Closing Cisco’s global IT conference in California last month was a huge privilege for me and a unique experience for 550 senior leaders from around the globe.
Gathered together with their inspiring new Chief Information Officer, Guillermo Diaz, known to all as G, the audience spontaneously gave him a standing ovation as he took the stage. This was a first for me, which says so much for G as a person and the culture of excellence that has built up in Cisco.
Whenever we at Moving Performance give Keynotes at conferences we like to be present throughout the event. We believe it adds so much to what we have to offer having heard what’s gone before. So my colleague Mario and I spent two days listening and learning, as G talked about “orchestrating IT” and much more.
On the final day, it was a high pressure delivery for us. We followed the new Cisco CEO, Chuck Robbins, the CIOs of Tesla Motors, Coca Cola and Comcast, all of whom were interviewed by G, and the inspirational President of Sprinklr, Carlos Dominguez. As I waited to go on for the final Keynote, in the Green Room, it was hard not to feel a little overawed. I try and speak from a place of humility and one of service to my client. I knew I just had to be myself and to share what I felt called to say to this wonderful organisation.
And once out on stage the response was incredible. We shared six powerful insights into Orchestrating High Performance, accompanied by a live band, a flashmob, and a professional recording, resulting in a room full of leaders engaged and inspired.
Guillermo Diaz summed it up like this:
Ben and his team are AMAZING! Their ability to quickly understand, simplify and orchestrate a 500 person team toward a common cultural mission was beyond my expectations! In 90 minutes, they took us out of our comfort zone and the outcome was a mindset of a FASTER, SIMPLER and TOGETHER Cisco IT – with a recording that I can¹t get out of my head. Thank you Ben and Team!!
From Ben Hines – Founder & Director