2021 UPCEA SOLA+R

I attended my first UPCEA conference. It was the first fully-remote conference I’ve attended since the pandemic started. I’ve joined a couple of other online conferences on an ad hoc basis, but this was the first that I registered for in advance and set aside time for.

The conference was well structured with synchronous Zoom events and pre-recorded presentations with live chat. Both worked great for different reasons. The best pre-recorded presentations were more organic and conversational. The nice thing is that all of the sessions were recorded and published to YouTube. I’ve included a few of the sessions I attended below.

The session I took away the most from was the keynote. There were a lot of great questions for me to reflect on and some new topics to consider moving ahead in my leadership role.

  • “I commit and disagree” is OK, we need to challenge ourselves
  • We need to inspire through creating a personal vision: where do I see myself and my team in 3 years? What is happening around you in this vision?
  • How do you get out of constraint thinking? Project your vision forward. Paint a picture looking back.
  • Humble Inquiry: “It takes discipline and practice to access one’s ignorance” – Schein
  • Directing vs. Engaging
  • Offers: Recipient “I offer to…” What concern of theirs does the offer address?
  • People do not remember what you said or did, but they remember how you made them feel.
  • What do you want others to remember about you?



I didn’t get to watch Annie and Stevie’s presentation during the event and wanted to include it here because I do intend on watching it. They are both awesome, so I’m sure this will be a great presentation.

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