I?d like to start with one word ? WOW!! It?s wonderful to be surrounded by so many professionals willing and able to present solutions to just about any problem faced by a chapter ? large or small. I hope more of us can attend future conferences.

Our keynote speaker this morning, Hyrum Smith from Franklin Covey, offered a simple way to clarify our values; corporate or personal. He told us to think about what would make us run across an ?I? beam stretched across the Grand Canyon, even on a rainy and windy day. His example was money - $1MIL. Most said no, they wouldn?t risk it. Then he changed the example to a child and the answer changed to yes. He pointed out that the child was what we valued more than money, so we should be putting the child first. He then challenged us to write clarifying statements for each of the values we identified.

The session presented by Joseph Genny, author of Crucial Conversations, pointed out that many supervisors and managers do not have Crucial Conversations with their bosses, peers, and direct reports, which ultimately resulted in poor performance. He stated that 44% of employees reported that they work just hard enough to not get fired and that 25% reported that they could work more effectively. This lack of effectiveness can be contributed to missed or mishandled Crucial Conversations to change inappropriate behaviors and unmet expectations.

The principles and ideas shared during my first two days here can apply to all organizations and I?m looking forward to sharing everything when I return.