First of all, my hats off and a big thank you to the HRevolution founders, committee members, and the sponsors for a tremendous event. It has been a few days since 130+ passionate HR pro’s, vendors, and consultants took over the Windy City at HRevolution. In that short period of time, there have been many great blog posts on the weekend’s events by Lance Haun, Victorio Milian, Trisha McFarlane, Ben Eubanks, Steve Boese, Charee Klimek, Bill Boorman, John Nykolaiszyn, Mike Vandervort, Kevin Grossman…just to a name a few. So, does the world really need one more blog post, one more perspective, one more voice on HRevolution?
Absolutely – this is what HRevolution is all about. Sharing perspectives, candid dialogue, and diversity of thought all focused on building a re-thinking the future of HR. In that spirit, I wanted to share what I believed worked, what didn’t, and what the future holds.
What Worked –
Honestly, there is a lot that really worked about HRevolution, but these three really stuck out in my mind…
The People – Hands down the big draw was meeting, interacting, and getting to know so many new people who share a passion for taking HR to the next level and social media.
The Location & Logistics - The event committee nailed this one cold. Not only was Chicago the perfect back-drop to the event, but our hotel ”The Wit” was hip, and the Catalyst Ranch couldn’t have been a better choice to host an “unconference.” But, they didn’t stop there as the #Monstersocial rocked, the SHRM bus was on time, and the popcorn (and food) was way above average.
Big Ideas- In only it’s second time to bat, HRevolution didn’t hold back by tackling some big topics, challenges, and opportunities for HR. I think I speak for all who attended that the facilitators who prepared each session made it their personal mission to push our thinking. Thanks for leading the charge.
What Didn’t –
One of my favorite quotes is ”Feedback is the breakfast of champions,” and so the following comments are with the simple intention of making HRevolution even better next year.
Facilitation of Sessions- The idea of an “unconference” is that the faciliators pose a few questions or a distinct point of view and then faciliate a group discussion that lets the group take the conversation where ever they want it to go. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen as often as I would have liked. What I frequently saw where sessions that turned into real life “tweets” where a perspective would be shared, then another, then another…without taking the time to stop and understand what that person was truly saying.
At times, the discussions felt much like the old analogy of ”8 blind men and the elephant” all touching a part of an elephant, but none believing that they were. What would have helped is if some of the facilitators would have seen their role as paraphrasing perspectives, drawing people out, and summarizing ideas, instead of, pushing their perspectives and being provocative just to be provocative. A suggestion for next year – focus on three/four key questions for each session…keep us laser-focused, more small group/table discussions, more large group report outs, and maybe even a few more flip charts.
More Formal Networking- One of the comments I heard as we walked in on Saturday morning was that at the first HRevolution they started the day by doing quick introductions, but the group was too big this year…too bad. We missed an opportunity to build an ever bigger sense of community, to make it even easier to open a conversation later in the day, and to make this event that much more different, better, and human than the typical conference. Next year I would like to see us spend more time, get more creative and push ourselves to connect with all who attend.
What the Future Holds- while no one can predict the future, there is no doubt in mind that the HR community known as HRevolution will grow in influence, scope, and impact over the next few years. But that growth and future promise is dependent on each of us contributing our voice, building new relationships, and pushing ourselves beyond our current thinking and boundaries. Here’s to the next HRevolution (how about Hawaii?).
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post!
I agree with your assessment. The people, venues, and food were way beyond my expectations. Congrats (again!) to the organizing committee. Their hard work really paid off and we were thrille to be part of #HRevolution.
I’m interested in exploring the idea of stronger facilitation. In some senses, this is the problem of non-managers being promoted to management roles based on their other skills. The so-called ‘unconference’ model (starting with the first Barcamp in 2005) calls on the people formerly known as ‘the audience’ to step forward and organize themselves. Typically this means that there’s no set agenda going into the event and the day kicks off with a session to plan the other sessions. Participants step up and put themselves into the schedule grid until it’s full, dynamically combining related topics, moving sessions to better fit the physical space or avoid theme conflicts, etc. Because no one is expected to be a professional (or even qualified!) facilitator, participants are expected to be involved at every level from listener to co-facilitator and to put in an effort whenever they see something that needs doing. They’re also expected to ‘vote with their feet’, leaving sessions that aren’t working for them to find ones that are.
I felt a strong sense of community at the event — lots of connections made online strengthened in person — but not the sense that people felt the freedom to either promote themselves into co-facilitator roles or to truly take advantage of the space and form breakout sessions not on the ‘official’ schedule. Don’t take this as a criticism — it was a fantastic event and I’m proud to have been part of the birth of a movement toward meaningful work. Maybe next year we can focus on putting a little more of the UN into the unconference and address some of these concerns.
Not sure if we actually had a chance to chat on Saturday but it was awesome meeting you! Looking forward to the online discussion and to next year’s Hawaiin Luau
Hey, JP! It was great meeting you last weekend. I’m still working on a “real” follow up, but I agree w/your points (especially the “what didn’t work” ones). Smaller groups, fewer people, and more connection time are all points I’m planning to make in my own post.
Thanks for the great feedback!
Agree with you. More time for networking is essential. I got to meet every personally at the last and this time around I missed great people like you! As far as the facilitators as someone who has led a number of these sessions and I host my own unconference, you never know what to expect. A lot depends on the facilitator and perhaps we should provide a how-to to get the conversation started. But mostly, the session is led by the audience and I will say that the session that I co-facilitated ended up in a completely different place than originally was intensions but you’ve got to give the people what they want. It was still a great session, we had awesome conversations, and learned a lot about ourselves and eachother which is the point of an unconference.
Good insight and I’m already looking forward to the next!
Jessica
@blogging4jobs
JP,
Excellent post!! Love your ideas – nicely recapped. Especially like your point on facilitation of sessions and how to draw people out and into the discussion – less push and more pull. As a facilitator I admit, this was a challenge and appreciate the advice you give here. Great take aways!
~Charee
I agree as well, especially your comments about networking. While I feel I’m already “networked” with most, if not all, HRevolutionaries, it would’ve been nice to have more time for face to face networking. There were many times throughout the weekend where I looked at someone and remarked to myself that I really had no idea who that person was, despite having spent the better part of a 24-hour period with them.
I’m interested to see how we all put the lessons learned to good use.
Great meeting and talking to you, and I’m looking forward to more collaborations.
Guys – I appreciate the comments and additional insights…
@Jay – Glad we are on the same page on the importance of facilitation, I think we can do some quick tips to get people moving in the right direction. Sorry we didn’t meet in person, so let’s plan on it next year.
@Ben – Great event again, you have to proud with what you and Trisha have created
@Jessica – it sounds like you had an excellent facilitator in one of your sessions that let the group do it’s thing, but like you said that depends on experience.
@Charee – all I can say is excellent vlog post yesterday!
@Jonathan – I agree, networking is key and one of the main reasons I attended this year. Let’s make sure it gets on the agenda next year in a more formal way.