While watching this eight-minute talk by John Cacioppo on economics and social behavior I couldn’t help think of the Oracle user groups I’ve come to know in the past year.
“Bringing experts together isn’t sufficient,” say Cacioppo. Real progress is made “when you foster a deeper connection” between people with different experiences.
Here, for me, is the heart of his talk:
After you spend quality time with people at an event -- walking together, eating together -- you stop saying, “this is what I know,” and you start to actually know and like people and want to understand more about their perspective. Now you can start taking advantage of the knowledge that is unique to each person, not just the common knowledge of the group. That’s when growth happens. Curiosity wins out. You come to much better, deeper, more playful decisions.”
2 comments:
This is so true. I think that one of the unfortunate consequences of this economic downturn is that people have fewer opportunities to get together in the way you are describing. It is hard work to make and maintain these connections. Attending user group functions is the best way to do that (e.g. the Alliance Conference next month! http://www.heug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=101 -- sorry for the shameless plug). Thanks for the great post and for your user group evangelism.
As I write the column over the coming year, I'll guage if there are indeed fewer attendees at these events. The last two events I attended/discussed with column interviewees met their attendance goals.
The Alliance Conference looks like a real happening. Let's keep in touch about a future column.
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