Those Talent Anarchists, Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt, have created a session concept for HR and talent managers called HackLab. As they explain, “The idea behind the session [is] simple: to teach people how to use the basic principles of computer hacking to create innovation within their work–any kind of work.” Lauritsen explains how this session leads to innovation and success in the Ignite presentation that you can watch below. What struck me was how many features of hacking were common to conversation. For instance, like hacking from within our own “organizational box,” conversation is an inherent human trait that we can harness and experiment with at any time, without the need for further organizational resources, status or training. Also, conversation often breaks down thoughts, feelings, experience and perceptions into discrete elements for us to mull over, as does hacking with individual elements within systems. And as hacking enables the incremental small breakthroughs into a larger successful whole, so does conversation facilitate step by step movement towards deeper, more challenging subjects, as well as those “collisions of hunches” that result in creative insights.

Take a look at Lauritsen’s presentation below and prepare to hack into conversation…

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