I haven’t been blogging much during the last week because I’ve been VERY busy working at my client’s annual conference in Chicago.  This post, and I’m sure many posts that will follow, is inspired by some observations and experiences I had last week. That’s what happens when you spend a week with literally hundreds of people who are smarter than you’ll ever be.

The opening keynoter for the conference was Bob Galvin, whose father started Motorola in 1928 and who took the company over in the late 50’s and grew it to the behemoth it is today.

Many of the folks involved in putting the conference together, myself included, were a little nervous about having Mr. Galvin as the opening keynoter.  The opening act is vital because he or she sets the tone for the conference.  The fact that Mr. Galvin is an octogenarian, and not a current business superstar, had us wondering if we’d made a wise choice.  Despite the fact that we’d all been reassured that he is actually a very good speaker, we were sure he’d get the conference off to a snoozing start. Of course not one of us is over 45!

None of us would categorize ourselves as ageists, or any -ist for that matter.  The fact is, however, that we were definitely biased by Mr. Galvin’s classification as an old man. 

Sure it took Mr. Galvin an inordinate amount of time to get to the podium, and maybe he wasn’t the most dynamic speaker in the world, but he was captivating. For 1 1/2 hours you could have heard a pin drop.  There were 800 or so people in that room and no one made a sound.  No one ran out to check their messages, no one’s cell phone went off, no one fell asleep.  It was as if we were in the town square listening to the sage advice of a village elder. 

Everything Mr. Galvin had to say was on topic, was well thought out, and most importantly was wise.  His body was stooped, his mannerisms were lethargic, but his mind was as sharp as a tack.

It was easily one of the most amazing business experiences I’ve had, and it was definitely a moment of personal discovery.  I’d never thought of myself as biased but I realize now that I had shown the most fundamental symptom of bias when I judged a man not by his achievements or his being, but by a classification.  Shame on me. Hopefully it is a lesson I’ll remember and not repeat.