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The Power of Informal Exchanges
By Woody Huizenga | September 29, 2008
Later this week the Canadian Society of Association Executives holds its AGM in Vancouver. This year, I won’t be going. Nothing to do with the meeting, which I will be sad to miss. It’s just a scheduling issue.
But it got me thinking about why I will miss this conference and, more generally, about the value people get from conferences. That value can be broken into two very broad categories: the things we learn, and the people we meet. While there’s a huge overlap, some of the most important learning takes place not in formal presentations and seminars but in conversations with the people we meet.
Two years ago, in a casual conversation at CSAE’s Edmonton AGM, I picked up a nugget of wisdom that I expect I will find useful for as long as I have anybody working for me. CSAE President Michael Anderson advised me to “walk every corner of your office, every day.”
I don’t remember where Michael said he’d learned this. Maybe from a mentor, or a book, or in a conversation at another conference. But he shared it with me, and I’ve lived by it (and frequently passed it on) over the last two years.
The more clichéd version of Michael’s advice is that you can’t lead from behind a desk. But the point is that if you want the people who work for you to follow your vision and feel your support, you have to share both with them every day.
I know that in ways I may never be able to quantify, that conversation with Michael made me a more effective manager and leader.
And conversations like that are why we must continue to meet.
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