In recent years I have taken advantage of numerous opportunities to listen to experts in their presentations on business management, training, intelligence and, in general, the resources of human beings, and I have also participated as a speaker at various conferences.
I have thus been able to gather some reflections on this special way of making experiences and conclusions flow, within the healthy effort to extend the fields of knowledge, and thus progress. Indeed, I think that it is worth observing with some analytical perspective these eternal and universal ways of sharing knowledge, so direct and intense.
It's about that: making knowledge flow; something especially necessary in this Information Society, which often seems especially the Information Society. The events to which we are called constitute live meeting points, between those who have something recent and interesting to contribute and those who wish to access those contributions.
These events may also have a visibly commercial character, but let us now think especially of the flow of technical or scientific knowledge, of deepening the potential of human beings, of sharing lifelong learning through conferences or presentations.
The publication of articles and books is a solid way of sharing, both new knowledge and diverse concerns and opinions; but undoubtedly the oral and face-to-face exposition in the framework of more or less resonant sessions deserves special attention. Institutions in the public and private spheres frequently materialize this type of initiative - workshops, symposia, congresses, etc. -, driven by different concerns and purposes, but always contributing to the expansion of the fields of knowledge. Professors, researchers, consultants, managers, professionals and experts in general, show us their studies and conclusions in different areas, through interventions that are very measured in time and content.
Within what seems most unusual to me, I was called, in Zamudio (Vizcaya) and in 2004, to make a four-hour presentation on an aspect -information skills in our time- that I still consider to be of topical importance in management of knowledge in companies, and the idea worried me; I found it a challenge because, not having the resources to participate in a workshop, I thought it was a long time to be continuously speaking before an audience. I put together screens in a huge ppt, and at the end, that September afternoon, I ran out of time: I still feel indebted to the attendees, who patiently resisted. But the usual duration seems indeed to be below the hour, so that the content constitutes a kind of pill of knowledge or experience,which is relatively easy to ingest and digest.
As an assistant, I have often met with speakers who told us about their achievements in company training, marketing, people management…, although some failures or errors are also discussed. Success stories - a frequent modality in the presentations - are presented to us as references to consider and perhaps imitate, and here I must also remember that some experts just preach that we do not imitate, but rather innovate (I also heard Ridderstrale in Madrid).
So the presentation of cases constitutes an important part in the conferences that are organized, and this without the experiences being, in general, directly applicable to other organizations.
Sometimes it may seem striking that an expert insists on assuring, orally or in writing, that these or those are the keys to success or failure in a certain area, because things tend to be more complex; but the rapporteur's conviction is normally well received by the audience, who do not interpret the messages to the letter.
When commenting on the level of allegation (from the merely informative or assertive, to the persuasive, if one does not go further) that the speaker adopts, we place ourselves on the cognitive plane; but from the emotional level we can also speak: the speakers can transmit knowledge, but also feelings, enthusiasm and concerns, perhaps in correspondence with their sociocultural profile or their mere personality. It does not seem, for example, that Ohmae, along with his very interesting doses of information, transmits visible feelings, but Peters, Covey, Maguire and other famous speakers do ostensibly; in fact, we see temperate exhibitions and also others that are warmer, more passionate, full of harmony and even complicity with the audience, and this sometimes with some independence from the theses that are defended. MaybeAmong the Japanese and American styles suggested here, there is room for others, including a European one halfway there; but in reality each speaker, like each individual, is unique.
I recently attended, at the Palace hotel in Madrid, a conference by the Uruguayan Carlos Páez, brought by the Altium platform. This survivor of that accident of October 1972 in the Andes Mountains, undoubtedly has a sobering story to tell us (if you can't hear him, read his book After Day Ten) and he does it masterfully.
I was struck by the way he was below it, despite having to tell it in the first person. Carlitos Páez did not appear to us as the protagonist, but as a privileged narrator; not as a bearer of recipes for personal success, but by encouraging our own reflections; not as a spectacle to our eyes and ears, but connecting with our hearts and spirits; not with push messages, but pull. Thinking about my own exhibitions, I ended up learning almost more about his style than his sobering experience (which I already knew to some extent).
There really are different styles. As we have seen, there are notoriously warm speakers in their presentations that do not stop moving and dialogue with the public, and there are also temperate, discreet, still; there are those who bring stories, cases, theories to which they give prominence, and of which they are mere carriers, and there are more charismatic and seductive; there are those that seem to bring valuable formulas, recipes, applicable solutions, and there are those that leave it to the audience to digest the information offered; and there are, of course, intermediate profiles, and perhaps audiences more predisposed to one or the other possibility, and naturally themes that lend themselves more to one or the other style.
But perhaps the most important thing that remains is the degree of contribution to the field of knowledge, or to the development of people: the value of the contribution, the usefulness of the conclusions, whether explicit or implicit. There are ways to better reach the audience and attract their attention and interest, but we would say that the information is more in the funds; that knowledge is extracted from information, when we assign meaning and attribute value to it.
