My friend Alberto Garcia-Jurado, Founder and CEO of Inzynch, reached out to me a few months ago and asked if someone from Voltage Control could come to speak at DisruptHR San Antonio. Alberto went on to tell me that he was a co-organizer of the San Antonio event. He would be giving a talk titled: “Lean, Smart Collaboration Systems” in Houston and San Antonio. I was excited to hear that HR was making such a concerted effort on learning and engaging in new ways to help the people they serve.
San Antonio is one of 118 cities across 27 countries that are hosting in DisruptHR events. Sharon De La Garza, VP of San Antonio Water Services, is the San Antonio organizer alongside a team of other volunteers including Alberto and Lisa Lewis, VP of People & Culture at CPS Energy.
Chris Ostoich & Jennifer McClure founded DisruptHR. DisruptHR is an information exchange designed to energize, inform, and empower people in the HR field through a series of events that shake things up, inspires, and gets people thinking differently. Each event consists of fourteen speakers, five minutes each, and the slides automatically rotate every fifteen seconds. The idea is to learn something and learn it quick. HR professionals, CEOs, technologists, and community leaders are invited to share their message about talent, culture or technology.
“ Very informative and look forward to participating in future events! Super inspirational!” — Tanika Mason, PHR
Dave Angelow, Strategist at Voltage Control, was invited to speak at the first DisruptHR San Antonio on June 26th. We were excited to be a part of the event and share our perspective on how Design Sprints apply to a wide range of disciplines and industries. Dave and I collaborated on how we might help HR professionals learn about the benefits of Design Sprints. In addition to sharing the origin story and structure of the process, we wanted to share a few case studies and examples of how Design Sprints get results in just five days. In addition to a few of our favorite Voltage Control case studies, we decided to share a few HR specific case studies.
“If you’ve never been to a DisruptHR event you’re missing a great opportunity. They are fast-paced, high-energy and stimulate creative thinking.” — Dave Angelow, Strategist, Voltage Control
Sessions and speakers were selected based on creativity and uniqueness of their perspectives rather than traditional ideas. The diversity and range of ideas gave DisruptHR energy and challenged the conventional views and status quo thinking. Ultimately the goal is the get the community thinking differently and experimenting with new ways of doing things within their organizations and society as a whole.
While it required extra effort for all the speakers, the PechaKucha style presentations allowed the evening to run at rapid pace. Speakers established ideas quickly, and we moved on to the next speaker. Without the filler, talks got to the point, and if there was something that didn’t interest you, you knew it would be over soon. No one wants to relive another long, boring presentation, DisruptHR prevented death by powerpoint by requiring that each presentation be precisely twenty slides and fifteen seconds per slide. That gave each speaker just five minutes from beginning to end. The timekeeping wasn’t optional as the presentations were managed by the organizer to be sure the slides advanced as intended.
Jennifer Dowe of San Antonio Water Services was the master of ceremonies and kicked the San Antonio event off with Bella Cruz presenting “Keep Me Engaged Because I’m the BEST! Onboarding Employee Engagement Chemistry Before Day 1” — a look into onboarding new hires to give a boost and create passion. Then, we heard from a Pastor Elton Lott deliver a message with wisdom for the ages in “Ten Commandments For A Healthy And Harmonious Team! “— can I get an Amen!
“SUCH a fantastic evening at #DisruptHRSanAntonio — so many great takeaways from our tremendously talented speakers, who left us energized, excited, and inspired — thank you for sharing your knowledge!” — Andrea Barajas, City of San Antonio
Perhaps the most engaging presentations of the night were by Lauren Meyenberg Senior Learning and Development Business Partner at San Antonio Water System “Smarty-Pants Don’t Always Advance” — A Tale of IQ Versus EQ. Lauren presented her talk as a rhyme that was catchy, inspiring and brilliant. Richard Hernandez challenged attendees thinking and presenting “Business Ethics and Why We Lie” — a look into why lying is human and learned when we’re toddlers.
“Thanks to Dave Angelow from Voltage Control for his great talk on Design Sprints in HR. It was disruptive and illuminating.” — Alberto Founder and CEO of Inzynch
Dave Angelow, Strategist at Voltage Control, delivered a presentation “Using Design Sprints in HR” — which juxtaposed with more traditional HR topic areas created quite a buzz about how everyone needs to find tools to go faster, do more with less, and test ideas before launching. He began by providing a quick background on how Design Sprint came out of Google Ventures and was developed from Design Thinking. Dave then went on to break down the 5-day process and explain how it works. The presentation wrapped up with five case studies, including two in HR, and a prompt for the audience to consider how they might use Design Sprints.
San Antonio’s first DisruptHR event was fun, playful and engaging; the night was a success on many levels — new ideas were shared, new connections made, and perhaps most crucial, everyone walked away thinking different with plans for things to try back at the office. If you are from San Antonio or nearby, we encourage you to consider attending or speaking next year!
