I was at 2012′s HRPA conference last week, tweeting, blogging, jumping into sessions       about everything from the importance of cultural fit to the prevalence of age discrimination (more to come on those soon). I was also busy sneaking some peach gummy candy (CareerBuilder Canada had the most delicious booth ever, as evidenced by the picture on left of two of our CareerBuilder Canada employees, Jean and Brin, with a myriad of candy).

The conference was filled with engaging and thought-provoking keynote speakers and session discussions, so I thought I’d share some of the best tweets mixed in with my jotted-down favorites, all in short snippets. If you were at the HRPA conference (or even if you weren’t!), let me know your favorite takeaway in the comments below.

From Marshall Goldsmith’s “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” keynote: 

On motivation:

@pamelamaeross ”Are you too successful? Do you say
“great idea! Now let’s add __.” May make idea 5% better, decrease motivation 50%.”

From Emmanuel Gobiillet’s “Leadershift” keynote:

On leadership:

“Leadership is dead, in the way we currently know it.”

 “Most leaders you have are there because they’re good at what they used to do.”

“Leaders are readers!”

On social media in the workplace:

“By banning social media, saying to employees, ‘I’m going to let go of your attention.’ If you let it go, you’ll never get it back.”

On your employment brand:

“Forget your mission statement. What’s your story as a company?”

From Amanda Lang’s “The Canadian Economy, Business, & HR” keynote:

On curiosity:

“Little kids are taught very early that asking ‘why’ is going to irritate people, rather than that inquiry is a great thing.”

“Is asking ‘Why?’ welcome at your workplace?”

On passion:

“How do we get our employees as passionate about their jobs as they are about their lives?”

“You can’t force people to want to come to work; you can only create an environment that encourages it.”

On innovation:

@joannawoo HR and IT have been identified as the 2 biggest blocks to innovation in an organization.

“Your best assets are your employees’ brains.”

From Josh Linkner’s “Disciplined Dreaming: Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity” keynote:

On creativity and imagination:

@jenniferaking People get hired based on their resume but they get promoted by being creative and unconventional.

@pamelamaeross Asked kids are you creative in kindergarten 95% said yes. Asked high school grads. 2% said they are. We grow out of creativity.

@HRPATO Try Rolestorming – brainstorming as another character like Steve Jobs to encourage imagination in team meetings.

@geofframey Biggest inhibitor of creativity is fear. HR should help our teams crack through that fear.

On taking risks:

@joannawoo ”So many of us run our companies and lives by ‘playing it safe’, but that may be the riskiest thing of all.”

From Kevin Carroll’s “Rediscovering Play: Bringing Fun and Passion to Your Work… and Life” keynote:

On naysayers:

“Haters are just confused admirers.”

On hiring:

@JoanneRoyce ”Hire for passion & creativity. The rest will fall into place. Nike hires Kevin w/o having a defined position for him.”

On courage:

“Be courageous enough to speak up about your career, even when it’s terrifying.”

On including play in our lives:

@d_dimo  ”Play is as important to life as eat, drink, and sleep… A ball can change the world.” #PlayitForward

On leadership:

“The only question which should matter to you as a leader when regarding your success with employees: ‘Have I made them feel stronger and more capable?’”

From Peter Sheahan’s “Talent ® Evolution: Future Focused Strategies For Leveraging Human Capital” keynote:

On getting a seat at the table:

“You’ve got a seat at the table – I’m so sick of hearing about that – talent is the issue.”

On job hopping as the new normal:

@CJSearch4TO @PeterJSheahan says “get a job, leave that one, get a better job leave that one” the new normal to work your way up.

On your employment brand:

@weffythistle ”What are your employees saying about you after they leave? And they will leave!”

@HRPATO “Your employment brand is what everyone says about you when you’re not there.”

Other favorite tweets and ideas:

On trust:

“You don’t gain trust as a leader until you give it.”

On pay:

@JoanneRoyce ”Money sucks as a motivator. Only good for people to show up.”

@CBforEmployers ”Unintended consequence of being underpaid: Orgs develop undesirable culture, high turnover, difficulty recruiting.”

On culture:

@lizzpellet: “Employees either buy into your culture or they get out–it’s the best of the self-selection process.”

On employee engagement:

@raehanbobby “#1 element driving global Employee Engagement: The belief that management is sincerely interested in my well-being.”

On success:

@d_dimo “The gravity of success: learning a new strategy is quite easy to do, the hard part is unlearning the old strategy.”

@pamelamaeross Don’t take advice from people who don’t have what you want. Great advice from @paultobey.

On introverts:

Here was one of my favorite pictures from the conference, on understanding introverts.