Wednesday, June 29, 2011

thoughts from League of Minnesota Conference


I attended the League of Minnesota Cities Conference in Rochester earlier this month. It was a great conference and I saw old and new friends and elected officials. It was great to see Pierre Willette who works for the city of Minneapolis. He has lost none of his performing skills learned at Olivia High School I am sure. He and his group did an entertaining wrap-up the State Legislative session.
The keynote speaker was author, David Horsager. His book is “The Trust Edge”. David states, “Everything of value is built on trust, from financial systems to relationships.” Lack of trust is the number one reason for loss of productivity and increase in cost in business. He outlined a couple of his eight Pillars of Trust and their applications not only for business but for personal relationships and indeed life. The Pillar I found so intriguing is consistency. I know in all parenting manuals the mantra of consistency is emphasized, but I didn't always see it in the larger picture of a person's relationships and work. In the public sector work, consistency to all is vitally important, even public service to children should be consistent with public service to adults. Shouldn't we try to maintain those standards with all our relationships? David went on to explain that it is consistency in the small things of everyday life that have the greatest impact long term. Not everyone has the time or resources to gives away vast amount of money or dedicate hours to a worthy case, but everyone has the capacity to be friendly and pleasant and greet each other with a cheerful hello. It is the small gestures in life that may be difficult to do some days, but perhaps those are what a person ultimately will be remembered for. A life goal definitely worth striving for.  

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