"Productivity with a Human Face"

In September Ken O’Donnell, Senior Fellow of Oxford Leadership Academy, was a  speaker and workshop leader at the 44th International Congress of Human Resources, organized by the Mexican Association of Human Resources Directors (AMEDIRH) in the World Trade Center of Mexico City. The Congress' title was “Productivity with a Human Face”.
 

This 2009 Congress, considered to be the most important event in the field of Human Resources in Mexico and all of Latin America, brought together a number of national and international experts, including:

  • Ken O’Donnell, Senior Fellow of Oxford Leadership Academy
  • David Arkless, Presidente for Global Affairs and Government Relations of Manpower
  • Joe Folkman and Jack Zenger, Founders of Zenger Folkman, Folkman and Zenger
  • Dave Ulrich, Co-founder of RBL Group
  • Juan Mateo Diaz, President of Training Lab
  • Horacio Quiros, President of the HR Federation of Latin America
     

Ken O'Donnell at AMEDIRH

According to Pedro Borda, Managing Director of AMEDIRH, the Congress was designed to help leaders to face up to the current turbulent environment and lead their people through complexity.

We are living through turbulent times and leadership can make the difference, as has been proved by many organizations that have turned this crisis into an opportunity. We firmly believe that the Directors of Human Resources need to refocus their role with the objective of being more active in the process of transformation of their organizations

On the morning of the second day of activities Ken O’Donnnell delivered his speech: “New Leadership Strategies for Facing a Turbulent Environment” Later that day he also conducted a particularly well-received 2-hour workshop with the 2,500 Congress delegates, in which he presented six strategies designed to help leaders to cope with the realities of the current turbulence:

  1. To understand the signals.
  2. To learn to adapt to this environment of permanent uncertainty.
  3. To understand the customer.
  4. To understand and manage the mood of the employees.
  5. To balance personal and professional life.
  6. To learn to manage yourself.

According to the organizer of the Congress, Pedro Borda, Ken O’Donnell brought a sense of spirituality and hope to the audience in the middle of this anxiety and fear that we are facing as a civilization. He formally invited him to participate in the Congress 2010 as the Keynote Speaker in the opening ceremony.
 

October 2009