Last week I had the privilege of attending the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) at Willow Creek Church. I’ve been processing that experience and the events leading up to it and that followed it. In reflecting on the experience as a whole, there’s a couple of takeaways that I found personally significant.
Dining Out
I’m going to start with the food. Along the trip, the group I traveled with went to some really fun upscale restaurants and some not-so upscale restaurants, including one memorable trip stop at a mall food court where we played that always fun game of “Who ordered the salmonella?”
Along with the food, I noticed something very important. Every restaurant we went to was severely understaffed. Most of the wait staff were taking care of very large groups of customers at the same time. Food took longer than one would expect it to be, waters and soda’s took longer to get refills, and many restaurants had limited menu items due to low stock.
In reflecting on this, I also observed that most of the other customers were civil and recognized this as well. I suspect this is a trend that will be happening more and more. I wonder how this will affect the future of the food industry. Time will tell.
Live versus Streaming
I’ve attended the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) before, but only at the satellite locations. During those times, I would walk into the site, grab my resources, and watch the GLS videos. The energy was always good and it was always an incredible time of learning.
In many ways, attending the GLS in person was much the same, however, there was a greater sense of energy. The volunteers were incredible, the facilities were spotless, and every aspect of the location was setup so that the attendees could find their way easily.
One thing that was unexpected was the significant amount of available seats in the auditorium. We were told that over 70% of the people attending the conference were watching from satellite locations. I would suspect this is a trend that will increase and I sincerely wonder if the Global Leadership Summit will make some venue adjustments moving forward.
Speakers
As with any conference, there’s some incredible speakers, some great speakers, some good speakers, and some filler speakers. Here’s the speakers that I took take-away’s from along with one quote that I found significant:
- Craig Groshell
“It’s an honor to suffer with the savior who suffered with me” - Michelle Poler
“Brave means despite the fear you have courage to take action” - General Stanley McCrystal
“It’s hard to assess risk and even harder to verbalize to someone else’s who is outside of your world the risk” - Jamie Kern Lima
“Personal setbacks are often Gods setups” - Shola Richards
“I belong in any room I step into”
- Ibukun Awosika
“Who you strive to be should not be replaced by the office you hold“ - Dr. Francesco Gino
“[Rebels have] the ability to find creative solutions to problems within a construct of expectations” - Juliet Funt
“Envision the future of how work will work within the construct of where you are now” - Bianca Juarez Oltoff
“Who do you miss out on influencing when you choose not to lead?” - Malcom Gladwell
“Social risk-takers see the future and make it happen” - Albert Tate
“What if the Lesson is what we experienced, and NOW THIS is the Test?”
Final Thoughts
I’ll close this out with the four questions that I try to ask myself anytime I go to an event or a conference.
- Did I learn anything for myself?
Yes – absolutely and I’ll be able to apply some of what I learned immediately and some of what I learned will have to take time for me to apply. - Did I learn anything I could pass on to others?
Yes – I think there’s several things I could pass on to others in the right situation. - Did I hear anything I need to pause and pray about?
Without a doubt. There was some incredibly challenging thoughts that I’ll need to really work through if I’m going to continue to grow and develop as a person, a servant, and a leader. - Would I attend again?
Yes – absolutely – without a doubt.