I may not have ever completed a runner’s marathon, but I think they (whoever they are) should give out conference medals for marathon thinking sessions. Today ran from 7:10 am until 12:10 am. The conversations spilled from breakfast to sessions to lunch to sessions to pre-dinner group contemplations to dinner to after-dinner presentations (two for me tonight, Path to Success and Motivation Mapping) to post-presentation conversations in two different locations.
The two day upgrade portion of the conference is over and the two days of speakers is set to begin in a few short hours. Though this year’s program lost its founder and leader, Eli Goldratt, the conference coordinators did his memory proud by carrying forward all the content that Goldratt spent his last days creating.
For those passionate about driving change, you’ll be happy to note that Goldratt built our work into his latest expansions of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) cannon when he offered the fourth Engine of Disharmony: Inertia. So far inertia lacks an agreed upon operational definition, but I’m offering one as: the tendency of the people of an organization to continue to do what they did yesterday, even if that fails to produce any outcomes they prefer, because that is the way it is done “by the book,” or “like we’ve always done it.”
I’m excited to attend the presentations tomorrow and give my presentation on Thursday. I thought, when I sent my presentation abstract in January, that the TOC cannon was ready for driving change. The past two days have made me more confident in that thought. I’ll keep you posted on the great presentations over the next few days and let you know how mine goes at the end of Thursday.
If today was a marathon, perhaps this conference is an ultra marathon (100 mile race). There should be a finishers medal for that.
Thanks for sharing your experience, April. I really wish I could have been there this year. I’m sure it is something incredibly special.
Tell Steve Holt ‘Hi’ and that we can’t wait for his report too.