Where do you get REAL with your peers?

Innovation Storytelling takes me to some amazing spaces and places. Rooms with brilliant people. Last week, I was in beautiful, sunny Santa Monica. It’s a true gift to escape the NYC snow and find myself 5 hours later in front of a plate of perfect tacos while staring at the Pacific Ocean.

I was invited to speak at a unique event with the following mission: create a conversation around Innovation Storytelling with 20+ CTOs and CIOs in a private dining room at a sumptuous steakhouse. A first for me. How do you keep the conversation going, teach something meaningful and ensure that listeners take real value back to the office, once the 7 layer chocolate cake disappears. 

I was a little nervous.

This event and the vibe just hit differently. Intimate. Vulnerable. Smarter than most. And so welcoming. CXO/RISE members made it easy. With Chatham House Rules in place [“What happens here stays here”], they were honestly sharing their triumphs and trials, especially around AI. As I’ve heard in so many rooms this year, CEOs and the board are demanding ROI from their million dollar AI investments and middle managers and teams terrified of losing their jobs to robots or simply not keeping up. Everyone seems to feel a FOMO that none of us are doing enough.

Those rooms are some of my favorite spaces to share #InnovationStorytelling, because I know that the next right step for both of these dilemmas – communicating up or down- is to tell a better story to their listeners, with empathy, vision and the opportunity to co-create the future, that’s neither obtuse nor distressing. 

We stayed until 10pm telling stories and sharing experiences that deeply mattered. 

I speak at peer-to-peer groups like CXO/Rise, SIM, ILO, Innov8rs, and others [share them!]. I highly recommend it as a space to get raw and honest. 

Leaders, if you haven’t figured out your AI story yet, or how to tell it, now is the time. People are so thirsty for a clear vision of the future and how it effects their lives. Let me help you  share your breakthroughs, unblock the roadblocks, and generate real momentum and buy-in from the people around you. Thanks Bryan Muehlberger for having me in Santa Monica. I had my medium rare filet mignon the next day and it was perfect!