In addition to the cases or experiences, in these calls we meet new doctrines, theories, trends, realities, proposals, findings… Some thinkers show us their solutions, alert us to possible errors, encourage us to question things.
In Spain and Latin America, and although I barely move in the area of Management and Human Resources, we have great thinkers and speakers, often authors of numerous books and articles of high interest. Not everything that is read and heard is highly enriching, but a good part is.
I recently listened, at the Hilton hotel in Buenos Aires (where I also intervened, speaking of intuitive perception), to Lluis Navarro, a Valencian consultant who spoke about the remuneration solutions in the management by objectives, and it seemed correct and opportune to remember the validity of this management system 50 years after its appearance.
There were timely responses to the salary issue, but I especially welcomed joining the DpO, the essence of which seems eternal to me, although it is sometimes difficult to formulate objectives. I bring this memory because there are also thinkers and speakers who seem to question precisely the validity of the DpO. (Prolonging - thus, in parentheses - the previous thought, in Spain we have known in recent years systems that are complementary or alternative to the direction by objectives, defended by their creators and followers in articles, books and conferences; for example, the management by missions, DpM, or management by habits, DpH In a Deloitte & Touche study prepared by Miguel Ángel Alcalá, director general of the International Association for Management Studies, it reads: “The challenges of DpH are two:define what are the habits that suit people, and show the paths to achieve them. In this strict sense, the work consists of the person conquering the truth of himself in his actions, and, in parallel, the full good for himself, with his conduct: living the truth about the good done in each act, and the realization of the good subordinated to the truth about his own being ”).
The reader will understand that I now propose that we attend the conferences (or read the documents) with a receptive and reflective spirit, but also with some dose of critical thinking, to ensure that we understand well what we want to transmit.
We can find ourselves with modest messages in their claims, but intense in their content; ambitious in their formulation, but complicated to interpret; already repeated and known - almost truisms - but valuable and timely; new and impressive, but risky and debatable in its application, etc.
As for the speakers, it is evident that they are because of the valuable information they can transmit to us, and not because of the position they hold or the titles they hold; But it is true that these things are often used as collateral, and so we can find senior managers signing articles in magazines, or as speakers at various events. Let us not rule out, however, that a knowledge worker, an expert in her area, be it technical or non-technical, has something interesting to tell us, as a result of her research, professional reflections, permanent practice of learning and innovation.. Nor should we rule out that valuable reflections in one area are reflected in others by way of connection or abstraction.
Curiously, in the religious school of my daughters, it has been very sobering to hear the conceptionist mothers talk about how important it is, in education, the cultivation of the best that each one has inside, and the attention to that which, if it arises, it must be neutralized.
It should not be new for me, also educated in a religious college, but I saw connection with our efforts (I am a consultant for continuing education) in developing the individual based on the position they occupy, the responsibility they assume, and the needs of the company., and not so much based on their personal strengths (which Martin Seligman talks about in his books) and their best use in professional performance. Aside from being more effective, we are happier when we cultivate our strengths; on the contrary, we are dissatisfied, and perhaps ineffective, when we are required to perform professionally not entirely in accordance with our moral principles, or our talents. Please use this paragraph to remember that we can find very valid messages, even serendipitously (unexpected, casual).
One thing that is well appreciated is the degree of confidence your rapporteur has in what he says, and this is certainly the norm. Whether we are dealing with a case -an experience that is related- of interest, or if what is presented is a new way of seeing things -a theory, a model-, the speakers do it with conviction; not always to convince the audience, but they are convinced of what they say.
Obviously, being convinced of something does not mean that others should be, but it is also obvious that if the speaker (without reaching arrogance) did not seem very sure, the thing would be uncomfortable to bear.
In short, I do not extend my reflections any longer and I end up confessing that, when I saw Tom Peters, I wanted - excuse the audacity of my dreams - to resemble him; now my references are multiple and culturally closer:
Carlos Páez (Uruguayan), José María Quirós (Argentine)…, without forgetting national speakers such as Marina, Huete, Rovira and so many others (excuse me for only mentioning some of those I have met, and who still have so many to meet). In other words, loading more attention on the content and somewhat less on the continent (speaker). There are, of course, myriads of speakers who should be listened to and I have not, but I have also listened to someone very famous, who has come from far away, seeing my expectations frustrated.
I think the leading role should be more in the messages than in the speakers. I say this without being in favor of prescriptions being issued; I prefer that the contents simply contribute to broadening our perspectives or horizons, so that we know how to reach our own, perhaps more focused, conclusions and decisions.
Well, today, although Sunday, I woke up early wanting to write: this is what I had in mind. Now I'm going to wake up my wife, and see where the cat is going, Kitty, who normally comes to step on the keyboard of the laptop to give it a little pampering: today she let me write without interruption. Thanks to the reader for your attention. Do not miss out on interesting lectures, or give up speaking yourself, about what you consider to have advanced significantly and which may be useful to others. Let us contribute, in this way and others, to the Information Society becoming truly the Information and Knowledge Society.
