Episode 700: Eclipse Day and DisruptHR Buffalo with Dr. Kristy F. Tyson

Today is Eclipse Day in North America AND we've hit HRchat episode 700!!!

To help us celebrate the double whammy and look ahead to DisruptHR Buffalo on Thursday is Dr. Kristy F. Tyson, President-Elect of ATD Buffalo Niagara Chapter - a region that'll enjoy the full eclipse later today.

Tune in to learn about ways ATD is helping the business community. Listen too, to get the lowdown on what to expect at DisruptHR Buffalo

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom and visit.

Speaker 2: 0:26

HRGazettecom. Hello and welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. I'm your host today, bill Bannam, and this episode is a particularly special one because, firstly, it's episode number 700. Can you believe that 700 episodes? It's also a very special episode because today is Eclipse Day, so millions of people across North America will be enjoying the amazing spectacle that is the solar eclipse, and here to help me celebrate that fact is Dr Christy Tyson, president-elect over at ATD Buffalo, niagara Chapter. Buffalo, of course, the Buffalo, niagara region, of course, is an area which will be enjoying 100% eclipse today, which is pretty cool. And Dr Christy is also going to be a speaker at the upcoming Disrupt HR Buffalo event that's happening on Thursday April 11th at the Hofbrauhaus in downtown Buffalo. So lots of things to talk about today. The main focus, of course, will be on what Dr Christie gets up to over at ATD Buffalo, niagara, and her talk at Disrupt Buffalo on the 11th. Dr Christy, how are you? Thank you very much for being my guest today.

Speaker 3: 1:52

Hello Bill, I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm doing well.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Okay, so, beyond my very brief introduction just a moment ago, you do lots of cool things. You've got lots of hats. Why don't you take a minute or two and tell our listeners a bit more about you and what you get up to?

Speaker 3: 2:09

Thank you. Me personally, I like to tell people that I am your talent development guide. I help decision makers, leaders, emerging leaders, professionals and students just make better decisions in their lifestyle. I'm really focused around methods like critical thinking and being a reader and leader in life and really supporting individuals, making connections to help them reach their full potential perfect, thank you very much.

Speaker 2: 2:42

Okay, so, as mentioned a moment ago, you are a speaker at the Disrupt Buffalo Disrupt HR Buffalo happening April 11th. It's a delight and an honor to have you involved. Why don't you take a minute first to tell folks a little bit more about ATD Buffalo, niagara and some of the initiatives that you guys get up to over there?

Speaker 3: 3:05

Sure thing. So ATD stands for the some of the initiatives that you guys get up to over there. Sure thing. So ATD stands for the Association for Talent Development. It is a professional organization focused on talent development and workplace learning. Our members are professionals who help others achieve their full potential by improving knowledge, skills and abilities in the workplace and work in organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Speaker 2: 3:29

OK, and now I'd love you to tell us a little bit about your session at Buffalo. I understand that you'll be talking a little bit about your role with ATD and various other things to do. I'm going to challenge you, though, if you don't mind, to tell us in 90 seconds or less give us a little taster of what attendees can expect by coming along to Disrupt HR Buffalo and seeing you.

Speaker 3: 3:59

Well, I'm really bringing in a piece of my academic background. I am a university professor and textbook author, and one of the main methodologies that we see that shows up around employee motivation is Marshall's hierarchy of needs. Professionals and leaders can bring in the very top level self-actualization into the workplace and actually help move their employees from their basic needs and psychological needs over to really reaching their full potential and being all that they can be and really fulfilling their passions and reason for being okay, sounds, sounds pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 4:43

And what do you like about the, the disrupt format? Um, not everybody does. You know, I'm involved with lots of different disrupt chapters in the us, uk and elsewhere. Um, it is. It is a unique challenge. I've done a talk myself, because you can't talk to other people about how to do it unless you've done you've done it yourself right, um, it's five minutes. It's 20 slides. They rotate automatically every 15 seconds. Um, I had a ceo of a big employee insurance company say to me last year for an event in london that he presents multiple times a day dr christie, uh, and in front of, uh, very senior folks or very big audiences and all the rest of it, and he hadn't been that nervous ahead of a talk in years because it is a unusual format. So what do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Tell us a bit more about your thoughts around the disrupt format good question.

Speaker 3: 5:36

So I'm also a professional speaker, facilitator and keynote speaker. I have a background in toast masters where all of their speeches are five to seven minutes or their table topics are one to two minutes. So I'm completely used to that rapid fire presentation style. So I love the idea of keeping a very concise and consensus but detailed presentation. So I'm used to that type of format.

Speaker 3: 6:04

However, what was challenging is the automatic slides, because usually if I'm speaking for one to two minutes or five to seven minutes, it's just natural you write the speech, you practice, you rehearse it, you memorize it and then you just show up and you provide all of the great presentation styles that Toastmasters show you how to do and perform. But with the rapid slides, for me that was difficult because I'm so instinct with the audience and can switch up and go left or right. I have to be cognizant that the slides will auto-advance, so I can't spend too long on one topic, I can't spend too long on one gesture or what have you, because the slides will automatically advance and so for me keeping up with the pace of the 15 second slide automation would be a challenge yeah, but not a challenge you need to worry about.

