If you attended the 2019 Great Place To Work For All Summit, you may have noticed Alece Birnbach, a skilled visual note-taker, sketching the powerful stories and messages shared on our main stage and in select focus sessions.
Turning Ideas into Images in Real Time
If you didn't see her in action, her process is fascinating (and a little bit magic). She listens closely to each speaker and captures the big ideas or points of emphasis in real time. Alece then jots down ideas about topics on a small sticky note that she moves across the sheet as she draws. Most ideas also get a graphic – a bus, a room, a green streetlight - to tell the story of how companies can drive innovation, for example. Each idea gets written down in a different color and style. Then she goes back with colored chalk to shade and emphasize particular points.
5 Big Ideas from Summit 2019
So what were the ideas Alece captured? She summarized her takeaways:
"What makes a great place to work for everyone?
- Communication is the #1 skill in demand right now. This speaks directly to engagement, soft skills and relationship building. Which incidentally are all things computers can’t do.
- Culture drives innovation. A culture where senior leaders not only listen to everyone’s ideas, but actually do something with them is a culture with people who are passionate about their jobs.
- Inclusion means having a sense of belonging; feeling comfortable knowing you have a right to be who you are and think the way you think. Without inclusion diversity is meaningless.
- Diversity is a competitive advantage. Teams diverse in age, gender, ethnicity, and skill come up with better ideas. Better ideas lead to innovation, and innovation leads to financial success.
- Trust means employees know they can speak up, contribute their ideas, and feel safe to fail. Trust is the key to all of the above.
The world may be changing faster than we are, but companies that create a great place to work for all are not only keeping up, they’re getting ahead."
Now that a few months have passed, the presentations you saw might be harder to recall. So to jog your memory, catch the keynote replays and follow along with the sketches on topics such as Diversity & Inclusion, Leadership, Innovation By All, and the future of work, just to name a few.
Feel free to download these beauties, share them on social media or print them out and hang them in your office for the old-school touch. We hope they remind you of the great content and inspiring stories that were shared. And don't miss your chance to see Alece in action at our next Summit.
