Caroline Bedford

A powerful, uplifting presentation about the value of adding new skills to your specialisms.

What's the hardest question to answer at an interview? I think it's that age-old, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?". Because we're in an age of acceleration. The speed of technological change is too fast for an individual to keep up with. It changes the way we live & work. The risks we face, the risks we place and the risks we write And the way we write them. This talk looks at the current roles in the Insurance Industry, and how organisations can help their staff become more Generalist by adding crucial, future-focussed skills to their specialist capabilities. It's fast-paced, it hits home and it will get you and your teams curious about the future, and ready to get onboard.

One of the most challenging but most important skills to master is the art of iteration – the principle of creating the first pass, assessing the outcome, adding to it and adding to it some more. Continually improving and progressing. Traditionally, perfection is seen as the goal, and to so many people, it isn’t worth even starting if you can’t guarantee perfection from the outset. In my experience, this is one of the biggest blockers to building a culture of innovation and developing yourself. As a result, good ideas are left in limbo, suggestions stagnate, and concepts remain untested as people cling desperately to the notion that something will only work if you have every part nailed. We all need to overcome the ‘perfection or nothing’ mindset. The art of iteration – creating something good enough, letting it loose, reviewing and building on it. That’s where innovation, growth and personal development really come into their own.