An ACE first day

Day one reflections from #CIPDACE

This isn't a sophisticated blog, but when there's so much to tie together and so much going in my head, I find it helpful to put down some summary thoughts down writing*

Here are three clusters of thought...

My first reflection actually isn't about the conference itself, but rather about the 'how you show up' attitude I see at conferences.
People come for so many reasons - to learn from others, to engage with others, to stretch themselves, to check out providers and to have some headspace. They come from far and wide. And whilst that's great, it does make me wonder how much we more we should be doing to create the vibe outside of such events, how we 'show up' in our day-to-day and what we can about those people who are in our teams who don't feel the positive profession vibe (that sometimes being the why they don't leave the office to experience this).

Secondly, casting my mind back to this morning, I'm also pleased that I've been able to carry the content of the keynote on 'Trust' with me. It really has permeated my thinking today. In fact in the summary of the two main sessions I attendee, we today, it is clear that learning to let go and trust is pretty key to the now and the future of work. For example need to trust people to be self-directed learners, we need to trust people to development others and we need to trust people to self-manage and self-assess rather than force them into classrooms or appraisals.

And finally, along with trust, another overarching thought that keeps coming through for me is the importance of knowing and doing what works for your business. In other words: Context. What works for one place doesn't work for others. But, lets not ignore that the issues are really consistent which is why most of us rock up and hear similar themes in sessions at similar events over what has been a significant period of time.

None of this is big news. None of this is rocket science. And yet, here we are again. Because whilst it all makes sense, it's not enough to hear this it's how it translates for real. And it's not as simple as it sounds or why aren't we all doing it.

What is easy (and right) is feeling personally uplifted by what's possible for the profession when you attend ACE, and I am hopeful for what's coming next (starting with tomorrow).
I believe that those people I've engaged with today will be passionately sharing when they get back to their clients and companies. I look forward to how the new profession map will continue to professionalise us. And I trust that those of us here will really hear and benefit from the messages we're hearing.
But, the most important thing for me is to how we translate this mood in a sustained way in a wider space.

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Same again(-ish) tomorrow? See you then!

Denise.

*Other truths: I also need to write to justify my time here and the CIPDs trust in me, and to support my fellow blog-squadders who you really should check out!