I went to my first Legal Geek conference last week in London and thought I share a bit of my experience and key takeaways:
- My personal highlight was the "creating a winning mindset" session with Maggie Alphonsi. Her story is the most inspiring way on how to develop leadership skills and create a mindset that enables you to be the best you can be, as well as how to get the best out for others. Key takeaways were goal-setting, the importance of resilience and persistence, plus the need to step out of your comfort zone.
- "Why listening to customers is a bad idea" by Leena Pankhania and Rae Morgan turned conventional wisdom upside down. We have heard numerous times of how important it is to listen to the customer when developing new products, but how does this sit with Henry Ford's statement "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." The key lesson was to listen and watch how customers behave, not just what they tell you.
- Mental health, and more generally well-being, remains an ever an important topic. Although we are experiencing a move from stigmatization to awareness and the offering of help, there still remains a lot to be done. I found the session by Haley Altman on the "badges of honor" quite eye-opening. We are still celebrating painful work experiences, rather than avoiding them which leads to mental health issues and poor retention rates. There is a lot of work to be done when creating the right culture, and I think there is a part we can all play - as individuals, as colleagues, and as leaders.
- Sustainability was a huge point during the conference, which I highlighted in my earlier post. Compared to other conferences where you end up with massive amounts of brochures, papers, and other "stuff", I found that the only thing I took was a sticker for my laptop - happy to report that I did not miss the SWAG at all. Rather than "things" there was very much a focus on experience, and I very much enjoyed the "Sustainability with LEGO" workshop - my first experience with LEGO serious play (hopefully not my last!).
All in all, it really was a fantastic conference and a brilliant opportunity to engage with wider networks and friends. I'm looking forward to next year's Legal Geek conference already.
... now I am off to put all these learnings into place.
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