Unscripted 2019 - That's a wrap!
What a day! Our inaugural event was on the topic of communicating your purpose. It was a big topic and we dove deep into this with our guest speakers Lord Mayor of Melbourne Sally Capp, Gruen’s Russel Howcroft, Psychologist and media commentator Sabina Read and Dunn Street’s Stephen Donnelly.
We collected some great pearls of wisdom from the speakers which covered vulnerability, courage, taking risks, the power of storytelling and authenticity. Even GoT, MAFS and pep talks in the bathroom cubicle snuck into the conversation.
One might ask how the bathroom cubicle is related to purpose? Lord Mayor Sally Capp described how she used those few minutes to remind herself that, “I am only one person. But I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I’m going to commit to what I CAN do. I’m not going to let the stress of what I can’t do get in the way.”
Guests raved about the authenticity of the event on and off social media (include photos) and enjoyed several takeaways from the discussion.
Each speaker brought a different insight from their respective industries.
Speaker Insights
Sabina Read drew from her experience as a psychologist to highlight the importance of giving your time to other people and charity as an aid to finding your own purpose. She also spoke of using what you were passionate about as a child/teenager to guide future interests. When asked, “What does purpose mean to you?”, she responded astutely, “No one has a perfect answer to that question. Nobody on stage, nor in the audience”.
Russel drew from a background in working with agencies and large brands in marketing roles to highlight authenticity in organisations. He says that it’s ok to have a purpose, but it must be authentic. Companies that follow their values do well, companies that just use what sounds good for advertising purposes are not genuine and tend not to perform as well or come across well.
Despite his experience in the industry of politics, Steven Donnelly had a similar perspective to Russel about the importance of being values driven. For example, when he has new volunteers he always starts with ‘why’ they are there. Why does he ask this? Because getting across why you do what you do and what your vision is will help you build connections with people, stating that both sides of politics could do this better.
Another memorable moment from the discussion was from Lord Mayor Sally Capp, with an allegory about not allowing yourself to become an “Azkaban prisoner”. She referred to the Harry Potter prison to describe people walking around with the life sucked out of them in careers which are not fulfilling, thus creating a personal kind of gaol.
She spoke about how we can make a difference in lots of different ways, on social media, in the organisations we work in; we are all doing it in some form or another. To surmise; authenticity is all about actions, you have to do it, not just say it.
