Debra R. Miller's blog

My husband and I recently went through an unexpected transformation with our 11-year-old granddaughter.

As we’ve reflected on our experience, it’s clear that what we learned and applied with her is something that could transform not only every parent and grandparent, but also every leader on this planet.

Even though it was decades ago, I’ll never forget the day I went to a client’s office for a 1 hour coaching session. He was a financial consultant who was highly experienced, yet still early in his tenure with a new firm.

This year’s Project Management Conference in Dallas focused on all things innovation. Given my long-standing background with both project management and innovation, I was delighted to be on a panel that explored how project managers, their teams, and their company cultures could be more innovative.

Several years ago, we met an MBA student named Kapil Jawa who was completing his studies in India. He shared with us a most fascinating masters thesis he had researched about a values-based approach to measuring economic development. The overall theme of his report was:

Rob Lauber, Chief Learning Officer at McDonald’s Corporation, has a competence he may not be conscious of – an “unconscious competence,” a phrase coined by Noel Burch, a learning expert at Gordon Training International in the 1970s.