As meeting planners, you live in a world that demands certainty. A great location combined with the perfect venue. An engaging agenda with fantastic speakers and thoughtful ways for people to connect, unwind, and recharge. Seamless and engaging AV, creative cuisine, and just the right amount of time to achieve all your objectives. Do this and you’re a rockstar. But if something doesn’t go quite right, everyone seems to notice.
Against this backdrop of “certainty,” I’d like to suggest a rather counterintuitive idea that should be important to folks who play such a vital role in stretching the thinking of audiences. And such a vital role in giving them the insights, tools, energy, and inspiration to grow, remain relevant, and make a difference in the world as soon as the meeting is over.
It’s an idea at the heart of my new book The Wisdom of Ignorance and at the heart of my work on innovation with more than 400 companies, organizations and audiences around the world.
Read More About The Book: Smart Reads: The Curiosity Advantage
It turns out the more you know about something, the less likely you are to create a breakthrough or do something remarkable. Expertise is typically about improving things.
And the less you know about something, the more likely you are to approach it with fresh eyes and the sense that anything is possible. Think about Uber, Airbnb, Southwest Airlines, Spanx, IKEA and Velcro to name just a few examples. All started by folks who knew practically nothing about the industries they would end up disrupting. And these are just business examples, the wisdom of not knowing stuff is written all over innovations in every walk of life. But it is an idea that flies in the face of what most of us think about meetings and the value of expertise. It also flies in the face of how most of us think innovation happens and our quest for certainty in an uncertain world.
But let’s think about it. We live in a fast-changing world and what we know today isn’t likely to be what we need to know in the future. Yes, expertise is important, but we shouldn’t rely on it exclusively when we need to be creative. Or when we need to be different and more valuable. In these cases, which is the new reality for all of us, we need fresh ideas to rise above the noise of all our internal and external slide decks on leadership, strategy, creativity, belonging, customer service, technology, or even AI. Yes, they are hot topics. But they won’t be the same five years from now.
And neither will meetings.
Which suggests changing the conversations we spark. Planting new seeds. And inspiring the people we serve to leave our events with more than a few ideas and a few “aha” moments. Instead, we need to help them to ask important questions, imagine what it means to be remarkable, and think in new ways that make them better prepared to engage an uncertain world head on.
It turns out there is a straightforward formula for doing exactly this…a formula that relies on six essential skills.
1. Purpose—We need all our sponsors and our attendees to be purposeful when they gather. This means having a compelling reason to get together that is deliberate and focused on where the world is going, not the world we live in today. A purpose rooted in getting someplace new, not just patting ourselves on the back for where we are already. Sure, we can have a sales conference, an HR gathering, a marketing and communications event, or a senior leadership “retreat.” But our purpose should reflect our essential desire to learn, think, wonder, and matter in the future.
Read More: Blueprints for Belonging: Designing Events with Purpose, Emotion and Impact
2. Curiosity—The skill we were born with and that has guided innovation since the beginning of time. But somewhere between the school bus and our meeting most people lost the knack for exploring, put things together in new ways, and asking “What if?” as a matter of course. What would happen if meetings challenged people to be curious about the things that will matter most?
3. Humility—The skill of acknowledging that we don’t know everything and that not knowing is a good thing if it motivates us to figure out new and better ways to be impactful. And if it challenges us to have different conversations with our sponsors and audiences that lead to meetings that move everyone forward.
4. Respect—In an uncertain world, ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere and we all need to be open to new people, new perspectives, and trying new things. It is one of the reasons why events, especially when they are in new places or bring together a wide range of people, are so potentially valuable!
5. Future-Focus—The task for all of us is not to get by in the present but to pay attention to where the future is going and create the ability to invent it. This simple notion should be part of the “minimum daily adult vitamin requirement” for all meetings!
6. Paranoia—Okay, most of us don’t think of paranoia as a desirable skill to master. In fact, most of us view it as something that requires therapy. But we should all get better at paying attention to the people and ideas that are gaining on us. And we should channel our concern into action by getting several steps ahead in our meetings and whatever we do.
Think of “not knowing” as a superpower and you will change the world of meeting, gathering, thinking, and making a difference for everyone you work with. Too many meetings are tired at a time when we need them to matter!
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Alan Gregerman is president of Venture Works Inc., the author of four award-winning and bestselling books, community volunteer, and highly sought after speaker and teacher on innovation and the remarkable power of taking a fresh look at the things that matter most.
