One the most impressive things I observed during Inoneweekend, was a father who brought his college age son with him. Roy Gilbert, Global Director of Global Consumer Operations at Google, pointed out the importance of obtaining experience during his talk Friday. The most important asset an executive has is the knowledge; talents, etc. gain through challenging ones self. Unfortunately, it can be a catch 22 situation when it comes to getting an opportunity to challenge ones self. Many times you are required to have experience in order to gain the opportunity to challenge yourself. Without the experience you will not be given the opportunity. In business this is understandable because you hire someone who can fill the requirements of a job. You may not be able to take the risk of hiring someone who may be able to do the job. Events like Inoneweekend, Toastmasters, etc. provide safe ways to obtain experience and expand ones abilities. With toastmasters you can vastly improve your ability to effectively communicate, a very important function in business. With Inoneweekend I found people expanding their understanding of what a startup business is all about.
The other reason I was impressed by the father who brought is son was the mentoring he was providing him. I have worked for major companies most of my adult life. When a job is posted I find generally two types of people applying for the job. The first is someone who has experience doing the job. The second are the ones who believe they can do the job but have little or no real experience. However, there is another important group one never sees. These are the ones who really could do the job but because they lack direct experience will never apply for it. I see these people working at the same job year after year as new people enter the company and are rapidly promoted. The companies need the jobs they are doing performed so no one ever notices the terrible waste of talent. These are the ones who believe that if they just do their jobs will they will be given opportunities for promotion. Unfortunately for them, that is not how the world works. The manager who is hiring may have several people to choose from and will likely pick the person who has some type of experience that proves they can do the job.
This is where mentoring and events like Inoneweekend can become very important. I have seen a few, and I do mean few, companies truly develop talent. They seek events such as Inoneweekend, charitable events, Toastmaster, etc. to use as a means to develop their talent. Such a systematic method, that recognizes and takes advantage of opportunities for development, provide those few companies major advantages. Instead of building a management team of just commanding personalities, they have facilitators, social, and the rare techno in management roles. They do not have to depend on people believing in themselves. The can show people to believe in the talents they have by helping them find safe opportunities to develop those talents. In the year 2008 I know this can be done because I am seeing this take place in an area most people would not believe. There are multi-player on-line games where people who did not think they could do things are finding themselves doing amazing things. I am not talking about killing monster. I am talking about 45 year old house wife’s who are becoming guild masters. Organizing and forming working communities with every bit as much skill a middle level manager in a Fortune 500. If you really follow some of the social networks that are forming you will see incredible talent being demonstrated from the most unlikely people. All these people needed was an opportunity. Many times they did not seek the opportunity; it was thrust upon them due to circumstance.
It cost just one hundred dollars to take part in Inoneweekend. When you compare that to the average of eighty five dollars for a single PDU credit in most business training, the cost is cheap. The father who brought his son was able to give his son some great experience. He was also able to share a great experience with him. Hopefully, I will be able to do the same next year when my son starts college.
