systems. You’re adding on or altering but you’re not changing things wholesale. You need to build habits incrementally.
Upcoming Trends
They also talked about upcoming trends:
Technology is a disrupting force. Artificial intelligence is causing a rapid change. It’s change that will disrupt entire work structures. He talked about the transition from the agriculture to the industrial age. He indicates that the change from our current age to that of artificial intelligence and robotics will be much quicker and our social and political structures will be under strain.
The world is getting smaller. This means that people are encountering people that are different from them. This is causing a lot of anxiety with people. We are getting into us versus them situations. There is an increased sense of tribalism.
Environmental change. Another trend that Obama spoke about was environmental change. Quite simply, Obama said it was a fact. Fortunately, man created these problems, man can solve these problems… and he quipped—if we listen to women.
Changing World
Bingham asked him how he stayed optimistic in this changing the world. Obama indicated that he was cautiously optimistic that the world is a good place compared to other times in history. But we can do better. Progress is not inevitable. We need to continuously encourage respect to all and encourage improvement. He concluded we need to be kind and useful.
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