Why Conferences on Business Process and Improvement May Not be Worth Spending Your Time on?

Most of the conferences on the subject of business process and improvement sound like one and the same.

They try to rehash the same old wine in new bottles but miserably fail at the same.

You have the key note speakers who speak the same stuff in a more flowery language.

They are paid to speak well on anything and everything and most of them do a pretty good job at that.

They are more like paid actors than the believers in business process and improvement philosophies.

Simple, old things are made to sound like new gems of wisdom.

Some of the speakers cover the mechanics of the context for that particular conference.

Suppose the conference is on "How to make your business agile in an ever changing world using XYZ framework?".

So some of the speakers will touch upon the nuts and bolts to do with the XYZ framework.

Some of them may even narrate case studies related to their experience in adopting and using the XYX framework.

And then the funny things start happening.

Almost all of them, invariably, talk of the same set of challenges at the core of their talks and presentations.

The same things that we know since decades and centuries.

The indiscriminate and unconsidered use of certain terms and phrases by most of the speakers has become a part of the SOP for talks at such conferences as it makes the speakers sound knowledgeable and very wise.

Here are some such terms and phrases:

• Transformation - this is big word which has been around since ages. Radical changes or transformations have been at the root of the how the world around us has evolved since the time of the invention of the wheel.
• Disruption - doing something out-of-box is not anything new. In any period in the history of human civilization there have many cases of disruption, which one may think of as very commonplace and trivial today.
• Innovation - doing something in a significantly better or refined way is something that has been going on since times immemorial. These are essentially improvements of a higher order and the world is full of umpteen examples of innovations from the day one a human being has been there on this planet.
• Disruptive innovation - this is nothing but verbal jugglery and the modern-day management gurus are experts at this. There is not much to understand here if you know what disruption means and what innovations means.
• Change management - a big phrase indeed. Applied to the context of bringing in any enterprise-wide change in the organization, it is nothing but cultural transformation.
• Self awareness - again this has been around there since the first human being that lived on the planet. Human beings have the ability to become aware of where they need to improve and can gradually learn and become better at that.
• Collaboration - another high-sounding term for teamwork. No man or woman is an island and needs to work with others to get things done. Who the hell doesn't know that?
• Value addition - this has been there and we know that quite well, the term "value for money" tells clearly what this exactly means. When you do something as an organization you expect to make money from that and people pay for it when they see it adding some sort of value.
• The pace of change in the world is accelerating - we have been hearing this thing in every second article and every second interview and there is nothing new here in any sense. The pace of change will increase as a natural result of the changes before that since there are more things and hence more possibilities for things to change.
• The new normal now is volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity - this is the most funny of the statements you will hear since there was no time when this was not happening. Even for those who lived in the stone age, survival was hard and the world was full of  volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
• You need to own and drive your own career development and growth - when was this not true? Those who have gone to the very top of their careers have usually being propelled by an intense internal desire and passion to reach the top. 

The good part is that at most of the conferences, there is some level of treatment of the context related to the XYZ framework, though it may involve use of some gobbledygook which may have limited relevance for most of those present at the conference.

Not only the above, and to make it even more funny, in the end every talk eventually ends up with the same set of silly conclusions.

All of them bring up the standard list of laundry items and common asks required to make the XYZ framework work.

These items are common across the board, no matter which that XYZ framework is and in fact even if it happens to be any other damn thing you want to get done in an organization.

Here are those common asks:

• Top leadership commitment
• This is quite interesting insight from the "key notes". 
• Is there literally anything that will be allowed to happen in an organization without this
• For anything to happen in an organization you will need sponsorship, direction, approvals, funds for staffing, competency development and resources.
• That has been always been true.
• Organizational culture
• Another trivial insight related to reporting structure, roles and responsibilities, commitment, accountability, ownership, empowerment, motivation, engagement and blah, blah, blah. 
• And is this an insight at all, who doesn't really know that this is important? 
• Culture change is always hard and change management is essentially intertwined with cultural transformation.
• People receptivity and resistance
• Another obvious insight that gets thrown at the attendees at the conferences. 
• Is there anyone in any conference who doesn't know about is? 
• An organization is a set of people connected through some structure and rules. 
• This has been always been the case that change in the organization means change in the people working for the organization.
• In fact, the point above on organizational culture is highly related to this point and the reason for that is people influence the organizational culture as much as the organizational culture influences the people working in that organization
• Everything starts with the "I"
• This is another classic point in example for why conferences don't add much real value.
• Changes always starts with the individual, who doesn't know that?
• The whole idea of self-awareness and self-development is not at all new.
• Since ages, thoughts like finding the meaning of life, purpose of life, self-actualization, etc. have very much been there.

Sadly, in many conferences, many times the invited talks by some of the so called "experts" in that XYZ framework dish out exactly the above points.

The language used may be different and more flowery though.

It is all staged or acted out to create the right impact.

There is nothing original about it.

There is nothing really thought- provoking in what you hear from the invited key note speakers.

What you get to see is some colorful picture or table made by the speaker in one of his own books, typically a book you have never heard of.

They re-assemble the old ideas in a newer format and claim to be original thought leaders.

Think about the above.

And also think why conferences on business process and improvement may not be worth spending your time on if you want to learn something new and original.

However, these events are undoubtedly an excellent forum from professional network building point of view.

If you go with the above thought in  my your mind, you will not be disappointed.

For better network building, it is also a good idea to keep on asking couple of questions when you attend a conference so that you get noticed.

Better still, become part of a panel discussion, or take up a speaker slot, if it comes by.

And the best, the icing on the cake, is to become a key note speaker for delivering an invited talk.

And why is that the best?

First, you get the chance to dish out and peddle your stuff.

You need to speak about the same age-old and universal principles but in your own language,

And you would need to learn to use the flowery method of delivering a talk so that you also sound like an exert.

After all, those who have paid to attend the conference deserve some bang from the bucks they have spent on the conference fees.

Also the side benefit, you will need to start writing a book.

This would essentially mean you should be able to re-assemble the old ideas in a newer format and claim to be an original thought leader like others of the ilk.

Say that emphatically that you are working on a book when you give your talk.

You don't have to finish it though.

Don't worry, no one is going to check with you about the book after wards.

And yes, the book should include some colorful picture or table.

The other good thing is you will be paid for the talk, not for the book though.

So are conferences on business process and improvement worth spending your time on if you want to learn something new and original?

Think about the that when the next conference on business process and improvement comes up.

That will help.

Going is not a bad idea, but be clear what is it that you want to get out of it.