Kris Dunn and I presented to a packed room at SHRM on Monday on the topic of HR technology and what HR Pros need to be thinking about and doing to bring their own shops into the next decade.  It was great. The attendees asked a ton of questions and were so engaged.

I know I’m going to catch crap about saying HR ladies are brave, when their are HR guys as well at SHRM. The reality is about 85% of the attendees are female. So, while I’m sure there are brave HR guys, my example has to do with one of the HR ladies.

Literally,  minutes after it got done I overheard someone making fun of an HR pro who made a comment about ‘getting onto LinkedIn’ to find some talent, because they had not yet been on LinkedIn.  This is the real struggle.  It made me upset that this person was being made fun of.

Here was an HR lady who was brave enough to come to a technology session, working on her own development, trying to get better.  I started out the session telling folks that I feel like an idiot when it comes to technology.  I’m definitely not an expert.  I’m interested, and I’m following that interest. The reality is I’m just scratching the service of what HR technology is all about.

As compared to most of the people in the room I probably know a thousand percent more about HR technology then they do.  There is this continuum of novice we are all on, when it comes to our level of knowledge. Some are at the level where they don’t know about LinkedIn.  That’s okay.  We all start somewhere.  That’s where I started.

She was brave to have the guts to ask the question.

It takes guts to let people know that you don’t know something, but you want to learn.  That’s what is great about industry conferences about SHRM. Most attendees are in the same boat.  They want to share what they know and learn what other know.  All to help themselves and their organization.

It’s not easy.  It’s not easy to admit you don’t know something, when it seems like everyone else does.  It takes someone who has some courage to open themselves up to the opinion of the masses. My hope is that we all come to this safe place to learn and help develop each other.

I’m proud of all the HR pros who came to my session and raised their hand and asked questions that might have gotten them judged.  That takes guts.  It made the session great, because it was real.  Real questions, from real HR pros, wanting real help.

It wasn’t something at 30,000 feet.  It was ground level, real world HR and it seemed like everyone really liked it.

Thanks for showing us the way brave HR lady!