Opening Keynote: Dr. Lowell Catlett

Dr. Catlett received his doctorate in Economics from Iowa State University, and has twice received the Don C. Roush Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Burlington Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding University Teaching. In 1994 he was one of two Western Regional recipients of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges "Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences Award."

Lowell recently received the College of Agriculture and Home Economics Advisor of the Year as well as Teacher of the Year at New Mexico State University.

He is a consultant to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, the Interior, Defense and Labor. He has also been a consultant to many Fortune 500 companies.

A stellar keynote presentation by Dr. Catlett, which was anchored by a discussion of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. At it's basis, Maslow's hierarchy is:

Self-Actualization

Esteem

Love/Belonging

Safety

Physiological Needs

The basic needs (physiological) are at the base of the pyramid, and the highest level (self-actualization) is the pinnacle.

Catlett made a number of key points, and the recurring theme was "don't sell products and services...sell people their dreams." In other words, just connecting with the "basic" needs doesn't cut it. One needs to be connecting at the top of the pyramid, not at the bottom. (A great example was an anecdote he shared about a hospital in his town. The hospital CEO communicated with Catlett at a level that connected at the highest level - "if you ever come here, you can bring your dog," and not at the basic level of, for example, price.)

There was also a lively discussion of the differences in communication across generations with respect to sales. The "Y generation," according to Catlett, is the first generation to not be defined by their music. The Y generation, he contends, does not define itself by rock, or punk, or hip-hop. Instead, their iPods contain all of those (as well as Frank Sinatra and myriad other genres).

A key change that spurred a rich conversation was the advent of mobile and wireless devices, and that new conversational modes such as texting were adding to (and not always necessarily supplanting) traditional modes such as face-to-face meetings. (One participant shared that one of his children sent and received over six thousand text messages a month.) This move toward constant, real-time communication was acknowledged as a key sea-change that the profession was going to need to understand, and address.

Catlett also noted that the Y generation has a different set of values than their predecessors, noting that 38% of students who went on Spring Break last year went on a philanthropic (vs. hedonistic) spring break.

So the question -- what changes are you seeing with respecting to changing communication modes and mores with respect to your customers and teams?