Thread by @hyounpark

At the Barack Obama keynote seeing the future get the good seats. As it should be.

#dreamforce19 #df19

Just a side note that we're not supposed to take pictures for the actual Obama speech, so upcoming tweets will be text only

#DF19 #dreamforce19

Leading into the Obama talk, we get Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" playing in the background.

#df19

The keynote starts with a video speaking about the challenges of diversity, race, sexuality, religion, culture to be an equality ally
#df19

Chairman @Benioff starts with a big "Aloha!" to the audience along with the mayors of Oakland and San Francisco.

#df19

"Please welcome our good friend, @BarackObama"

MASSIVE STANDING OVATION AND CHEERS

#df19

Obama enters Dreamforce, notes "This is what the fuss is about..."

Also says he's working on a book and needs to polish it because of Michelle's success. ;)

He's 7 years into his 8 year presidency for his manuscript.

#df19

Obama is also working on his museum and programming for the Obama Foundation.

Current focus: creating a platform for supporting the next gen of global civil leaders

#df19

Obama was inspired to public service by the Civil Rights movement, where many started in their early to mid 20s: John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dr. King

#DF19

Obama describes his presidential campaign strategy of dropping off 20-somethings in communities to build trust in Iowa.

He continued this as foreign policy: organizing town halls for young leaders

#DF19

Obama describes youth distrust of institutions and giving young leaders the tools to do good and effectively change institutions.

#df19

"Michelle is obviously the boss parent"

We know, Barack. 😄😄😄

#df19

But seriously, Obama's key parenting messaging for his daughters.

"Be kind and be useful"

And for leadership

"Being a leader is not a matter of having your name up in lights... but unleashing the power in other people"

#df19

Obama jokes "After I was born in Kenya, I moved to Hawaii... These are strange times we live in..." 😂

#df19

Obama speaks to the sense of anxiety and uncertainty people feel.

He states that part of the goal for change is to restore some sense of common values.

For instance, for climate change, a key challenge is the assumption that more is always better.

#df19

Obama believes getting a better handle on what satisfies us is a key to better leadership: vs racialism, tribalism

#df19

What Obama worries about more for the younger generation:

Climate change is at the top and there is such a thing as being too late

Rise of extreme inequality turbocharged by globalization and tech

#DF19

Obama discusses how political unrest and splits pushed by people feeling economically, culturally insecure

#DF19

Obama also brings up challenges of the information age: people don't know what's true and what's not and are confronted with new ideas/beliefs.

In this new world: How do we get a common conversation and culture going?

#DF19

Obama points out "If you read Fox News, you live in a different reality than if you read the New York Times."

#df19

Benioff asks about the young leaders Obama has been finding.

Obama says they're everywhere and to not just look for talent in the usual places.

Because everyone was there for the right reasons, "There's a reason we didn't have any serious scandals while I was there"

#DF19

But Obama also looked outside his "inner circle" and said "those are the ones doing all the work."

Obama would call out junior staff members in a meeting who "looked busy" and they were often the ones doing the deep thinking & writing the reports on specific issues.

#df19

Obama states "Diversity is not charity, it is not something you do to be nice."

If you are missing a group, "you are missing a market"

And points out boards with significant female representation do better in terms of pure performance.

#DF19

Obama discusses finding "leaders of leaders" & how you have to have people smarter than you sitting around the table

Obama points out "It was self defeating for me to only have (yes-men) around"

#df19

A big mistake Obama sees is leaders who only hire people who defer to their boss.

Obama wants problems solved by analysis.

Example of Gulf oil spill: BP and Halliburton didnt know how to seal the hole.

#DF19

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu draws up a spec as a Nobel Prize winning physicist that ended up working to solve the problem.

Obama counted on having world-class experts & leaders who could solve problems that he couldn't as a process.

#df19

Obama depended on an environment to empower everybody, respect everyone, & create a network of differing perspectives to get to the best answers.

#df19

To find young leaders, Obama admits that they are finding him based on the signals he puts out.

In Year One, they got 25000 applications, far too many to support.

#DF19

Obama believes a challenge we have is that institutions are not sending out the right signals to get the right people.

For example, Obama wants young people in government, but if the signal is that gov't is corrupt and inefficient, young people won't gravitate to it.

#DF19

Obama is focused on sending a signal for young people, a beacon for those who think people are connected, providing respect because the talent is out there but institutions are not supporting them.

#df19

Hi @threadreaderapp, please unroll this summary of @BarackObama and @benioff's discussion at #dreamforce19 #df19