Hudson Institute Learning Conference Summary

Jackie Bayer and I along with approx. 140+ other coaches had a terrific learning experiences during the Annual Hudson Institute Learning Conference in Santa Barbara, CA - what's not to like!

The conference was a cornucopia of learning; I struggled to summarize the following highlights.

Key Note Speakers:
Michael Gelb, author of "How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Everday" and "Brain Power, Improve Your Mind as You Age".
Dr. Cathy L. Royal, author of "The Appreciative Inquiry Fieldbook".
Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener, author of "Positive Psychology Coaching", and "Practicing Positive Psychology Coaching".

Workshops:
Cultural Intelligence and Coaching.
Measuring Business Impact of Coaching.
MBTI & Coaching.
Personal Branding as a Coach.
Improv for Coaches.

Practice Coaching:
Fishbowl
Dyads
Triads

My Key Takeaways:
From Michael Gelb's, Brain Power presentation: Novelty and Challenge enhance our brain; Positive Social and Work Environments create positive brain energy; Sleep Deprivation contributes to accumulated stress; Exercise provides more oxygen to the brain and leads to higher brain activity; the Mind works by Association; Enhance your brain by Spending 15 minutes a day Learning Something New.

From Gelb's Think Like Leonard Da Vinci presentation: Keep a Notebook or Journal of thoughts, plans, actions, accomplishments; Independent Thinking results from testing things out for yourself; Passionate Curiosity drives real change; the person with the most organized nervous system dominates proceedings; Bring Humility to your listening by using your five senses; Optimists are the more likely to be successful; Embrace the unknown and the uncertain; Balance the Body and the Mind; Everything is connected to everything else; First ask yourself, What do I want to do?, then ask, What am I Doing Now?

From Dr. Royal's presentation: Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the people's process in that every voice should be heard and respected; Changing the world happens by impacting those you interact with; First Questions asked of coaching clients are fateful; What you ask you'll find; Once you decide you know the solution for your client, you're part of the problem; AI is a co-creative process to determine the client's "preferred future".

From Dr. Biswas-Diener's presentation: Stengths are a coachee's Sails and Weaknesses affect their buoyancy; Strengths need to be developed then an individual must figure out how best to use them; Help coachees understand the value and the limits of their Strengths; Strengths are "potentials" rather than traits - failure hurts but that's ok, because that's how we learn; Failure should be encouraged (i.e., not feared) because it facilitates and accelerates the learning process; Help coachees create Strengths Vocabulary (i.e., help them name and own their strengths by using words of their choosing rather than necessarily using those listed in Strengths Finder 2.0), for example a coachee adept at solving problems might want to refer to themselves a "solutioner" vs. problem solver - that's ok as long as he/she is clear on why they picked it and what it means for them; Ask coachees what they're looking forward to?, look for observable peaks of emotional energy, i.e., observe their posture, eyes, pace of speech, smile, etc., then continue your questioning based on those observations.

I hope you'll find these highlights helpful in some way.

All The Best,
Bob