???? EPIC HR: indulging the human side of business

We’re two weeks away from the EPIC HR conference, and I’m excited. :)

Naturally, a big part of that is the chance to introduce the Comfort Comms protocol to the world, but I’m also looking forward to spending a few days talking about human issues at work, as opposed to all the AI & analytics that has been taking over lately.

(Am I the only content creator who silently mutters "beep boop I am a human boop" sometimes when writing about AI?)

Going through EPIC's agenda, I was impressed by how many speakers I didn’t know (it really looks like Mark Stelzner and co have done a great job breaking out of the echo chamber to bring in new perspectives). I thought I’d share a few that caught my eye:

Leading with Purpose at the Cherokee Nation? (Wed 4/24 @ 3pm)

Cherokee Nation ’s Chief of Staff (Corey Bunch ), Exec Director of HR (Samantha Hendrick ), and CIO (Paula Starr ) are teaming up to talk culture ? I’m in. This session is right after mine.

Disrupted Leadership (Friday 4/26 @ 8:30am)

USF grad (go Bulls!) Dickens Aubourg has a résumé I can appreciate—especially the part where he comes to leadership & innovation through client learning and product management. My view of leadership development shifted considerably when I spent time in those areas—being tied to the external goal of driving customer adoption made me much more pragmatic and data-driven. I look forward to hearing about where Dickens’ journey has led him .

Fostering Gen Z Engagement (Wed 4/24 @ 2:15pm)

Alas, you and I will have to backchannel the notes from this session, because it competes with my own ;)

I really want to hear the latest take from HiBob 's CMO ( Sarah Reynolds ) and Sr Marketer ( Rachel Schonwald )—plus Gen Z voice Jake Bjorseth of Trndsttrs & media juggernaut and "I hate it here" creator Hebba Youssef —because, candidly, I’ve been a “generations” skeptic but have a hunch something meaningful will pop up this time around.

Last time we all did this together (remember talking about digital natives vs digital immigrants ?), I did some research and found most generational differences were better explained as demographic, career stage, socioeconomic, or political differences, masked by differences in the language, pop culture references, and comms channels used to describe them. Still, I wonder if that hold up given a generation that’s grown up 100% in an internet/social media world?

As an aside, I find it endlessly fascinating that we all want to be unique! unique! unique! until the conversation turns into generational differences, and then it’s suddenly “OMG that’s so me too LOL” Guilty as charged #GenXFTW #HiKidsDidYouKnowWay2SexyIsACoverSong #AndThatsOneToGrowOn.

Scaling Culture (Thu 4/25 @ 8:45am)

WeightWatchers’ CPO Tiffany Stevenson will be talking about scaling culture meaningfully, so it doesn’t devolve into swag and wall art. I saw first hand what this looks like when done well, thanks to Vivian Maza at Ultimate Software; it’s a message that can’t be repeated enough.

The world still belongs to people

Hold up.

Did I really write "I am a human boop" earlier?

I caught that on a re-read and am deciding to leave it in, it's too good.

Like they say in that classic (and classically self-aware) Gen X bop, "some mistakes are built to last ."

The line is at about the 5:07 mark.

Anyhoo.

LMK if you’ll be in Vegas for the event—I'd love to connect and talk about the state of being human in 2024, and how we'll continue to support each other as t

And that's all I've got, love you, see you next week!

#TheBrillianceWithin #MoreJoy #ComfortComms #IAmAHumanBoop