My top 5 moments from #SXSWi
As I write this, I’m 30,000 feet above sea level, somewhere over the middle of the US, making the two hour flight back from Austin to Chicago. And it’s safe to say, I’ve got the post SXSWi Blues. I’m tired, my voice is gone, and I’ll probably be getting a cold, but my brain is full, my imagination is stoked & my mental energy is high.
As I read through my notes, I thought I’d share some of my favorite moments from the last few days. I’m an erratic note taker, so some of the below might not be word for word, but the sentiment will be there. If anyone has any recommended corrections or updates please let me know in the comments!
In no particular order:
1. Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud (on gender equality in Saudi Arabia)
Gender equality in tech is quite rightly a hot topic (just ask Eric Schmidt) but hearing about the conditions for working women in Saudi Arabia did shine a light on the progress that needs to be made outside of our (often insulated) tech industry.
Princess Reema shared that until as recently as a few years ago, women could not legally work in Saudi Arabia. When the laws changed to allow women to work, they then had to deal with other issues (such as the inability for women to drive, the fact that the majority of women did not have a bank account with which to receive their pay, the fact that most had not been taught basic work skills (such as emailing,) and the weight of family expectations — especially from their husband’s family — around the traditional expectations for women in Saudi Arabia) for which Princess Reema had to create programs in order to bring local women up to speed and get them performing as highly functional members of the country’s workforce.
Such an inspiring talk, from someone with a unique & worldly understanding of gender (in)equality.
2. Jack Welch (on ‘what he was afraid of’)
I’ve got a soft spot for vulnerability, and to see such a strong leader open himself up so emotionally on stage was incredibly impactful & rare. It all came about as a result of Jack being asked ‘what he was afraid of’, from a business perspective.
Jack’s answer was that as the lead of GE, he went to bed every night thinking about the thousands of employees in his company who held GE stock. He described it as ‘like a millstone around his neck’ and said he’d never known a pressure like it — especially on days when the stock had taken a turn for the worse. He talked about families futures being invested in the performance of the stock and how the happiest moments of his career were often getting reports on a Friday of which employees had cashed out on their stock options.
Maybe not a deep insight or learning moment, but an incredibly raw & human sentiment from such a strong & respected business leader. I know the crowd certainly appreciated him sharing insight into the pressure that the leaders of our respected companies have to live with daily.
3. Daniel Pink (on ‘driving behavioral change’)
In what was probably my favorite session from a purely ‘what have I learnt, that I can execute upon’ basis, Daniel Pink shared 7 tactics for how to drive behavioral change. I’m not going to share them all, as all need the stories & experiments behind them to make sense, but there was one — on using fear to change behavior — that really struck me.
Too often, we rely on fear to drive behavioral change. Daniel shared the insight that fear can be an incredibly powerful mechanism for driving behavior change, but only when geared towards a very specific (executional) behavioral change. You can’t use fear to make someone think a different way, or to do anything conceptual, abstract or strategic, but you can use it to specifically change a very particular way of doing things.
Daniel shared that negative emotions (a result of fear) narrow our focus, almost like putting blinders on. He used the example of escaping a burning building — no one is thinking about anything other than getting out of the building. This is useful, as there is a need, but if you tried to have them focus on something bigger picture — as the fire alarm was going off — they wouldn’t be able to expand their focus. He shared an experiment related to getting people to listen to the ‘pre-flight safety instructions’ delivered before every flight. By introducing fear to the announcement (such as ‘you are 40% more likely to die in an accident if you don’t know what to do in an emergency situation’) they were able to dramatically increase both the attention of the passengers, and the time it took to evacuate an aircraft (in a JetBlue university simulator aircraft.)
Daniel also went further into the narrow focus idea, saying that you could use it in the ‘if we don’t get three more sales by Friday, we’ll be out of business’ way (and you’ll likely increase your chances of getting those sales) but no in the ‘if we don’t create a new product by Friday, we’ll be out of business’ way (as the narrowed focus makes bigger thinking shut down, not wake up)
He mentioned that he was working on a TV show over the last year or so. It’s called ‘Crowd Control’ — I’ll definitely be checking it out.
4. Gary Vaynerchuk (on ‘how to be a better business leader’)
The Gary Vaynerchuk & Jack Welch session was an hour of pure awesomeness, but the response from Gary when asked about final advice to being a better business leader was one of my SXSW highlights.
“Self Awareness & Empathy. Or put more simply, stop bullshitting yourself &give a shit about other people”
It’s a relatively easy to understand quote — delivered in a typical Gary Vee way — which doesn’t need much further explanation. Two great skill sets to think about & develop. (Side not, Gary also mentioned that these are primary traits he looks for when hiring — which isn’t a huge surprise.)
5. The Flaming Lips (on life, love & blowing my mind)
I thought about keeping this serious and leaving this event out, but it was such a good show & as such that was impossible. I’ve only see The Flaming Lips once before, and that was outdoors, so seeing them in a smaller venue, and with all of their trademark audio visual additions (huge screens, balloons, confetti cannons, dancing rainbows, etc.) it really was a treat for all of my senses.
Well worth seeing them whenever you get the chance.
See you next year, Austin.
