I love hearing people’s stories. And stories are great because they help us remember concepts and themes (usually through the emotions they make us feel) and they connect us as humans. And we all need to connect on a human level.
For the past two days, I’ve been at a HR conference in Singapore, the Singapore Talent & Recruitment Show.
I have participated as a panel member and also been a speaker, talking about talent management. This morning before my speaker spot I had a little crisis of confidence. All the other speakers have been very business-like and somewhat formal. I am not either of these things and my planned talk was demonstrating when I had done a good job identifying talent, but also when I had done a completely rubbish job and judged people unfairly! I had crafted some personal stories and was now feeling nervous that they would be judged as unprofessional and possibly inappropriate.
And then I thought bugger it, and went ahead as planned. I got lots of good feedback from the audience during my talk including nodding, smiling and laughing and afterwards many people told me they appreciated the personal stories because they made them reflect on things that had gone wrong for them. Human's after all are flawed and imperfect and it can be hard to remember this while listening to people speak of their amazing achievements during a conference.
I loved hearing their stories over the breaks during the rest of the day.
This is what I’m trying to create on International Women’s Day. An environment where we can make new connections and hear some unique stories that can help us with our journey, whatever that may be. If you haven’t got a ticket please
now. I just know it’s going to be a great day!
International Women’s Day – Singapore Style
Wednesday 8 March
Halia, Singapore Botanical Gardens