Speaker 2: 6:54

I think you're an absolute pro. You'll be fine, don't worry. Um, okay, let's talk a bit more about atd buffalo niagara, if you don't mind. When you reached out to the Disrupt HR Buffalo team just a few weeks ago, actually to express your interest in the event, I saw that and got in contact with you and it's wonderful to get an opportunity to work with the ATD Buffalo Niagara chapter and have you guys as partners and have you as a speaker on the day. Um, one of the reasons for that is because it's such an awesome brand. You know I'm covering again this year, uh, the atd conference and expo down in new orleans in may. I'm very excited about that. Uh, they have a great team down there. Um, it does amazing things as an organization. One thing that you guys are great at doing is fostering collaboration and creating networking opportunities. What have you got going on in the local area later on in 2024?

Speaker 3: 7:52

Good question. A couple of things. We always have monthly coffee connections. They are set around the working professionals so you can come in between seven and nine to have coffee with our members. You can bring your family, friends, your networks, your coworkers, the idea that we're going to get in the space as early as seven, so for anyone that has to start work at eight or nine, that we have that space to start for those early risers and then. But we're staying in the space until about 839 for anyone that may want to trickle in because they have to drop kids off etc. So we make those available to all of our members, even non-members. They just want to hang out and drink a cup of coffee. They're simple coffee chats that often turn into an opportunity to vent, be heard or be encouraged. So those are happening every month.

Speaker 3: 8:41

Our next one is April 19th. You can find more about that event. The location we try to have different coffee shops every month because our members span between Buffalo, new York and Niagara Falls, lacquare, clarence, et cetera, even Hamburg. So we try to have our coffee connections at different locations so everyone can find a space that's close to them. Locations so everyone can find a space that's close to them. Later on in the year we're having a huge panel event that will be virtual, open to anyone around the nation. It's in collaboration with ATD South Carolina and we're doing a virtual panel on the emerging intersection between education and technology. So how can we embrace and effectively use technology in our education of our professionals, of our employees, our clients, etc. So it's going to be a huge event in collaboration with ATD South Carolina.

Speaker 4: 9:43

Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes things up, it makes you think differently and it leaves you inspired. That event is Disrupt HR. The format is 14 speakers, 5 minutes each and slides rotate every 15 seconds. If you're an HR professional, a CEO, a technologist or a community leader and you've got something to say about talent, culture or technology, disrupt is the place. It's coming soon to a city near you. Learn more at disrupthrco.

Speaker 2: 10:16

Well, that sounds pretty awesome. So one reason why folks go to the Disrupt events, hopefully, is to stay ahead of emerging trends and technologies. You are the incoming president. You're the president-elect of the atd buffalo niagara chapter. What are you hoping to to bring, bring to the team, bring to the association in terms of helping to continue to educate folks around emerging trends and technologies?

Speaker 3: 10:45

Good question. For me personally, I'm hoping to bring in many capabilities related to not just knowledge in the profession but also skills. So, again, our members are coming from a wide variety of professions development managers, trainers, institutional designers, consultants, managers, myself in education and as a facilitator and speaker. So the hope is to bridge again that gap between knowledge and skill and look at building personal capabilities as well as developing professional capabilities and then implementing organizational capabilities. So, again, bringing in all of those domains and having different topics to your point, that's emerging trends that can fit all the workplace. So institutional design, training and delivery, data analytics, emotional intelligence, decision-making, transformational technology, artificial technology, technology and more, really trying to focus on the holistic profession, those interpersonal skills, knowledge and skills and abilities. That again is going to help align and move your business, your organization, forward, meet those goals and help your organization succeed awesome.

Speaker 2: 12:05

We are already coming to the end of this special episode, this preview episode, dr christy. Before we do wrap up, though, how can folks connect with you? How can they learn more about the local atd buffalo niagara chapter? And, of course, toastmasters too, you mentioned earlier? You're involved with them. Perhaps you can share information around that.

Speaker 3: 12:26

Sure, sure. So I am very accessible. You can definitely look me up on my LinkedIn. It's pretty easy to find me. It's literally just my first and last name. So you look me up as Dr Christy Tyson, your dilemma guide to smart choices. So that's myself on LinkedIn. And if you just shoot me a message, I can provide you all of the information to ATD or Toastmasters, my Toastmasters club that I'm currently the president of. We meet virtually every Friday at 12 pm Eastern Standard Time via Zoom, so again, making it accessible nationwide, worldwide, and Toastmasters is a professional organization dedicated to leadership and communication. So if you want to be a better speaker, better communicator, better leader in your own right, toastmasters International is going to be a place for you.

Speaker 2: 13:21

All right. Well, that does leave me to say for today Dr Christy Tyson, you superstar. Thank you very much for being my guest on this episode of the HR Chat Show.

Speaker 3: 13:31

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 13:32

And listeners as always. Until next time, happy working.

Speaker 1: 13:40

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.