New ideas

I’m at a conference in Chicago. It’s the first time I’ve attended this conference, and I’ve been looking forward to it since registering. The topic is … Lean Kanban.  Yes, really.  I will explain more on that in a later post. I’m still trying to figure it out, actually.

 

The best part of the conference isn’t really the conference.

 

Like all conferences, there are good and bad presenters, fascinating and dull topics, and networking with some cool people. The part I’m enjoying most, though, is the time to think.  It’s unusual to have a week where I don’t have five nearly-full days of meetings, deadlines and conference calls.  Granted, I arrive at the conference at 7:45 and leave around 6, but it’s a different kind of demand.  For example, two sessions this afternoon weren’t interesting to me, so read some articles on my reading list. (Also, I skipped lunch and ran along the lakefront.)

 

Dinner was spent discussing a potential new model we could use for process improvement that isn’t based on process, but instead is based on supporting the needs people.  We spent a couple of hours talking about Maslow, Immelman, Parry, organization change, Kotter, culture, various survey techniques, research projects, kanban principles, CMMI and PeopleCMM, Human Resources, performance management and many other related topics.  The conversation and its potential outcome was interesting, even exciting, but the thoughts in my head on the way back to the hotel were more about the big-project-new-idea mindset that was reopening.  I used to do this a lot as a recent college graduate, as a new manager, as a grad student in a MBA program, but these muscles felt a little unused.  I miss it.  I miss the rush of reading FastCompany and wanting to experiment on some work project.  I’m not saying the sensation was felt for the first time tonight – I just really noticed the sensation and its newness. 

 

It’s a good feeling and a great way to end the day.