The Unplugged Life
How to Find Energy, Imagination, and Creativity for the Challenges of our Day
Earlier this month, a bunch of career professionals and corporate leaders gathered for the Cultures in Action Conference in hopes of making a significant, lasting, and good change - in our organizations and the world.
True, you might not have known it based on the conference setting.
It took place in a hotel conference room decorated with navy drapes, mute-gray walls, and a faux-wood podium for speakers.
Behind the podium, a large television with rotating images of pastel landscape paintings hung on the wall.
Across the images ran a message: “No Signal. (1) Please check the power of the external devices and cable connection status. (2) Press the __ button on your remote to change to another input.”
I’m sure it was designed to be a helpful message, but mainly it made the room feel a little sad. As if no one had figured out how to provide the attention-grabbing, paradigm-shifting slides that should be running and so now we were a people with No Signal.
And since most of the speakers did not use slides, we attendees were frequently left with this visual reminder that we lacked a Signal.
I later learned, however, that this was by design. The conference organizer had specifically requested that speakers avoid slides if possible.
Which meant - for the most part - we were an unplugged conference.
And in a world of with…
dizzying technological advances every day,
the hype and fear of AI dominating every other conversation,
and the pressure to remain relevant and innovative ever-present…
unplugged is far from the ideal, right?
And yet, I confess I left this conference feeling more animated and energized than I have in a long time.
The secret ingredient?
It had nothing to do with external power solutions, and everything to do with tapping into the human potential of the room.
And nothing helped us conference attendees tap into that potential like a couple of well-timed icebreakers.
STORYTELLING
The conference began when a woman got up in front of the career professionals and corporate leaders and said,
“Here is how the story begins: When Joe arrived at the office one morning, the phone was ringing, he picked it up, and immediately yelled “Oh my gosh!” And he ran back out. Now, go find someone in this room that you do not know and finish that story by trading sentences back and forth.”
And so we paired up with a stranger.
And all around the room, dozens of improbable, funny, and sometimes heartfelt stories about Joe were built - one sentence at a time.
It was a little silly. Definitely surprising. And it ensured that the conference began not with a singular voice of great wisdom and authority but every voice.
Each one trading space to be heard. Back and forth.
Building something as old as time and urgent as breath - stories.
Also, there was a ton of energy!
A room that had previously been near-silent was now bursting with connection, and it took a minute for the facilitator to bring us back together. But, of course, now we found ourselves able to lean into the conference material with a heightened focus and a growing sense of belonging.
The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come. - Steve Jobs
DANCE
“Ok. Everybody up! We are going to learn a dance move.” One of the conference attendees had a background in dance, and he was harnessing that to shake things up -quite literally - during a second, mid-morning icebreaker.
In particular, he was teaching all of us the Arm Wave.
This meant those same nicely dressed, highly professional people now stood in the conference room with their arms outstretched like airplane wings.
And step by step, we learned how to turn our wings into…
a move.
a flow.
a dance!
To be sure, most of us did not have a whole lot of rhythm to our wave. We looked more like figures from the early video games moving across the screen - halted, mechanical, and generally slow.
This actually worked in our favor.
Because even though nobody said it aloud, every single one of us felt the truth deeply in our bodies: No matter the amount of our individual experience and credentials… we were all beginners again. Together.
The whole exercise took no more than five minutes, and yet it did wonders for inviting our ever-posturing, ever-insecure egos to leave the room and welcome instead…
Curiosity.
Exploration.
Imagination.
And - once more - the room was filled with a next-level kind of energy that quickly informed the significant learning we did during the remainder of the conference around such topics as leadership, culture-shaping, DEIB, purpose statements, and strategic planning.1
If the Angel deigns to come, it will be because you have convinced her, not by your tears, but by your humble resolve to be always beginning: to be a beginner. - Rainer Maria Rilke
UNPLUG
How often we arrive at…
conferences or
careers or
circumstances or
otherwise…
…and it’s a little more drab than we had expected.
We thought this road would have been more…
Exciting.
Inspiring.
Energizing!
I mean, look in my social media feed of all these people doing amazing, successful, creative things with their lives! Their lives are changing the world! And why is this not me?!
Quite quickly, then, we take note of all the advertisements around us that are basically like one, long scrolling reminder that we need to check the power on our external devices.
Surely, we begin to believe, an external solution will solve our issue!
If I just plug into my life…
better technology
more efficiencies
a new purchase
some fresh attire
a makeover
fresh decor
more caffeine/alcohol/IV therapy
an elite credential
better social media posts…
… I will come alive!
The things around me will come alive!
And yet, time and again, the unplugged conference ignited a level of energy I rarely see - and it did so precisely because it did not focus on tapping into
external power sources,
external solutions,
or save-the-day answers for every organization.
The most fundamental current into which the conference tapped was internal.
It was…
The collective spirit.
The heart.
The soul.
There was this fundamental trust that if space opened for leaders to…
1) offer their genuine voice
2) risk their heartfelt, experienced-sharpened insights
3) connect with honesty, humor, and curiosity
… then those leaders would be able to tap into the core of their being, be shaped there, and leave changed for the better.
And those changed (and ever-changing) leaders would then change the cultures around them: business, family, neighborhood, nation, and more.
Which means…
If you’re one of those looking to change your life and this world for good - it may well be that the single best thing you can do today is this:
Unplug the external power sources.
Reconnect to the internal one.
Go for a hike.
Share a potluck with neighbors.
Tell stories with friends.
Look your children in the eye as you converse.
Dance, drum, or draw.
Pray.
Knit.
Attend a poetry slam (maybe share one, too).
Try an improv class.
Ask yourself and/or someone else a few, thoughtful questions.
Do some woodworking.
Share tea on the front porch.
Garden.
Be a beginner at something. With others.
And don’t be surprised if the conference, career, or circumstance in which you find yourself begins to transform.
Not necessarily because the externals suddenly look different, but because you’ve learned to ignore the constant reminders about plugging into your life the infinite number of external power options.
Instead, you’ve reconnected with the singular locus of all genuine, good, and lasting change; namely, The Heart.
For a brief glimpse of the many things we learned at the conference, here is the summary I did in a LinkedIn post.