I had the opportunity of a lifetime to speak with Adam Grant as part of ISACA’s Member-Exclusive Speaker Series and it was everything it was billed to be, and more. But this is not about that; this is about more than the mere opportunity to chat with Adam Grant, who with his books and thought leadership, is a towering presence in contemporary management lexicon.
As the session moderator, I had a few minutes to chat with Adam as we went through the tech checks before the session, and Adam’s infectious enthusiasm and energy stood out to me right away. In what can only be described as a freewheeling discussion, Adam spoke not only about his latest book, Hidden Potential, but also shared ideas from his previous books, seamlessly connecting them and sharing his wisdom in bite-sized bits, which we mere mortals might need time to process but were nevertheless worth their weight in gold, or something rarer these days, like lithium.
What really stood out to me was how Adam brought anecdotes and data to the discussion to drive home concepts in an easy-to-understand manner. I have read all of Adam’s books and I thought his latest book, Hidden Potential, was more personal and hence more relatable, making the ideas more accessible. In his book, Adam makes a pithy observation about talent being evenly distributed, but not opportunity, which stood out to me— especially when I look at it from my role on the ISACA Foundation board as we navigate the tech world, trying to make it more accessible and opening opportunities related to technology worldwide. But without letting the cat out of the bag, here are three key takeaways that I thought might be useful to all of us:
- Since we all need to be lifelong learners, we need to make learning fun and easy for this life of learning to work. Adam suggested we use deliberate play to make what we are learning interesting and fun and, of course, stick better.
- To improve, we need to seek input from those around us, and it is better to ask for advice that can help us perform better in the future, rather than feedback that often can be backward-looking.
- To surface ideas and innovate, it is better to structure organizations as a lattice instead of a ladder, where one no could kill a product or an idea.
But of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Adam talked about a wide range of other ideas that could be interesting to you in what promises to be the best one hour of idea-dense time you can possibly spend. If you have not already listened to this member-exclusive event, you can still do so by registering for it here and watching it by 8 November.
The free Member-Exclusive Speaker Series is one of the top benefits of ISACA membership. More information on this program can be found here. I am looking forward to the next Member-Exclusive Speaker Series—The Art of Confidence on 20 November 2024, when we get to hear from Meggie Palmer. You can register for the session here and you can renew your ISACA membership here to continue to enjoy these and other benefits. If you are not a member yet, become a member today.
